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Currently, majority of hiring managers rely on the traditional resume-based recruitment process. They believe that resumes are the most effective tool for making top-of-funnel decisions. Resumes are useful for highlighting past achievements and experience, but they are ineffective at identifying values and behaviour.

As a result, they not only prevent many talented individuals from being discovered, but they also jeopardise the employer’s ability to hire the best candidates. As a result, rather than relying solely on resumes, they have adopted data-driven approaches to talent acquisition, including talent assessment tools.

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Using AI-powered talent assessment tools, organisations can gain valuable insights into candidates and gain a competitive advantage in hiring the right talent.

Since 2000, MeritTrac – India’s largest end-to-end testing and assessment provider in the private sector has been providing provide assessment and examination management services to corporate organisations, educational institutes, and government agencies. Few months back, MeritTrac Services announced the launch of TalentNext – a revolutionary next-gen assessment management system with content expertise across domains to help deliver secure and seamless assessments. This unified modular platform ensures centralized visibility for efficient data-driven hiring and recruitment decisions.

Today, we have a chat with Sujatha Kumaraswamy, CEO – MeritTrac regarding the offerings, EdTech, online employee assessments, and much more. Let’s get started with the Q&A….

What are the key trends driving the growth of AI in HR?

While 2021 was a year for reimagining HR, 2022 will be all about pushing boundaries of HR capabilities. The economic and organisational turmoil has been continual rather than intermittent. It started with a switch to a fully remote working environment and continued through lockdowns. In the current year, it’s critical to be aware of HR trends and understand how to use them to create change and add greater business value.  

Businesses are increasingly counting on AI-enabled tools in their recruitment and hiring processes. While many people are interested in AI, an increasing number of business leaders are curious about how AI-powered capabilities might help them enhance the efficiency and outcomes of their hiring processes.

Here are a few emerging AI hiring trends to keep in mind as recruiters prepare for a candidate’s market in 2022:

  • Artificial Intelligence-based hiring will break new records in objectively pre-screening candidates and shortlisting the best prospects for the job. HR experts can also proctor a candidate’s activity and assess competency and trust scores from afar. This will continue to be a developing field as systems get more complex.
  • AI will also be used by businesses to reduce prejudice and boost diversity and inclusion. They will focus on building more ethical AI to boost candidate engagement and fully utilise the capabilities of AI. The requirement for various evaluations will be determined by HR departments. They will actively eliminate procedures and queries that are superfluous. More weight will be given to the questions that are the most relevant.
  • By assessing people’s talents, weaknesses, and learning preferences, AI will also make assessment-based interventions easier. As a result, organisations will be able to better plan their hiring processes and fine-tune talent while reducing the influence of bias and human mistake.
  • Using machine learning algorithms and insights to make decisions, AI-assisted recruiting will help to reduce biases, resulting in more objective and fair hiring processes. AI-assisted recruitment is progressing toward objective pre-screening of candidates that reduces confirmation bias. AI can also be used at various levels during interventions to establish the most effective learning medium for a person and to provide learning modules that ensure maximum retention.
  • Data is generated by AI-powered technologies for both the recruitment process and internal HR operations. When it comes to recruitment decisions, objectivity goes a long way. Algorithm-based forecasts can now help businesses avoid bias and offer more reliable outcomes. Automation will aid organisations in identifying the best individuals and facilitating cross-functional movement on a holistic basis.

The industry is seeing a rising importance of business and technology enablers like virtualisation and AI. How do you see these emerging technologies impact EdTech?

The goal is to replicate the in-person hiring experience online while also improving tools and assessment processes to ensure that only the best candidates are hired. Due to the nature of the tools and platforms used, remote hiring has mandated the use of technology, which is one of the best ways to reduce hiring stereotypes.

We must track and analyse capabilities and candidate-to-role matches with maximum accuracy as HR services go online. This progress in assessment has been made possible by AI-enabled technology. On the assessment-backed learning front, it can identify a person’s most effective learning medium and guarantee that learning modules are changed in such a way that the student retains the most information.

How has the adoption of end-to-end assessment solutions in India evolved over the last few years?

The establishment of an end-to-end recruitment strategy was needed due to the increased demand for hiring operations as well as higher candidate expectations. To keep up with the changing business environment, the assessment sector anticipates an increased need for a smart end-to-end recruitment platform.

An end-to-end assessment solution caters to a multi-stage recruiting processes in which the best candidate is chosen based on their talents, qualities, and other essential features that are most suitable and compatible for the role. An end-to-end assessment consists of six stages:

  1. Preparing
  2. Sourcing
  3. Screening
  4. Selecting
  5. Hiring
  6. Onboarding

Though the concept of end-to-end assessment has been around for a while, its popularity has skyrocketed in the aftermath of the pandemic. 

There is a lot of buzz about Metaverse in Education [or EdTech]. What are some of the ways in which you see EdTech being transformed by Metaverse?

During the pandemic, many people found it difficult to teach and learn due to restrictions and lockdowns. However, we now have the Metaverse to live, learn, study, and interact in a 3D simulated environment.

Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, and machine learning are interwoven into the metaverse. This makes it easier for students to ask inquiries and gather information at any time. It also comprehends queries and simultaneously responds to several questions.

Are resumes dead, even for highly experienced professionals? If yes, what is the way forward for the HR & recruitment industry?

According to professionals interviewed by HR Dive, recruiters still rely on resumes, even if they wish they didn’t.. Because applicant tracking systems still demand them in some form, and client companies still consider them the standard by which to evaluate and sort through applications, these pages remain a cornerstone of the process.

Recruiters and employers, on the other hand, are already looking beyond the CV. Recruiters can get a snapshot of a prospect just as readily as they can peruse a resume by looking at social media profiles, personal blogs, and online portfolios.

One of the big changes that 2020 ushered in for the entire industry was the shift to an online-based paradigm. Companies with a strong digital presence are more likely to attract top talents today, as more and more job seekers resort to the internet for job searches.

When working for a company with an internet presence, an HR professional might expect to identify and interview a larger pool of candidates. The recruiting process will become more straightforward and efficient as technology progresses.

There are a lot of platforms targeting E2E assessment. What sets MeritTrac solution apart from other such solutions in the market?

MeritTrac has launched an all-in-one evaluation platform for the future generation. TalentNext is a modular assessment ecosystem that blends the power of enormous information with a cutting-edge platform to revolutionise end-to-end recruitment intelligence and college hiring. It was created specifically to bring the disparate parts of the employment ecosystem together.

It’s one-of-a-kind in that it unifies the disparate parts of the hiring ecosystem onto a single platform that offers end-to-end assessment solutions. There’s no need to be overly concerned about different hiring platform options. TalentNext serves as a one-stop-shop for all recruitment assessment needs. It offers consolidated visibility, time savings in the hiring procedure, process autonomy, and provides actionable insights, as well as round-the-clock specialised assistance.

Some of the key features of TalentNext are:

  1. Highly customizable – You can choose online, offline, or a mix of both assessments on the go
  2. Virtual Interviews – It is easy to schedule synchronous/asynchronous video interviews and discussions with next-generation tools
  3. Advanced Analytics – It has a detailed dashboard with reports delivering actionable insights. Proctored assessments and Plug & Play are some other features of TalentNext.

Can you please touch upon how AI, analytics, cloud, etc. will transform the interview and assessment industry?

As more employees work from home, it’s more critical than ever to track and analyse productivity and verify integrity with as much precision as possible. This has been made possible by AI-enabled advancements in evaluation technology.

AI/analytics-based recruitment is making progress in objectively pre-screening prospects and shortlisting the most meritocratic candidates for the final interview. It has enabled remote auto-proctoring tools that record every activity of the candidate and deliver an examination score as well as a trust score to the examiner or recruiter. This includes recognising typing patterns, detecting eye movement, recording ambient sound, and so on, and will continue to evolve as systems advance.  

By detecting people’s strengths and limitations, learning preferences, and tailoring learning and assessment paths for them, AI will enable assessment-backed interventions. All of these help firms build talent in order to achieve the following long-term goals:

  • To reduce the impact of prejudice and human error.
  • To generate consistent outcomes that accurately forecast future behavior and performance.
  • To evaluate each candidate equally and fairly

A variety of tools are now available to track and measure people’s progress and performance on a regular basis. These inputs should be used and incorporated into the organisation’s overall evaluation framework in order to create a comprehensive personnel profile and report. This may have unintended consequences in terms of career advancement, cross-functional migrations, and so on.

There are still many organisations (large-scale) that prefer F2F assessments. What can be done to bring that paradigm shift in their thought process as far as recruitment & assessment is concerned

The world is progressing fast thanks to digital transformation. We need to change all the traditional methods to streamline our daily operations and functions. This process has already started in almost all fields.

It also impacts the behaviour of individuals. The first step towards increasing efficiency of organisational processes is from hiring and onboarding. More and more organisations are understanding this and adopting technology in their HR function.

As per your experience, what has been the most pivotal point that changed the field of Education? Also, where do you foresee the future to be?

In the previous decade, India’s educational system has seen significant modifications. Online classrooms and experiential learning have revolutionised the way students interact with educational material. The educational landscape as a whole has shifted considerably, with online learning and hybrid classrooms becoming the norm at all levels of schooling.

According to IBEF, the Indian education sector was worth US$ 91.7 billion in FY18, and higher education is expected to be worth US$ 35.03 billion by 2025. In addition, India has more school-aged children than any other country in the planet, with almost 250 million! After the United States, India is the second-largest e-learning market.

Despite the fact that the education industry remains unclear, significant steps are being taken to streamline the process and make education accessible to students from all cultural and social groups. There has also been a favourable shift toward equality and diversity. Things are only going to get better from here, with technology providing solutions at a breakneck pace.

Content is the new king! As per your experience, how will content [text, audio, and video] shape the future of online assessment [and/or EdTech]?

Interactivity is key in any mode of learning. It is applicable for assessment too. It is the duty of an educator to stimulate each sense of a student in order to help him/her acquire knowledge and skills.

Online assessment systems are able to adopt all the forms of content to test the capabilities of candidates. 

Lastly, many EdTech platforms are witnessing a significant dip in the demand for online education. Can you please share some tips for EdTech entrepreneurs and how they can still stay relevant by adopting the Hybrid Education model?

