PremiumRatan Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts believes that, the post covid-19 survival of organisations would depend on displaying sensitivity to all stakeholders, not just shareholders. In an interaction with Your Story, the ace industrialist and philanthropist said that the way of doing business has to change and laying-off employees is not the solution.
“Accept that you have to change in terms of what you consider is fair and necessary in order to survive. One cannot continue to do business in certain ways and one won’t survive if you are not sensitive towards all your stakeholders. Working from home is one solution. Laying-off people will not solve your problems as you have responsibility towards those employees," said Tata.
Calling coronavirus outbreak an unprecedented crisis, Tata said that it has come at a time when the world was already grappling with economic slowdown, and stalemate between world’s largest economies like US-China, India-China.
“With virus it has become a situation where you have nowhere to turn or go. The whole planet is under siege, it is everywhere it does not differentiate between ethnic groups, eating out congregating, it consumes you. We are in an arena we are not familiar with," said Tata.
While the pandemic has posed multiple challenges on economic and healthcare front, he also believes that this could be the right time to look for innovative and creative solutions.
“Some of the most interesting or tremendous solutions have been found at moments of distinct difficulties. We as human beings start to look for solutions, we tend to be more innovative and creative to find solutions in such times. Mix of crisis and hope of a quick vaccine. We have come with revolutionary solutions."
Speaking on the issue of migrant crisis, Ratan Tata said, the way these labourers were left to fend for themselves with no work, food or place to stay speaks volumes on lack of business ethics.
“These are the people who have served you all these years, is that your definition of ethics if you treat your labour force that way. Government and ethical business have stepped in to help them."
Virtual meetings have been able to help recreate some of that experience of interacting with people but “it’s still not the same," which is why interacting with people is “the one thing that I would really look forward to doing when things open up," Ratan Tata said.
