Health and economic crises are lessons for companies to adapt. As the demand in the e-grocery market has hit the roof, the last three weeks have been a different sort of landscape for the industry, and all of us here at Grofers.
ET Prime wanted me to share some lessons on the current crisis. I think they were impressed by my track record in making boneheaded moves and then spending all my energy in walking them back — cursing myself for not being smart enough to get it right the first time around.
Lesson 1: There is no playbook on resilience
I don’t think there is a playbook for dealing with a scenario, wherein a country of 1.3 billion comes to a grinding halt. We are all going to struggle to figure out what it means for our businesses, our lives, our learnings; what it means for here and now. But more importantly what it means for the day after tomorrow, when the immediacy is behind us.
Our government will try to comprehend this in real time and possibly won’t have perfect answers, and we will have to adapt. As we are now experiencing, all of this will be happening while your phones are ringing off the hook and there are even more fires to put out (particularly in my kitchen). So, I guess the lesson is to not look for magic pills or get hung up on an individual problem. Try to read the length of the ball and get in line (and pray to god the outside edge doesn’t carry).
Lesson 2: Focus on un-violable laws
Our teams will matter. Today, in the future, and under any circumstance. The uniqueness of our current scenarios is that we are also lacking that common touch of creating a war room, getting together for stand-ups, and sharing late nights that eventually become war stories (and also extreme alienators for people who join the journey later).
The only thing that can cover for this distance is transparency. Communicate what you and the company are going through — regularly and effectively. As my partner in the business, Saurabh, likes to say — “Trust the process” (yes, it’s from the Sixers). The process here is the ability of the team to process information and solve problems. I have always been pleasantly surprised how well this works. At times like these, belief in our own abilities and those around us becomes paramount. Trust is what will allow us to divide and conquer the extremely difficult nature of problems.
Lesson 3: Focus on focus
I realise that I just violated the first rule of focus but let’s roll with the circular reference. The best part about pressure situations is, it forces you to narrow the field of vision. I have consistently argued that cricketers are rarely adjudged LBW in pressure situations. That’s because they are so focused on getting bat on ball that more often than not they achieve it, even if inelegantly (a big Sanath Jayasuriya fan here). Same holds true for whatever you decide is the best, highest quality, highest ROI problem to solve.
I have developed a foolproof method to identify that problem which is very scientific. I trust my gut, and maybe so should you.
We faced a 25-fold increase in demand overnight. As consumers changed the way they shop, the dynamics of business demanded sudden adaptation.
Being an essential-services provider, we had to make that one big change — prioritise essential groceries over everything else. This means essentials such as staples, dairy, foods, sanitisers, etc. will find more priority on our shelves than a utensil. We cut down our assortment from 2000+ SKUs to only 600 and this meant a whole lot of changes at the inventory end. Our teams doubled down on what was needed by the country and our customers within a matter of a week.
We had to on-board new manufacturers within a short span of time and ensure timely delivery of supplies to be able to pass them on to our consumers.
In a matter of a week, we hired 2,000 more people at our warehouses and will have another 5,000 in the next two weeks.
Lesson 4: Search for the bright side
This is easier to say and extremely hard to do. The tough times mean that everything looks bleak. Sometimes, we get lucky and have a jarring event snap us out of the present and forces us to re- evaluate everything (there is a story of me and an absent manhole cover there). Most of the time, it is the love and support of family, friends, team, and pets. Mostly the pets.
Also, under no circumstances, is that event the call of the Nth gyaani on Twitter advising companies to cut burn.
Today, for me, the bright side is that six years into this journey, my parents, maybe begrudgingly, acknowledge that what I do might actually matter.
The overall online grocery is only about 0.2% of the overall retail market in the country, which we anticipate to reach probably 0.5%, and still be considered as an insignificant share. While we will try our hardest, I don’t think the industry will be able to serve 100 million urban households in the immediate future. But we will certainly try.
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