With decreasing valuations, stalled fundraising rounds, and uncertain investor confidence, the reopening of schools and colleges has sparked a crisis in the EdTech sector. In a radically changed post-pandemic scenario where students are returning to school and colleges, companies are trying to resort to brick-and-mortar tuition centers and adopting a hybrid offline and online education model.  In both business and school, hybrid is the new normal. 

Learning will be taught from everywhere in the future, rather than from just schools. Schools are focusing on deploying the optimal combination of digitally connected educational solutions, which EdTech companies may help them with. This will improve the quality of education while also expanding access to it.

In accordance with worldwide trends, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 emphasises the importance of EdTech interventions in the digitisation of schools and instructors. 

As a result, EdTech firms may lead the sector by working with schools to ensure educational continuity and streamline digital learning. A hybrid approach is the next natural step of the education ecosystem, given the repeated nature of pandemic waves and India’s ever-increasing acceptance of new technology.

The EdTech ecosystem can provide good education for everybody through the continuous, future-fit evolution of its varied tools and services.

We thank Sujatha for her time and sharing insights about assessments, AI, ML, and more. If you have any questions for Sujatha or the MeritTrac team, do leave them in the comments section…

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One of the major areas where many companies focus in today’s changing times is keeping the employees updated about the latest trends. The best way to do the same is via trainings. As every business has a unique set of challenges, generic trainings, especially in areas of sales & marketing might not be very helpful for the business.

As this was not a one off problem, Arun Subramanian and his other team members decided to solve this problem for different industries by providing tailor-made training solutions. This is how he & his co-founders came up with the idea of Enparadigm, a tech-driven learning solutions company transforming performance.

The solutions help people get better at the hidden details of their jobs, the nuances that usually take years to learn by taking a holistic, sustained-learning approach and driving change in both business and behavioural competencies. Enparadigm develops proprietary algorithms and leverage AI to build advanced digital simulations, SMART micro-learning platforms, and sales enablement apps.

Today, we have a chat with Arun Subramanian, Co-founder & Chief Of Strategic Initiatives at Enparadigm regarding the offerings, challenges faced by L&D teams in organizations, and much more. Let’s get started with the Q&A….

Can you give a brief introduction about the company and the core team behind Enparadigm?

At Enparadigm, everything we do is geared towards building employee capability to drive business outcomes. We are a technology-driven learning solutions company.

We help organizations grow by enabling their front-line workforce to become sales ready, and delivering high-quality learning experiences that have zero-degree separation from the performance context. We achieve this through proprietary, award-winning learning tech, industry expertise, and connecting learning to performance context in the role. We have helped 500+ clients from across sectors drive growth and leadership.

We are a fast-growing company led by a group of IIM A alumni founders: Hanuman Kamma – Co-founder & CEO, John Cherian – Co-founder & Executive Director, Kumar Veetrag – Co-founder & CTO, Arun Subramanian – Co-founder & Chief of Strategic Initiatives. Today, we are a team of 80+ people delivering end-to-end learning solutions company from product development, content, design, and facilitation, to reporting.

How did you come up with the idea of Enparadigm?

Enparadigm was born out of an annual campus festival at IIM Ahmedabad. We created a virtual platform from the ground up to conduct a game for the annual festival. It was, to us, an interesting idea. A way to do something different and exciting. Not only was the event a grand success, everyone appreciated our virtual platform that created a competitive marketplace.

Our professors told us that what we had built was a simulation and that it held great potential in the helping professionals learn. We knew then that along with the human touch, we wanted to explore the power of technology in learning.

What are some of the business verticals that Enparadigm caters to?

Over the years we have developed a keen focus on enabling sales readiness of the front-line workforce in sectors like BFSI, FMCG, and retail. In addition to this, we have developed 25+ unique simulation platforms that are fine-tuned to address different roles in various sectors.

We have worked with 20+ sectors including IT/ITES, BFSI, Retail, FMCG, Pharmaceuticals, Apparels and Textiles, Automotive, etc.

Coming up with the core learning for any type of business requires deep understanding about the intricacies of business. At what stage can Enparadigm pitch in to come up with customized training modules?

As mentioned, we have a wide variety of platforms and they are specialized for various roles. This spans the entire organization structure, right from the leadership to the front-line workforce.

Enparadigm started as a leadership training and development company in the early days, when we were operating out of the IIM-A incubation center. We were mainly addressing the C-suite and upper-middle management. We had built a very good reputation and during this ‘take-off phase’ of our Company, organizations started to approach us for solutions for their middle managers and front-line workforce.

While we did not have a solution ready at that point we realized two things. One, there were tremendous business challenges to be solved in enabling the bottom third of the pyramid in any organization. Achieving this was crucial to the growth plans of the organization. Two, reputed organizations we had worked with trusted us to help them develop their employees into high performers and future leaders.

Today, one of our key focus areas is to enable organizations to expand by enabling their front-line workforce to become performance ready quickly. We have a rich library of content; and we work with organizations to understand specific business needs to deliver immersive learning experiences for large cohorts or for smaller groups, in one go. We continue to deliver leadership programs for the c-suite and mid-level managers as well but, we have grown to address the entire spectrum of the organization.

What are some of the popular business areas [e.g. sales, marketing, etc.], where businesses require Enparadigm’s domain expertise for L&D of their resources?

  • Management – from entry level to senior leadership,
  • Sales – Direct and Distribution sales structures across the hierarchy
  • Building sales readiness of the front-line workforce,
  • Project Management & Delivery
  • Operations
  • Human Resources
  • Customer Experience

We address all these areas. We also cover sector specific functions like retail analytics and store management in retail to name a couple.

What is sales readiness and how does Enparadigm help front-line sales?

Sales function is definitely a key area where businesses require our solutions as they look to expand beyond urban areas to grow. The front-line workforce sees a high rate of infant attrition – people leaving in the first 6 months of employment. There are some significant cost elements associated with this problem.

One, low sales productivity – Going  by the reports one reads, a number of sales people take at least 6 months before getting sales ready. Most of them quit within that  time, leading to low sales productivity at an organizational level. Two, opportunity Loss related to stalled market expansion which is a few multiples of lost sales productivity.

The other challenge from an employee standpoint; to give you an example from BFSI, is that many front-line sales people join with the expectation that that they can make significant money in a short span of time. For example, in insurance and financial service sectors, the ability to constantly build relationships with new prospects and strengthen the connect with existing customers is important.

Apart from the organization’s efforts, it requires a lot of rigour from the employee. In our experience, this is something a lot of new recruits overlook when they join a company. This segment requires a lot of timely input and training to handle the high pressure and expectations of the business.

Training has to be relevant, timely, and scalable; and help them learn in the flow of work. More importantly, training has to help people who are working remotely, overcome the free agent mindset and perform in a systematic manner. Since sales as a function is high on human quotient training also needs to reflect that. This is where we come in.

We think that there is an impactful solution in approaching it as a bundle

  • Building ‘readiness’ to perform during the infant attrition phase
  • Enabling the sales force with the right set of tools that will significantly enhance on ground performance and customer engagement thereafter

Every business and each stage in business has its own unique set of challenges. How does the team at Enparadigm identify the gaps and come up with unique training models for every stage of business?

We follow a rigorous approach before implementation of any program. Some of our solutions are plug and play and organizations can go live with them in just a few days.

However, we always work with stakeholders within the organization to know the specific needs to be addressed. Together we decide on the objectives to be driven and we base our program design on this process. If required, any customization would also be made at this stage.

How does Enparadigm leverage AI, Machine Learning, behavioral science, qualities unique to the learner to enhance the learning experience and contribute to the business growth of your client?

In short, we use AI to personalize the learning path and deliver content at the time of need. Based on the speed on learning, previously covered topics, user behavior, and other data points our platform is capable of delivering topics that employees tackle next. We also employ a whole host of ‘smart triggers’ within the app to boost adoption and regular engagement.

We already see AI playing a huge role in translating content to vernacular languages. Going forward, we only see this increasing ensuring that a salesperson sitting in a rural area will have access to learn just the same as someone who is operating out of a branch in Mumbai, closer to headquarters and resources.

What are some of the inputs that your team would need from the client to come up training courses [e.g. business line-up, skills of employees, competition, stage of the organization i.e. startup, growth, hyper-growth, etc.]?

Over the years, we have worked with most major industry sectors and we have fine-tuned the products and services to cater to various roles in each of those sectors. Our solutions to enable sales readiness are built with deep domain knowledge. They are  designed with on-ground research and inputs from salespersons from different parts of the country. We think that it a robust model with a strong foundation.

Having said that, every company is different and there is always some adapting to be done. We always work closely with organizations to understand some of the granular differences that may exist even between organizations operating in the same industry and adapt accordingly.

There could be instances where competitors from the same business vertical e.g. e-commerce websites take learning services from Enparadigm. How do you ensure that ‘solutions/training modules for common problems’ are still unique for each of them?

While functions or role titles may be the same, no two organizations are alike. Going from our previous point, every organization may have slightly different employee profile, and may want to address a particular set of skills.

Designing and delivering a learning program from end-to-end depends on all these factors. While certain parts of our content library applies to  sales as a practice in general , in cases where we need to address some salient objectives within each organization, we work with stakeholders to design an apt solution.

Arun Subramanian of Enparadigm

The evolution of digital India and wider internet penetration, every aspect of business [sales, marketing, business development, etc.] is changing at a rapid pace. How does Enparadigm work on the micro & macro development of business and their employee’s skills [Can you comment from typical businesses which are planning to leverage Digital technologies for business expansion?]

A Mckinsey study estimates that by 2030, more than 50% of at least 10 of India’s 29 states will be urbanized. So, opportunities in these newly urbanized areas and beyond is going to drive business growth and GDP.

Increasing access to mobile networks and smartphones is helping organizations overcome some of the boundaries of traditional infrastructure and expand into new territories. Not to mention, mobile-based programs are a great fit for the millennial generation that has grown up as digital natives.

However, being available on smartphones is not enough. There is  a need for localization and getting new recruits to relate to the learning process. These aspects remain a challenge for many companies and hence adoption remains low and attrition is high.

At Enparadigm, we  take a multi-pronged approach to capability building and technology is only the starting point.

Can you comment on the funding status of Enparadigm?

The Company is profitable and we have had some angel funding. For now, the financials are healthy and we continue to focus on strengthening that. We may raise series A funding in the future.

Who are the competitors of Enparadigm and what are some of the steps that the company takes to stay ahead of the curve?

The learning space has grown quickly over the last decade. We have always been a forward looking company and Enparadigm has differentiated value proposition since day one. We have a wide array of highly customizable platforms that are fine-tuned to address different sectors and roles in various functions.

These tech-driven, immersive, hands-on learning experiences add a high degree of relevance, and allow for learning by doing. We continue to work on incorporating new-age technology in a manner that enhances the learning experience and impacts business outcomes.

What are some of the steps that Enparadigm takes in skill development of its own employees so that it can be a trendsetter in the learning & development sector?

One of the key characteristics for people joining team Enparadigm is a willingness to learn. We are an agile, end-to-end learning tech company. Every team collaborates closely with every other team to help refine the end product.

This entails that one needs to have a basic understanding of what other teams are doing and how they contribute to the end product. Apart from this agile work environment, as the team has grown, we are offering individual members more formal learning plans as well.

Any closing remarks on starting up, scaling up or fund raising for aspiring entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs looking to raise funds?

One of the key things is to focus on a large enough problem that has an addressable market. It is easy to focus on solving an interesting problem with no market to address and miss the big picture.

Other than that, it is important for entrepreneurs to be able to understand the users of their product or service. Spend time with them and get continuous inputs. Be willing to iterate fast and make the experience better for them.

We thank Arun for his time and sharing insights about Enparadigm and how it’s offerings can be used by businesses to tackle their L&D requirements. If you have any questions for Arun or the Enparadigm team, do leave them in the comments section..

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According to a recent study done by KPMG and Google in India, the gaming industry is currently estimated at approximately $0.6 billion, of which online gaming is approximately $0.37 billion. This shows that online gaming segment has a great scope in India and more than 8% of the total games developed in India are casino based games like Online Rummy, Poker, etc. Rapid & affordable internet penetration with good data rates and advent of powerful smartphones in the sub Rs. 15K~20K range is adding more fuel to the online gaming sector.

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Few months back, the lottery and gaming conglomerate Sugal & Damani Group, announced the launch of Khel Group, aimed at becoming India’s largest online gaming platform. Khel Group will be the parent company with two of its own online gaming portals called Khelplayrummy.com offering online rummy and the newly launched KhelChamps, offering fantasy sports and gaming. Khel Group also has Pokerstars.IN currently operated by Sachiko Gaming Pvt. Ltd., that has an exclusive partnership with the global entity – The Stars GroupKhel Group looks at acquiring a substantial market share in this segment in the country.

We had a telephonic interaction with Naveen Goyal, CEO of Khel Group regarding the online gaming market [KhelPlayRummy, PokerStars], player segmentation, etc. Below are the edited excerpts of the interview

Can you give a brief introduction of the Khel Group ?

The journey began in 2012 with the intention of providing interesting online platform for players of Rummy. It is one of the most preferred card games of the nation, played extensively within family and friends. The idea was to make this available on the online space where more and more people could join to play and network. The market dominance was in the South, so we promoted there first.

Over the last 5~6 years, the company has grown steadily and has put a lot of emphasis on value creation and entertainment for its users. KhelPlayRummy now has a brand presence and players recognize it, and love to play on the platform. The trust and brand loyalty are the key things we have created since the launch. In 2018, we did a joint venture with Pokerstars and launched online poker in India Pokerstars.in. In January 2019 we launched fantasy sports app KhelChamps and are in the process of launching some more games within the real money gaming space very soon. All our operations are based out of Mumbai and we have a tech team based out of Delhi.

What are some of the core USP’s of KhelPlayRummy and how different is it from other platforms with respect to pricing, the interaction with the players, etc. Can you throw light on how do you sustain player interests and loyalty on a long-term basis ?

There are several players in the market and we are not competing with the biggest players. We believe that great product and focus on player’s experience will create more value addition. We have therefore focused on consumer entertainment rather than extracting more money from players. There is also a large emphasis on responsible gaming.

We have the fastest withdrawal process in the market – next day withdrawal, that doesn’t exist with any of the competitive brands. For players that have completed KYCs and have built a play history with us, we have instant withdrawals as well.

The third distinct advantage that we have are the ‘large amount tables’ that only exist with KhelPlayRummy and not with others and the kind of user-stickiness systems, decision making, Unb systems which is also unique. This involves a lot of statistical, analytical and decision-making processes. These are few things we have implemented which are unique from the market perspective.

Over the course of time we were the first company to launch rummy gaming in an app and after that all others followed.

Can you comment about user segmentation and how multiplayer gaming is helping to maintain the stickiness ?

Rummy players always used to play offline in a multiplayer format setting from a very long time. With the advent of online gaming, multiplayer format has led to consumption pattern changes. It has become a way of entertainment or passing the time, say while travelling in train for instance. So this becomes the mode of entertainment and getting some thrill out of it by, say, depositing some money and playing.

Having said that, we do a lot of innovation on how to design a game where people can play with one hand. This is because mostly people stand and travel in the train with one hand holding the handle, so the one-hand game is preferable.

In terms of segmentation there are various ways of looking at it, Geographic is one. Predominantly Rummy is majorly in the South market. North is developing and so is Gujarat and West Bengal [having said the East market is still very small compared to the others].

There is a small percentage of players who are on iOS devices and playing but they generally play bigger amounts. Within the Android range the biggest segment of players would come from people using phones within the Rs. 15K-20K range. Xiaomi and the mid-segment phones have penetrated very well in India and this is where most of the consumers are coming from.

Are player interactions possible i.e. Can an expert player interact with other players and provide them guidance or vice-versa ?

It is important to be cautious and avoid any kind of fraud that may happen if players interact while the game is on. There are initiatives that can be encouraged where the experts or brands can educate the novices. Practice games are available on our app. If you start our app you will notice three options to start with – Cash game, Practice game, & Tournaments. Another advantage of our app is that, we tend to analyse the games of players who play practice games and on and off we do pick up players, connect with them and educate them.

We also pickup games of players who are losing amount above a certain benchmark. Our back operations team then connects with them and educates them. This is also a part of responsible gaming.

Is there anything you do with respect to content since the game exist in multiple languages e.g. education via content, etc.

Firstly, our app is not yet in regional language but the regional language app would be launched soon. But all the content is in regional dialects – all the communications with the regional players, the marketing communications, retention communications etc. is generally in regional language. The reason why the move of the regional language app was delayed is because it is more of an action-based rather that a content-based app. Basically, we all know what a drop, sought or play button is. Hence it is more action based as all the content is language driven.

Educating the players via email in vernacular is not something that we are doing currently, but it is an idea we can always think about. The way we have been thinking is it is best to connect them in an interactive manner whether through WhatsApp or through a call. We have operations setup for outbound calls where we connect with players and explain them about how they have done.

Since you already have the user statistics, how exactly you try to retain the user to the platform across both professional and novice users ?

Retention is looking at the behaviour of players both in terms of amount they are playing, the time they are investing, the number of games generally played by them, the number of times they play the game, etc. Everyone has their own frequency in terms of day and time and this is something we capture in our system.

Our operations team tries to connect with the players at an appropriate time using the relevant channels which has the highest probability of them seeing those messages or picking up the call. We have also developed our own system where we capture such behaviour. We see that some of the players potentially will draw and capture some other events and connect with them appropriately. Being in touch with players in real time and connecting them in real time is the key. For example, the moment someone is depositing and their deposit is failing, we immediately try to connect with the customer and see what has gone wrong and help them. So it is these small things that we look into in order to make the experience seamless.

Do you use Machine Learning algorithms to understand user behaviour and decide what action needs to be taken ?

We are not yet at the machine learning stage, but yes, that is where we want to be. But we are doing the basic statistics and data churning. We aspire to keep improving each day and use machine learning algorithms to understand players and their behaviour in the future in order to give them the best experience.

Does KhelPlayRummy team use Robotic Process Automation [RPA] for testing the game ?

We have robots which simulate players for testing purpose. Robots help us in gauging the system tolerance in case of heavy usage. For instance, in case 1000 or 10,000 players start playing at the same time, we need to understand the system’s capacity and functioning.

Events may happen at the cusp or within a fraction of a nano-second and these things need to be checked constantly. We undertake some manual testing too, where there are scenarios which cannot be automated.

There’s an interest for Poker in India, but not many people are well versed with it, how do you plan to educate people as audiences are different for Rummy and Poker ?

Pokerstars has a learning platform called PokerStars School where online and offline initiatives are undertaken to educate people on how to play Poker. There are a lot of things in the pipeline in terms of getting into real education, creating and nurturing the market. Because of the regulatory system in India and the way people perceive poker, which is changing quite rapidly, we are hopeful that in the next couple of months we would be rolling out few of the strategies.

Do you think there would be any regulatory hurdles as far as poker is concerned and when exactly do you think those will be resolved ?

From a regulatory perspective, it is neutral which is why all companies are flourishing in India. We strongly believe that poker is purely a game of skill and it is fairly accepted that way in India. We aren’t worried at all from a regulatory perspective. It is more about how to launch strategies in a manner that are expected and perceived by the market and stakeholders.

Under Khel Group, you have Khel Champs that would be offering games of cricket, Kabaddi tennis, football etc. How do you plan to stay ahead of competition in this highly competitive segment ?

We at Khel Champs give amazing user experience to the customers. As we move forward, we would be integrating functionalities in terms of new variations of games that do not exist in India. Some exist in international markets but not in India. We are doing innovations combining close variations within the sports fantasy genre. So there would be newer variations coming up in the future.

At the restructuring level our vision is to create one singular platform where we will be able to offer all sorts of games to the player. Such a platform doesn’t exist in India.

How do you plan to market the cricket or the other apps that are in the pipeline since there are other brands with huge funding and large fan following ?

For KhelChamps, there is a particular budget allocated for branding that needs to run specially during the World Cup. KhelPlay, on the other hand, is already existing in the market and players are already aware of the brand in the gaming community. In the past 5~6 years, we have extensively invested in the brand in terms of player acquisition.

When we do player acquisition and go out in the media, there is a small percentage that convert into players and remaining do not.  People know that the brand exists, they know that we are a stable company, hence it is easy for us to go out in the market and explain that we are a trusted player.

Do you plan to have a single app strategy where users/players can download Rummy, Poker, Cricket, etc. games on the click of a button ?

When we say platform, it is a single platform where the player management is seamless which means the player has one wallet whether they are playing on sports fantasy or rummy app they will be using the same wallet profile, login, and everything else will be done only once. I do not know if we would have a single platform with different apps, but there could be a possibility of doing so at a later stage.

Since we have started the restructuring with the thought of single platform, we would be coming up with ways in which we would make player experiences easy in terms of downloading the app and letting them know that this is one company and one platform.

We thank Naveen Goyal for his time and sharing the insights with our readers. If you have any questions for The Khel Group, please leave them in the comments section…

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Technology is changing at a rapid pace, whether it is related to mobiles, servers, memory devices, etc. There is an increased level of importance given to the performance & computation power involved with the components used in those devices. As per a report by eMarketer, close to 491 million people in India would own a smartphone by the end of 2022. Smartphones that are priced within the sub 20K range also come loaded with AI-enabled features, excellent performance, varied camera setup, and more to capture the best shots.

Whether it is a hand-held device like a mobile phone or an enterprise device/technology like a server [cloud-based or local], performance is always given a top priority. However, achieving top-notch performance might come at the risk of higher power consumption and this factor becomes more critical in battery-powered devices. Technology companies are tirelessly working on improving the storage memory since faster read-write speeds would equate to better performance. HDD [Hard Disk Drive] is slowly being replaced with SSD [Solid State Drive] in laptops, tablets, and other device categories where there is frequent R/W access. Solid state addresses the I/O [Input/Output] bottlenecks for companies of all sizes. Mobile phone manufacturers are slowly switching from traditional eMMC [Embedded Multimedia Card] to UFS [Universal Flash Storage] since UFS offers more benefits over eMMC. When it comes to storage, Western Digital [WD] is one company that has a wide product portfolio for end-consumers, mobile manufacturers, as well as enterprises.

Today, about 45% of world’s data is stored on Western Digital devices. In India alone, there are about 4 lakh retail outlets which sell WD and SanDisk products. WD is a 20 billion dollar company which came together over a series of M&A that has taken place since the last 5~6 years. We recently had an opportunity to interact with Dr. Siva Sivaram, Executive Vice-President of Western Digital during his brief visit to India. The discussion revolved around the changing technology trends in storage, WD in India, etc. Below are some of the excerpts from the interaction that we had with Dr. Siva Sivaram.

Can you give some top-level insights about Western Digital ?

First & foremost, we think of ourselves as a data infrastructure company. All the major mobile players use storage by WD, be it eMMC or UFS. As far as the company positioning is concerned, WD is uniquely positioned to deliver the possibilities of data today and well into the future. The company has the broadest and deepest portfolio of HDD & Flash-based solutions. It has consistently delivered breakthrough technology innovations in the areas of 64- layer 3D NAND, 96-layer 3D NAND, Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording [MAMR]. MAMR will enable a new class of ultra-high capacity enterprise HDDs designed to meet the future demands of Big Data.

WD is committed to open compute architectures and RISC-V. RISC-V will accelerate the development of data-centric devices and systems for Big Data, Fast Data & general-purpose applications. As far as India is concerned, it is an important & strategic country for WD since there is a growing talent pool and there is tremendous growth for WD & SanDisk products in India.

A lot of phone manufacturers are shifting from eMMC to UFS. Is UFS going to replace eMMC completely or will there be a gradual decline of eMMC?

The forward speculation on standards conversion is a hazardous game. In the enterprise segment, we talked about Serial Advanced Technology Attachment [SATA] fading for a long time, and it did not go away. We talked about SAAS going away and it is still running around strong. We talked about PCI adoption, which was going to happen so quickly. It did happen dramatically, it was much later than we expected it to happen.

Dr. Siva Sivaram – Executive Vice President, Western Digital

We have these three tiers that we are talking about, MCPs, eMMC, & the latest entrant UFS. We are all betting that UFS is going to happen. But I cannot tell you how it’s going to happen, though it might take a few years before eMMC completely fazes out. I don’t think PCI is going to happen but UFS is surely going to happen.

Do you foresee mid-segment manufacturers moving to UFS ?

It will happen, but not anytime soon. We do expect that given the benchmark set by Apple & Samsung, given the amount of memory that needs to go into overtime, the MCP market will go down, the eMMC market will split. More high-end devices will have UFS and slowly the mid-segment devices will start to taper down.

With the advent of 5G, what type of products can we expect from WD ?

I don’t truly believe 5G volume is happening anytime this year. The mobile market, in general, will have to go through new product migration cycle. 5G will definitely have a huge impact on automotive products, surveillance, AI, smart cities, etc. There’s a lot of growth everywhere.

We thank Dr. Siva for his time and sharing the insights with our readers. If you have any questions for WD team, please leave them in the comments section…

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The road towards smart mobility is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by advancements in big-data analysis, Artificial Intelligence [AI] and the Internet of Things [IoT]. Today, digital natives are looking for a superior travel experience through omni-channel interaction, single payment interface, contactless travel, and integration to social media. This is fueling the need for PTOs [Public Transport Operators] to look at new ways of driving efficiencies by making operations more intelligent. For instance, integrated payment systems such as London’s Oyster smartcard and Singapore’s EZ-Link allows users to opt for different modes of public transportation through a single smartcard.

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With an aim to cater towards addressing the needs of digital natives who are looking for superior travel experiences, Sasken is enabling Transportation ISVs and Public Transportation Operators to provide efficient & connected back office solutions and superior customer experience through digital enablement. Some of Sasken‘s key services include fare collection and revenue management, mobility as a service, real-time passenger information, asset management, and passenger safety. Today, we have a chat with Raman Sapra, Executive Vice President and General Manager – Digital, Sasken Technologies Limited about Mobility-As-A-Service, Intelligent Transportation, etc.

With the increasing demand for multi-modal transport from consumers, can you please share some details about omni-model ticketing and digitization of fare management systems?

Public transit is moving towards a fully-connected ecosystem of public transit agencies operating on different transport modes, rider sharing services and urban mobility services. Towards this, for enabling omni-modal ticketing, fare management system providers are providing APIs. This will help urban mobility services and rider sharing platforms to integrate ticketing from other providers onto their applications. Many market players are starting to adopt mobile transit ticketing.

Currently, smartphones are ubiquitous and mobile tickets on smartphones help to improve commuter convenience. They can easily purchase ticket from a mobile transit application for different legs of the journey, through different modes of transport rather than waiting in long queues.

How is Sasken using the concept of ‘Mobility-as-a-service’ to service its customers in the transportation industry?

Millennials want to build their journey by leveraging different available mobility services and do not want to use private vehicles. Sasken’s customers in the transportation segment are fast embracing this trend. We are enabling our customers with development, productization and field deployment of end-to-end solutions for enabling ‘Mobility-as-a-Service’. Our contributions touch all aspects of a platform for enabling MaaS.

These include API enablement of automated fare collection, real-time passenger information systems for easy integration with ride sharing platforms, developing mobile ticketing systems, mobile-based validation solutions for contactless tickets, developing advanced trip planning solutions, and developing advanced analytical solutions for improving planning, scheduling and operations.

Blockchain as a technology is seeing more adoption in the enterprise mobility sector. What are your thoughts on how Blockchain can be leveraged for this sector and how does Sasken’s association with Enterprise Ethereum Alliance help to solve critical problems in the Public Transport Domain?

Blockchain as a technology is seeing more adoption in transportation sector/urban mobility segment. Blockchain is suited for solving business problems when multiple parties are involved in the ecosystem and the trust barrier among them is very high. An inter-modal transportation network has many transit agencies, urban mobility providers operating and some of them are competitors to each other. Commuters prefer to buy ticket from one party for the end to end travel and revenue sharing and reconciliation becomes a necessity. At present, it takes multiple weeks for revenue reconciliation.

We developed a revenue sharing solution for multi-modal transportation network by leveraging Ethereum to expedite transactions and make revenue sharing near real time. Public transit agencies and ride sharing platforms are participants to a consortium blockchain network in this case. The participants have full visibility to all transactions in the blockchain network and revenue sharing logic is developed as smart contracts in the blockchain.

Recently, Sasken became a member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. Going forward, we plan to contribute to working groups in the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance focused on solving problems in public transit.

Mr. Raman Sapra – Executive Vice President and General Manager – Digital, Sasken Technologies Limited

What are your thoughts on Parallel Transportation Management Systems [PtMS] and how can blockchain become a central component of every block in Intelligent Transportation System [ITS] i.e. Ride-Sharing, Logistics, Insurance, Smart Contracts, etc.

Classic Parallel Transport Management Systems [PTMS] was perceived as a framework for managing complex urban traffic by leveraging ACP approach which is based on Arti?cial systems (A), Computational experiments (C) and Parallel execution (P). PTMS will slowly pave way for new generation Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) systems that incorporate components perceived in PTMS such as real time scheduling, incident alerts etc.

Blockchain can be leveraged in transportation and logistics for expediting payment settlements, helping in dispute resolution, improving administrative efficiency, improving traceability in supply chain, and easily identifying proof of provenance. I mentioned expediting of revenue reconciliation in multi-modal transport systems as a use case in an earlier response. Similarly, in logistics, blockchain can be used to reduce paper processing and approvals and customs clearance can be quicker and more efficient, reducing processing times for goods at customs checkpoints. This will help in improving administrative efficiency and help faster flow of goods in the supply-chain.

In the grocery supply chain, disputes arise due to spoilage of food items that require temperature monitoring. Temperature of perishables can be monitored and critical temperature excursion events and hand off events can be registered to blockchain. This helps to improve traceability to point of origin in case of spoilage and helps for legal dispute settlement.

Can you comment on some of the latest offerings in the Digital Transformation services by Sasken and how it is utilizing the power of Cloud, IoT, Sensors, Transportation, Data, etc. to come up with PoC/MVP for its customers?

We leverage the power of Cloud, IoT, Sensors, Digital Platforms and blockchain to develop multiple solutions for our customers. As a case in point, by leveraging IoT and sensor data from vehicles, we have developed an Asset Performance Management [APM] solution for predictive maintenance of connected vehicles. In this case, we collect vibration data from wheels of a vehicle. The data is aggregated at an IoT gateway and eventually transferred to the cloud. By leveraging Machine Learning and AI, we generate multiple insights for proactive servicing of the vehicle and thus reduce the downtime of the vehicle.

There are a lot of interoperability issues when we talk about IoT, Connected Solutions; how do solutions from Sasken address these concerns?  

For developing IoT solutions, we typically consider standard, widely adopted IoT platforms such as PTC Thingworx or Microsoft Azure. Platforms such as PTC’s ThingWorx support multiple short range and long range connectivity options and help us to manage industrial device interoperability using solutions such as Kepware. Leveraging out of the box device interoperability, help us to solve customer’s business problems faster. In addition, to ensure software flexibility, we use standard protocols for communications between edge and cloud and leverage APIs and micro-services for developing the back-ends. This helps us to easily integrate with other systems.

While developing front ends [either mobile or web] of the IoT solutions, we consider support for device diversity, diverse form factors, browser interoperability, multiple OS versions as critical requirements from the design phase itself. Applications are developed and verified by considering the interoperability issues with different devices, OS versions, form factors and browsers.

What are some of the opportunities and emerging technologies that India can expect soon, with a focus towards omni-channel interaction & contactless travel?

With omni-channel interactions increasing, there will be opportunities for Mobile and Web Transit Ticket booking systems, in addition to Ticket Vending Machines. Moreover, there will be opportunities for customizations and field deployment of transportation systems and integration with secure payment solutions and digital wallets.

We thank Raman Sapra for sharing his insights with our readers. If you have any questions for Mr. Raman about smart transportation, how your startup/enterprise can leverage capabilities of blockchain etc. please email them here or share them via a comment to this article.

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Moving to a new city, a new house or a new office always seems exciting; but it comes a whole new set of unanswered questions. Though you might try your level best to select the best packers & movers for the relocation job, there is a chance that you choose price over quality. Another problem that consumers face is there is no way to track their belongings in real-time. ShiftKarado was founded with an aim to eliminate these challenges and offer a stress-free and transparent shifting experience by introducing a technology-enabled platform. Created by the promoters of Star Worldwide, the leaders in international relocations, ShiftKarado seeks to create a disruption through its transparent and real-time solutions for the domestic packing and moving industry.

ShiftKarado is focused on providing superlative, reliable, time-effective and simplified solutions to consumers looking to relocate a home, an office or a vehicle. With its services launched in late 2016, ShiftKarado was rolled out to plug the gap in the highly fragmented and unorganized Indian relocation segment which often leaves consumers stressed and perplexed about process and charges. The promoters of Star Worldwide observed that the pricing and relocating process was opaque, time-consuming and challenging due to the lack of reliable movers and packers in the city at affordable rates.

Catering primarily to B2C – House & vehicle relocation and B2B – office relocation, ShiftKarado crafts customized packaging options from start to finish without customers worrying about anything. Today we have a chat with Sahil Mithal and Mrs. Aulina Mithal Sood, Co-founders of ShiftKarado about the business, technology behind the offerings, competition, etc. & much more. So let’s get started with the Q&A….

Can you please walk us through on how did you come up with the idea of ShiftKarado and details about the core team behind the startup?

Our Founder, Mr. Atul Mithal saw a huge gap amongst the demand and supply of efficient packers and movers in the Indian market as compared to the international standards. He witnessed the problems of lack of rules and regulations, costly and poorly managed services and least to no security of cargo prevailing in the nation. It was then he started working on the idea and was later joined in by the company’s co-founders Sahil Mithal, Aulina Mithal Sood and Ashish Mullick.

While Sahil helped in technological aspects of the company, Aulina’s role is more customer-centric and training, while Ashish helped the organization in setting up of its initial structure, administrative and operation aspect. Then the employees kept coming on board and from being a newbie, the company has now become one of the crucial players in the industry leading in the race with its technological aspects.

Does ShiftKarado cater to the B2C segment only or it also caters to the B2B segment ?

ShiftKarado is not restricted to the B2C segment; it caters to businesses and institutions also and has a good clientele base in the B2B domain. Companies like Dainik Bhaskar, Prop Tiger, and CIANS  & OYO frequently hire ShiftKarado for transporting and relocating services.

Movers & Packers [in general the relocation market] is highly unorganized, how does ShiftKarado brings in more transparency and makes the sector more organized [than earlier] ?

In 2015, when ShiftKarado stepped into the packers and movers industry of India it was cluttered by companies that were providing unreliable services and ambiguous costs. An estimate for a move typically involved 2-3 days with the packers and movers wanting to first perform a home visit to conduct a Survey of the Items to be moved.

ShiftKarado simplified the entire process with its years of experience in international moving & a well-organized management system. The ShiftKarado Android App and Web Application were launched in August 2016 to provide a standard and simple interface for instant pricing, trouble-free bookings, and secure payments. This was a first one of a kind application in India and ShiftKarado had to rethink the pricing model that existed for decades to create an algorithm that would deliver prices to the customer in seconds not days.

The company makes use of the latest technology and analytic data to tailor their packing and moving services as per the customers’ requirements and engages with its customers in an interactive way with quick information and updates. With a full-fledged team of analysts, ShiftKarado works on a data-driven algorithm to calculate the distance between the two relocation sites, the volume of goods to be shipped and the time required for packing.

There are many startups in the logistics sector [either catering to pure B2B/B2C/only e-commerce shipments] that are also solving the similar problem, what are some of the core USP’s of ShiftKarado over these companies [in terms of technology, pricing, customer support, etc.] ?

It’s the technological aspects of our company along with our understanding of the international standards that primarily set us apart and give an edge over the competitors. Other than that, we also offer our clients, be it households or corporate with the instant booking, instant quotation, urban mobility, security, as well as transparency in our services.

ShiftKarado is currently operational in how many cities in India ?

The company is headquartered in Gurugram and has branches in New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Chandigarh, Mohali, Gurgaon, Greater Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Pune, Navi Mumbai, Jaipur, and Kolkata.  ShiftKarado has also joined hands with OYO rooms for the Pan India relocation of their employees.

Does ShiftKarado work in the marketplace model or it has its own team of Movers & Packers ?

Being part of the Star Group Company, ShiftKarado is utilizing a mix of fleets, their own in-house fleet services and outsourced. Depending on the peak season & availability, they either use their own in-house fleets or outsource it from the third party in case of high demand, but always ensure quality is maintained throughout the move process.

How does ShiftKarado leverage technologies like Machine Learning, Deep Learning, AI and other emerging technologies, in order to provide deeper tracking of client’s belongings [thereby ensuring that there are fewer customer complaints] ?

With a mobile app and website integrated with Artificial Intelligence (AI), ShiftKarado keeps the entire relocation process transparent and instantaneous. ShiftKarado’s mobile app will have a live feature very soon which will enable the clients to track the status of their consignment. When the goods are packed, loaded, shipped, unloaded, and delivered, clients will get timely updates. Currently, ShiftKarado uses AI and data-driven technology to give out the exact quote for relocating any volume of goods between any two locations instantly. This includes parameters like destination, route map, nature of goods being transported, and the volume of the goods, as well as the floor on which the drop-off is to be made and whether or not a lift is available for higher floors. The initial quote, therefore, remains the final amount to be paid. ShiftKarado also has a feature of providing insurance protection which enables the customers to reduce the shipping stress while their office or household goods are in transit.

In the past, estimating the value for the potential insurance claim was manually done by the customers according to their estimate. This process was too inaccurate and time-consuming. However, development in the field of analytics has helped the industry to opt for insurance quickly and in the most efficient way. The data-driven suggestive pricing offered by relocation service providers nowadays helps in calculating the value of goods, which makes the whole insurance process smarter, more personalized, and much simpler.

What are some of the unique challenges that your team faced while servicing the B2B customers [either for complete office relocation/employee relocation, etc.] since B2B segment is very different from the B2C segment ?

True that serving B2B customers is different from B2C customers because the material handling, logistics and audit requirements is more challenging for the former. When it comes to office relocation the equipment is often large in number and specialized. In the early stages of our venture, we had to take extra measures in packing and moving the equipment such as desktops, servers, furniture, heaps of necessary papers and documents etc., for relocations.

However, we focused on designing an effective office relocation plan with new packing and moving methodology tailored to the requirements of the various departments. We also have a Records Management company within our group which partners with us when managing large volumes of documents. As far as the employee relocations are concerned we closely work with the HR and Admin departments to manage the relocation budgets yet ensure the employee of the company is not burdened by the relocation process.

Being an offering from the promoters of Stars Worldwide, how those learning’s were helpful in scaling ShiftKarado ?

Star Worldwide Group has been a leader in International Relocations, Fine Art Handling and Records and Information Management Services, for over 30 years.  They have been serving top MNC’s, embassies and other international organizations for decades. Star is also an ISO 9001, 14001 and 18001 certified company. Our Head office, along with branches in Mumbai and Bangalore are verified by FAIM auditors, Ernst and Young, to ensure compliance with the rigorous FIDI-FAIM quality standards. The standards cover the end-to-end moving process including, but not limited to, packing material, trucks, warehouse, and safety and are bench marked against global best practices.

Star Worldwide is also one of the most reputed names, globally, in fine arts packing and transportation. Due to its reputation, the company is the only one in India to be accredited by both, ARTIM and ICEFAT, which set the highest standards in fine art shipping.  The standards involved are very scientific and the greatest of care is taken to ensure the movement of priceless and rare artifacts. This work culture and attention to detail is also carried into ShiftKarado. Star Worldwide guidance helps us ensure that our clients get the best learning and experience accumulated and refined over decades, built into our systems.

Thus, ShiftKarado, apart from the benefits of the vast Group infrastructure, also have the privilege to learn and incorporate the same highest standards of professionalism, client servicing, seamless work processes, and safety measures, as followed by Star Worldwide.

[L-R] Founders – ShiftKarado [Sahil Mithal & Aulina Mithal Sood]

One of the major issues in relocation is parcels getting missed/material being damaged in transit, etc., how does ShiftKarado ensure that there are zero such issues for its customers and does it also provide any transit insurance ?

For each relocation consignment, we have project coordinators along with the full-fledged team of packers and movers who keep a complete check on what goods has been packed and loaded and what is unloaded and relocated. Before packing the goods, we develop plans in which the location of all office equipment, household furniture, telephones, computers, crockery, machines and everything else is charted out as a checklist. A packing inventory is shared with the client that contains the details of the goods to be moved.

Our operations mobile application and internal dashboards also help us track the activity, duration and the team members involved and take stock of the packages during its movement. To prevent the goods from any damage, high-quality packing material such as cartons, corrugated sheets, and bubble wrap etc., are used for packing.  Our crew and partners are trained to handle packages during the packing, transportation and loading/unloading as per their handling labels.

Though security and safety of the goods and materials are paramount in our services, however, we do offer risk cover to the clients. We have partnered with top reputed insurance company and offer ITC A and ITC B risk covers. You may get more information about risk cover and insurance here. Yes, we have our own customer support team which remains active in responding to the customers’ requests and queries.

Since ShiftKarado does not have its own fleet for relocation, please name some of the prominent partners of ShiftKarado and how does ShiftKarado ensure that there is a fair-pricing policy with its partners.

Being part of the Star Group Company, ShiftKarado is utilizing a mix of fleets, their own in-house fleet services and outsourced. Depending on the peak season & availability, they either use their own in-house fleets or outsource it from the third party in case of high demand. We only deal with trusted partners that have been associated with us for a number of years or have gone through our audit process. All prices are benchmarked with our existing providers within our application

We should have asked this question earlier, how did you come up with the name ShiftKarado [since it does not have a mass appeal due to the usage of a Hindi word] and what were some of the other names that had popped up during the discussion ?

Though the name ShiftKarado does not have a mass recognition as of now, it does trigger a sense of Indian-ness in the minds of first-time customers. When we were brainstorming for a name for this new venture, we did research on what kind of queries and responses the relocation service providers encounter.

As we are focused on the Indian market, we had to build a brand that is easy for Indian people to emotionally connect with and simple to memorize. The questions such as “Hume apna ghar shift karana hai!” helped us coming up to a conclusion that ShiftKarado would be a right choice to name our brand because “Hum Shifting karatey hain.”

Please walk us through the funding of ShiftKarado and whether you are open to external funding ?

ShiftKarado is a completely a bootstrapped company since its inception. We have the benefit of the strong financials of our Group.

Technology has been rapidly evolving at a rapid pace [with the advent of wearables, smart connectivity, IoT,etc.], where do you see the entire ‘Logistics sector’ evolve with the fast-paced technological changes ?

Versatile customer expectations, the burgeoning of relocation service providers, and technological advances will disrupt the industry as innovative ways to outrank the competitors would be brought up. But, digital technology is one of the major challenges that the transportation and logistics sector must deal with. Though many logistics companies are planning to invest at least 5~6% of their annual revenue in the blooming digital culture, those who do not adapt themselves until 2020 are vulnerable to business failure.

Also, Machine learning and Artificial intelligence integrated with data analytics help greatly in scaling the dynamic routing. Even the package delivery culture is being digitally transformed through the autonomous vehicles and drones which result in quick delivery and a reduced workforce. Augmented Reality (AR) may also make the drivers more efficient by giving them complete and detailed information about the environment, climate change, route planning etc. Using the Internet of Things (IoT), the inventory and warehouses can be safeguarded well. Safety alarms and sensors which use IoT can help detect and neutralize hazards remotely and/or automatically.

Can you share some tips for building an effective team for startups [especially the initial core team] ?

Startups success depends on the strength and commitment of its team and failure on the founder’s negligence and unawareness of his people. In any startup organization, a solid team calls for expert industry professionals who are not only best at their work, but also competent in self-governance and self-motivation. The initial core team should be built, not simply to fill the empty seats in the office, but to expand the office through the means of hard work and commitment to only one vision—the company growth. For this, individuals should focus on getting expertise, experience, and exposure corresponding to the requirement of the startup firm.

Entrepreneurs must create a productive work environment where each team member realizes his job role & the contribution expected. The team should be continually motivated by appreciating their small efforts and guiding them to rectify their blunders. Members should be given the liberty to take the road less travelled by; the approach never before is taken, to challenge their own capabilities. It’s also important not to slide into a comfort-zone within the first few months. Start-ups need to keep exploring, tweaking and questioning their game plan as often as weekly to ensure greater chances of success.

2017 was a tough year for startups [especially from a funding point of view], how according to you should entrepreneurs deal with such adverse situations ?

Entrepreneurs can seek expert advice from financial advisors who have a sound knowledge of startup culture, their needs, and functional dynamics. Will crowdfunding be the right choice or bootstrapping, the financial advisor can rightly assist the entrepreneurs in having a backup plan in case of hard times.

Situational analysis and short-term strategic planning should be given prominence so as to be prepared for the challenges which startups usually face in the inception stage.

How important is it for early-stage startups to pivot their business model [in case things are not working out as per their plan] or when is the right time to pivot ?

Pivoting in start-ups is key to survival. Entrepreneurs who are initially enthusiastic about their Plan A, may need to pivot to Plan B or C within a year, when the results are underachieved, or the market has greater potential. Switching to Plan B or C may open new revenue stream and growth opportunities, to push through giving 100% efforts, dedicated time, and right resources to Plan A is often a smart choice.

Pivoting involves group discussions, analyzing failure, looking at competition, redefining certain key positions, incorporating new ideas, and challenging your initial idea.

As per your entrepreneurial experience, when should an entrepreneur look out for external funding?

External funding definitely gives you a large canvas to work on and a lot more flexibility. When the startup has proven customer traction and now needs to expand its reach and double its sales exponentially, tying up with the giant investors for external funding can be a profitable deal. However, entrepreneurs should avoid investors when a strong and large base of customers is already funding the company’s growth.

Some books that you highly recommend for entrepreneurs ?

I enjoy reading books that tell a story of struggle and hardship. The ones that left me feeling motivated are ‘Zen Garden‘ by Subroto Bagchi, ‘The Buck Stops Here‘ by Ashutosh Garg and ‘Losing my Virginity‘ Autobiography of Richard Branson. There is no success story without failure and there is a need for successful business to use their means and participate in building society and work towards greater well-being of all.

Some closing thoughts for our readers!

Don’t over think, don’t over plan! There is no such thing as a perfect moment. Most of us miss the train waiting for the perfect moment. Believe in yourself, don’t doubt your capabilities and imagine yourself achieving success… Your thoughts will turn into action and action speaks louder!

We thank the co-founders for their time and sharing valuable insights with our readers! If you have any questions for the team at ShiftKarado about the company, starting up, scaling up, etc., please email them to himanshu.sheth@gmail.com or leave your question in the comments section.

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Technology is playing a major role in today’s times and it has touched every aspect of our lives. Areas or domains that were once untouched can now be explored with the power of technology. It has enhanced the overall experience of banking, communicating, shopping, learning, etc. and one sector that is currently witnessing the change is Education. E-learning or Ed-Tech have been the pioneers of change in the field of education. Long before ‘technology’ and ‘internet’ became mainstream, the only way to learn & gain knowledge was by learning from tutors, schools, and coaching institutes. But now, you can learn any skill or language from the internet and that too at your own convenience.

The online Education market In India is expected to touch $1.96 billion by 2021 and witness a 8x growth in the next 5 years according to a recent report by Google, KPMG. The reason for demand of online education has been the growth in Internet penetration and easy accessibility to affordable and quality education online. Though there are many ‘Educational Apps’ that are focussed towards the early-learning, handful of them only focus on improving your kid’s control over the English language. This is the problem that serial-entrepreneur Mr. Cristóbal Viedma wanted to solve after difficulties he faced while finding a good English teacher for his sister Marieta’s 2-year old daughter and thus Lingokids was born!

Lingokids is the best way to teach kids languages in a fun and natural way. It offers an adaptive language learning platform to teach English to children from 2 ~ 8 years of age, designed with Oxford University Press content. Lingokids is a complete language learning course, with activities that adapt to the child’s learning style. The curriculum includes exciting educational games and a recommended playlist of activities based on the child’s level in a 100% ad-free and safe environment. Today we have a chat with Mr. Cristóbal Viedma, a serial entrepreneur with a background in Computer Science. He is passionate about technology, education, & intercultural communication. Prior to launching Lingokids, Viedma worked as Head of Language-learning Platform at Viki, acquired by Rakuten in 2013 for $200M. He discussion revolves around Lingokids, plans for the Indian market, competition, etc. So, let’s get started with the Q&A…

[Note – ‘I’ in the Q&A refers to Mr. Cristóbal Viedma]

Can you walk us through the team behind Lingokids and how did your team come up with the idea ?

As a Spanish engineer and entrepreneur, I have been able to witness first hand the benefits of knowing English fluently, both in my personal & professional life. This is why there was no hesitation when my sister Marieta asked for my help to teach English to her 2-year old daughter. As an expert in early child development, Marieta understood the importance of acquiring language skills in the early stages of life to order to master it in the future.

However, after doing some research, the programs we found online were either unaffordable, not fully safe, or simply inadequate for early learners.  There was clearly a void in offering quality early childhood language education and my vision was that through technology we could offer a simple and attractive solution.

We moved to San Francisco and launched Monkimun Inc. with funding from early-stage venture 500 Startups and began experimenting with educational games released as individual apps only to realize that the best solution would be an all-encompassing platform that would group various games, songs and stories into one comprehensive English learning course targeted at early childhood learners. We returned to Spain to build our team and launched Lingokids in early 2016. Now we are already over 6 million registered families worldwide, and there is still a lot of ground to cover. We’re excited.

There are many reports that mention about kids [especially in the age group of 2~5] having issues with concentration, etc. when exposed to tablets/phones, how did your team convince the core USP of the app to the initial set of customers ?

This is completely understandable. We know there is a world outside screens and it’s important that parents set limits so that children are not exceeding the maximum screen time recommended for their age. Yet, if we assume that these limits are respected it then brings us to a more important question – Are we paying close enough attention to what contents these children are being exposed to? Our proposition is – Instead of using your child’s screen time on pure entertainment, why not combine that entertainment into something that has educational value? Embracing ICT affords infinite possibilities for the development of new teaching methods, which allow for engagement, interaction, and recreation in the learning process.

Starting from the age of 2, well-designed and age appropriate programs with educational goals can provide added value as a route for early language and literacy. With Lingokids we provide a platform that combines interactivity and gamification into a structured learning process allowing us to improve both motivation and engagement for the task at hand.

With technology learning outcomes are enhanced. That is, technology can help children acquire more information and at a faster rate. In a series of studies, we found that children who used Lingokids learned double the amount of vocabulary compared to those who used traditional methods. With technology, we can actually free up time for families to be more physically active or for other activities that do not require screens.

Since Lingokids is available for customers/parents across different countries, how do you make the experience tailor-made for different audience [especially for different countries] ?

Our customers are in over 180 countries so for now, our priority is to building a universal platform that can have both educational and entertainment value to families everywhere. We make some minor tweaks here and there to tailor to cultural differences where it can be sensitive, but we try to keep our content uniform across all markets. We are aware that this could change in the future and as we look to deepen our presence in specific markets the need to localize will increase.

Can you name some of the potential competitors of Lingokids and some of the core USP’s of Lingokids as compared to its closest competitors ?

ABCMouse and Yogome are among the most popular early childhood learning apps, although they tend encompass a broader spectrum of subjects and are probably not what you would go for if you want your child to learn English.  Duolingo, Babbel, and Busuu, and other language learning apps could also be seen as competition since they are specialized in language learning but with a focus on adults. Video streaming platforms such as YouTube Kids and Netflix Kids which also use up children’s screen times are seen as substitutes, however, their main focus is on entertainment and less interactive learning formats.

Lingokids is the only major player that specializes in English language learning and early childhood audiences which make us the best at what we do. Our customers really appreciate the quality and educational value of our contents which are designed by experts in early language acquisition. There are five distinguishing factors which work together to make our offer unbeatable

  1. Self-directed activities – The learner is in control.
  2. Adaptive technology – Contents and difficulty adjust to learning speed.
  3. Parental involvement – designed to help parents be a part of the child’s learning process.
  4. Structured – The activities are organized and shown in a specific order to allow for the most effective learning experience.

The Lingokids’ research-based program is repeatedly enhanced based on ongoing research.

What is the business model of Lingokids and you touch upon some of the plans for the app [in case if there is no flat pricing model] ?

Lingokids is subscription-based. We offer 2 plans – The Basic version, free of charge, with access to up to 3 learning activities per day and the Unlimited plan that includes access to all educational contents, offline usage, multiple profiles and additional learning materials for under 500 rupees per month.

Can you please comment on the association with Oxford University Press and the future plans of Oxford University Press with Lingokids [something further beyond Lingokids app] ?

We have two parts to our collaboration with Oxford University Press [OUP]. Firstly, OUP bundles access to Lingokids with its “Jump In!” and “Mouse and Me!” English course books for per-schoolers. We worked together to create a special selection of content within Lingokids that supports the needs of learners using these courses.

Secondly, we feature OUP digital content in the Lingokids app. We have a great relationship and are currently exploring different ways we could deepen our collaboration.

Apart from English, Lingokids is available for which all languages and how do you ensure that the content quality is very good for other languages [something on the lines of association with a notable brand like Oxford Press] ?

We have chosen to focus solely on teaching English language for now. English is the most widely spoken language in the world with figures estimating that by 2020 there will be over 500 million children aged under 7 learning the language. In addition, English proficiency is correlated with higher income, higher quality of life, greater ease of doing business, and more innovation.

We assure the quality of our contents thanks to a very dedicated and specialized in-house content team. In addition, our curriculum and methodology is guided by a world class Education Board made up of experts in literacy and ESL instruction, vocabulary development, educational technology and child psychology.

While using mobile/tablet, attention span is pretty less, what are some of the methodologies used by the Lingokids team to ensure that there is stickiness in the app, it’s content [for the parent as well as its students] ?

With Lingokids children are immersed in a virtual world with recurring characters and story-lines developed by experts in early childhood education and entertainment.  Our experts make sure our contents are fun, challenging and engaging to learners and some of the ways they do this is through guided learning elements [i.e. introduction and recap videos with real native teachers that guide students from one lesson to the next],  interactive formats, and by making sure the parent is involved through constant communication of the child’s progress [such as ‘number of words learned’, ‘activities completed’, etc].

Please comment on the overall EdTech Market for language learning [for pre-school students], especially in emerging economies like India, etc. ?

The EdTech market is thriving globally and according to a recent report by Google and KPMG, the online education industry in India is poised to grow 8x to a $1.96 billion industry by 2021.

With ~1bn kids worldwide in our target age groups, 9 out of 10 children suffering from language barriers globally and a ripening ELL market in the US where 25% of K12 will be ELL by 2025 with a strong concentration in the pre-k age group, there is a huge opportunity ahead of us to help democratize access to quality learning solutions. We estimate our total serviceable market to be $5.5bn with ~10% expected growth rates over next 5 years.

Do you have any plans of venturing into India [thru’ India specific languages like Hindi, Telugu, etc.], since the next level of disruption w.r.t content is happening with non-English speaking audience [and tier-2, tier-3 cities] ?

We are definitely planning on localizing our app to more languages than we have now. We currently support the app in 15 languages and for India specifically, next steps would be to add Hindi and eventually add Marathi and Telugu.

We are excited by the growth we’ve seen in families that are using Lingokids in the market which increased over 400% from 2016 to 2017. However, we are seeing similar growth figures in over 10 different markets.

Cristobal Viedma – Founder & CEO – Lingokids

Can you please talk about the Educator’s Program and the feedback that your team received from them that helped in shaping up the product ?

We launched our educators program just a few months ago. The idea stems from the fact that there is a need for quality resources for teaching English to young learners. On one side, teachers can use all our materials at no cost and through that we increase awareness of our product, but most importantly learn from their feedback which we find extremely valuable. We speak to educators every week to understand how our materials can be used on a day-to-day basis in classrooms.

A piece of feedback we received a lot at first was the need to make the product more compatible with smart/electronic boards, something we were very quick to solve and will be implementing in the next few weeks.

We also consider educators to be influential brand champions. One example of this is a teacher in Mexico who dedicated en entire classroom to learning with Lingokids.

Please share some metrics on how Lingokids has helped kids in improving their vocabulary, concentration levels, etc.

The key factor in the quick acquisition of vocabulary in children is fun. Videos and interactive games, in addition to being a means of entertaining learning, greatly increase  attention span, providing motivation and effectiveness in learning vocabulary through participation and interaction with the word.

We also run AB tests and focus groups regularly which allows us to test our new contents and quickly figure out what work better.

Is there any plan to cater to the ‘Special education market’ since there is shortage of apps as well as teachers in that category ?

The app tends to be well-suited for children with special needs. We have received tons of feedback from parents with children with autism, attention deficit and other learning disabilities who have found immense value in Lingokids some even commenting on improved social skills and improved ability in keeping up with their classmates.

The well-researched content, interactive nature of the app, and the adaptive technology that allows the child to learn at his or her own pace along with parental control makes it’s a very effective learning tool for any child.

Lingokids Team

Please comment on the India market/South Asia market and which are some of the cities/towns who have adopted Lingokids for learning ?

For us, the regions with the most opportunity are Latin America and South Asia, mainly emerging economies where the need for an economic solution to early English language learning is most valued. Within Asia; India, Philippines, China, Thailand and Malaysia are our focus. In India itself, we are serving over 400,000 families, with over 40% of them to be within Maharashtra, Delhi and Karnataka regions. Both Mumbai and Delhi are strong local markets for us.

We’re excited for what the future holds both for us and for families in India who are benefiting or could benefit from a service like Lingokids. In the mid-term we will begin looking at plans to deepen our activities within this very attractive market.

How has been the feedback about the app from the parents who have been associated with the platform for a long time ?

This is probably the driving force of our motivation here at Lingokids. Parents notice the progress of their child’s English and say things like “Now Bobby will have a better chance at life.” Sometimes we are talking about families who live in remote areas of the world with zero access to English academies and native teachers, other times we are talking about families who aren’t able to afford the $100 a month to sign their kids up to an academy or private classes.

Other times it is parents worried about the fact that their child cannot keep up with the rest of the kids in class and that Lingokids, through it’s adaptive methodology, has allowed them to improve and be at the level [sometimes it’s the opposite where kids are too advanced and Lingokids allows them to improve further]. Sometimes it is just feedback on how parents surprised in seeing how their kids enjoy themselves while learning.

On the other hand, we also take constructive criticism very seriously and are always ready to make changes and improvements to the product based on any comprehensive and substantial feedback from our customers.

Please share some metrics on how Lingokids has helped kids in improving their vocabulary, concentration levels, etc. ?

We measure effectiveness of our digital contents on all levels and we’re consistently AB testing different content types and formats to allow for further engagement and improved learning outcomes. We look at average session time, frequency of usage. Although the web is full of content that only focuses on entertainment, it is also true that there is pedagogical material for children to acquire all kinds of knowledge while playing. In addition to providing a fun learning, they are ideal to consult at any time and from anywhere via mobile.

Being a the global platform for learning English at an early age, Lingokids, shows that children retain twice as much vocabulary with the use of these applications as against the most common learning methods. The key factor in the quick acquisition of vocabulary in children is fun, since preschoolers do not have the impression or the burden of studying or receiving more material. Videos and interactive games, in addition to being a means of entertaining learning, greatly increase children’s attention span, providing motivation and effectiveness in learning vocabulary through participation and interaction with the word.

Can you please comment on some of the core features of the app & future expansion plans for Lingokids ?

We already are the world’s #1 digital solution for parents when it comes to early childhood English-language learning with over 6 million families around the world already trusting in Lingokids. Our focus over the short term is to continue building the home learning experience with more learning formats, more interactivity and more support to promote parent involvement.

Lingokids seeks to become the most trusted, effective and affordable home learning platform and is democratizing access to quality early childhood learning. The Lingokids platform would essentially help to bridge classroom learning and home learning with customized teacher playlists advanced reporting and parent-teacher communications. In terms of content creators, we aim at providing them with tools to upload and manage their videos, songs and games using our SDK which would be used by parents and teachers for their child’s learning.

[LingoKids for Android can be downloaded from here, LingoKids for iOS can be downloaded from here].

We thank Mr. Cristóbal Viedma for sharing his insights with our readers. If you have any questions for him about Lingokids, how it can help your child, EdTech in general, etc.; please email them here or share them via a comment to this article.

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The biggest challenge enterprises face today is dealing with fast-paced change in all spheres of business. There needs to be a fundamental shift in thinking and dealing with disruptive changes in the business environment.

Enterprise Agility – Being Agile In A Changing World by Sunil Mundra presents a core belief that enterprises are open and living systems. And, these living systems, also known as Complex Adaptive Systems [CAS] are ideally suited to deal with change very effectively.

Given that, ‘agility is to enterprises what health is to humans,’ there are some foundational principles of good health that can be broadly applied. But, the specific definition of ‘being healthy’ for a specific individual can and will vary. Enterprise Agility puts forward a similar approach where foundational practices can improve the overall health of the ‘body’ – read, culture, mindset and leadership, and the health of its various ‘organs’ – read, people, process, governance, structure, technology, and customers.

Image Source – Enterprise Agility

Enterprise Agility discusses how to avoid the mechanistic construction of existing enterprises, that focus on predictability and certainty. It also delivers practical advice on responding and adapting to scale, and disruption. The book goes on to suggest a practical framework with which leaders can create a plan to enhance agility. Today, we have a chat with Sunil about his book and his work with ThoughtWorks. So let’s get started with the Q&A…

Please talk about yourself, your association with ThoughtWorks [which is considered a leader when it comes to paired programming and other agile methodologies] and the learnings from that association ?

I have been with ThoughtWorks for eight years now. I have 28 years of experience, with 18 years in the IT industry and 10 years spent working with traditional businesses and startups.

My passion has been solving client problems. I am happy when I am working with leaders, understanding their problems and working at solving them. At ThoughtWorks, as a consultant, I have the room to do what I love. And, what’s interesting is the company does not expect me to accept a business issue as stated – I have the freedom to question and really dig deep and discover the true problem vs. symptoms of a business issue. Which lets me be extremely effective in my role!

I would say, ThoughtWorks’ niche is solving clients’ mission critical problems. And, my role in this process allowed me to learn about ‘Being Agile’ and ‘Business Agility’.

There are obvious learnings when one is working in an environment that believes in the power of its people; the knowledge workers and their knowledge work. Here, people pursue their passions [like myself] and are empowered. Also, ThoughtWorkers are true client partners and not people sitting on one side of the table. There is openness and transparency when working with clients, and all these progressive ‘habits’ are focussed on ensuring value to the client relationship.

Kindly give a small glimpse about your newly released book ‘Enterprise Agility’ and how can enterprises [SME’s, startups and huge corporations] incorporate the learnings into their development culture ?

The book, Enterprise Agility talks about how an organization needs to build capabilities that sense the fast changing environment and adapt, and respond to it.  And, that means the organization needs to function like a living entity – a Complex Adaptive System.

Today, most organizations have converted into or have become machines and are rooted in Frederick Taylor’s philosophy of separating the thinker and the doer –  focusing on efficiency and specialization. And, while that may have worked in an era when the market was stable, when the organization’s primary constraint was capacity, when everything that was produced was consumed. Clearly a seller’s market. But today it is very different. An organization has to adapt to change, when one cannot always and accurately anticipate the emergent future.

Sunil Mundra

For SMEs, startups and large corporations, the principle to ensuring agility stays the same – be focused on the customer and have an overarching purpose. By purpose, I mean the organization should enable a win-win with every stakeholder in the ecosystem – employees, customers, vendors, society etc. Once this purpose is defined, then we identify capabilities and draw out the strategy.

Businesses are changing at a breath-neck speed and in order to adapt, they need to be more agile [and same is applicable for their teams]. How can ‘Agile Methodologies’ be adopted in companies with large-scale teams [business, development, testing, etc.] since they are more resistant to openness and change ?

Agile has its origins in software development, and the underlying methodologies are designed to improve effectiveness and efficiency of software delivery. What is often forgotten is that agile is not just about ‘doing’ the practices, but about ‘being’ agile, i.e. about a mindset and culture which is focused on achieving the desired outcomes. And, practices which lead to collaboration, timely and effective communication, ensuring visibility and transparency support this culture.

Let’s look at an example of distributed development which has its pain points depending on where the teams are sitting – different floors, geographies, time zones, across different cultures or even across organizations. The complexity increases alongside the increasing variables. Here, agile practices, processes and techniques can help alleviate pain points by enabling the needed mindset or culture change.

The wrong way to go about things is ‘doing’ agile without understanding why or its value. That leads to no sustainable benefit, not unlike the waterfall methodology which requires following a preset process. Agile, in comparison has more to do with ‘knowledge work’, and places prime importance on the people on the ground – the most powerful in the hierarchy. This means, while the traditional model has a worker and a manager to manage the worker, and a senior manager to manage the manager, and a vice president to manage the senior manager – it’s actually the information the worker is sending up that defines business strategy. Now, this requires that the manager should stop [traditionally managing or] directing and be a facilitator and enabler.

Whether a business is large or small, it must create cross functional and autonomous teams that are organized around outcomes and supported by the right mindset and culture across the entire enterprise.

How can companies already following ‘Agile approach’ take the next leap and move to ‘Enterprise Agility’ for better productivity and employee management [and engagement] ? Also, how can an enterprise agility mindset help get the most out of distributed teams [that are spread across different countries with time-zone difference] ?

Agility is a set of capabilities that help an organization deliver value. Agility can exist at enterprise level or even within smaller units of the enterprise, where people work on input to create something of value. [In comparison, agile is more focussed on the software development process].

Expanding on agility, there are three basic capabilities [in no particular order] it is defined by.  One is the ability to sense the environment, second is the ability to adapt and third is the ability to respond. However, enterprises may need additional capabilities which enable their agility. For example, Apple, also considered a master of innovation would call ‘being innovative’ a desired capability. For an organization that produces something in mass numbers, efficiency could be a capability.

This is also a key takeaway from my book where I talk about how every organization has to come up with a set of capabilities [specific to their context] that improves agility.

Please walk us through Complex Adaptive Systems [CAS] model and how the model can be used to enhance enterprise agility ?

Let me begin with an example. Nokia was a leader in the mobile handset space.  But, Apple’s iPhone, a smartphone with apps came to market and changed the status quo. Evidently, Nokia had become complacent and had failed to sense the change in the environment, in customer mindset/expectations and failed to respond to it. A similar story is of Kodak’s and the digital revolution – when they were the ones that invented the digital camera.  But, the technology was raw and they had failed to sense the potential opportunity.

In comparison, natural and socio-economic systems have been adapting and evolving. For example, transportation was predominantly animal-bound, then came vehicles that run on fuel and now, we are moving into an age of electric vehicles and soon it will be self-driven cars. Another example is human beings. We began as apes and today, we are a jumble of several races. We had a tail that we gave up as part of our physical evolution. And, like all Complex Adaptive Systems, we are still evolving and geared to improve the chances of survival.

Some characteristics of these systems include having agents that are autonomous in nature – mostly free but bound by some basic rules. For example, the traffic system is bound by some basic rules like red means stop, drive on one side of the road, use an indicator when making a turn and more. And, the ‘free agents’ are the make of the car, the route you take, the speed you drive at etc. The objective is to get from one place to the other with a fair amount of freedom.

When such freedom exists, there is value created from the interacting between agents. This calls for flexibility because detailed plans can quickly become obsolete in such environments. Meaning, something new emerges and the CAS has to figure out what to do next – evolve and adapt.

How can your book ‘Enterprise Agility’ be of help to an entrepreneur leading an early-stage or a growth stage startup ?

Startups by definition have greater agility, are usually based on a purpose that the founders passionately believe in, and are smaller during their initial stages. I would advise startups is to avoid scaling the based-on-enterprise principles of Taylorism, and ensure their purpose creates the ‘win-win’ for all stakeholders. Another key advice would be to build teams that are outcome driven.

Many companies have stringent policies, mindset, culture and once they adapt to change [by embracing agile], there would be a tendency to measure the ROI [either in terms of bug inflow, man hours reduction, etc.], how can ROI be measured for adoption of ‘Agile’ or ‘Enterprise Agile’ approach ?

Let’s explain this with an analogy – how would one measure the ROI of being healthy?  One can’t.  The investment could be calculated on gym membership fees, organic food etc. But, how would one calculate the returns of feeling healthy and having avoided disease?

That is how it is with agility.  Agility is the health of the company and it’s hard to calculate the returns. How would one calculate the cost of something that has not happened or the benefit of something bad that has been avoided.

Enterprises continue to practice such anti-patterns. For example, if the company is doing financially well, the assumption is that they are successful. But, the fact could be that the enterprise is slowing drowning because they are not ready for change. And, eventually, it’s only when organizations are in crisis are they ready to embrace change.

Can agile approach be applied to Product companies/Startups [Products which are in the Hardware space e.g. mobiles, e-scooters, etc.] where dependencies are on hardware, software, OEM’s, board manufacturers and what are some approaches that leaders can follow in order to bring-in agile mindset in product organizations [not pure software/SAAS based products] ?

Being agile ensures an environment in which people are given the most importance, because they are the thinking, living and breathing free agents who do the knowledge work. And, this is applicable to all types of organizations.

Toyota is a great example of applying agile principles to a manufacturing activity. Every worker is free to validate a problem that they see in the production line, with their manager, but they are equally empowered to pull the cord that stops the entire production line when they see an obvious problem on the line. This is an example of having a process but empower the people to break that process, if needed, in pursuit of the right outcome.

And, this is connected to one of the agile principles that talks motivated individuals, and that’s especially important when living in the knowledge world. This is because, a lot of jobs that we used to do can be done by machines. Software has so many tools that has automated several parts of software development. And, this has freed up the human brain for bolder creativity and expression.

In effect, I believe that agile principles can be applied beyond the scope of software development. The processes, techniques, standup meetings, MVP etc. are all about delivering an outcome that pleases the customer and harnesses the potential of motivated employees to the fullest, within the framework of appropriate governance, and intelligently planned innovation and experimentation.

Before we sign-off, please let us know the intended audience of the book ‘Enterprise Aglity’ i.e. whether it could be engineers, team leaders, team managers, CXO’s, etc. ?

Enterprise Agility is intended to be more thought provoking for leaders, rather than a step-by-step prescriptive playbook. My goal is to make a leader or influencer say, “Oh, I didn’t think of it like that! And, I see it’s relevance for my enterprise.”

We thank Sunil Mundra for sharing his insights with our readers. If you have any questions for him about agile programming, his new book, application of agile for distributed teams, etc. please email them here or share them via a comment to this article.