Five print leaders share crisis management tips

Amit Shah: Communication is key to keep the morale of the employees high

Amit Shah, managing director, Spectrum Scan

One maintenance tip you are following
Follow SOP of maintaining the equipment/machines as far as possible.

Your advice during lockdown to your team
Accept the new normal, and focus on developing new ideas to fight Covid-19.

Your healthcare mantra for Covid-19
Exercise, exercise, and exercise. The least one can do is walk 30 minutes after meals (at home).

One skill you have acquired during the lockdown
Cooking different dishes with the same ingredients (shallow fry/ half fry /air fry /deep fry /roast/ boil.

A favourite webinar that you attended in the lockdown
The BMPA and TechNova webinar on precautions and restarting the operation with safety and health of workers.

One print technology, which could be revolutionary in the post-Covid world
Digital technology.

One packaging innovation that could be the new normal
RFID for monitoring the supply-to-use chain can be linked with an app.

One lesson from the pandemic for the industry
Too much dependency on China is risky. We must have Make in India, as our motto.

One tip on man-management
Communication is the key to keep the morale of the employees high.

The assistance that you seek on behalf of the industry from the government
MSMEs need a lot of support; most required is taking care of the salary of workers.

One headline you want to see by the end of 2020
Humans have triumphed.

Amudhan Sowrirajan: Web conferencing will become more dominant

Amudhan Sowrirajan, director, Adyar Students Xerox

One maintenance tip you are following
I think rat poison is something that is important in digital shops apart from periodic cleaning. Talk to the service engineer before restarting the machines.

Your advice during lockdown to your team
Stay at home and stay safe.

Your healthcare mantra for Covid-19
Wear a mask and don’t touch things unnecessarily.

One skill you have acquired during the lockdown
Nothing of note.

A favourite webinar that you attended in the lockdown
I haven’t attended any till date.

One print technology, which could be revolutionary in the post-Covid world
Web conferencing will become more dominant.

One packaging innovation that could be the new normal
Antibacterial coating.

One lesson from the pandemic for the industry
Depends on the post-covid status of the industry. In any case, the forces of digitisation and lower print volumes will accelerate. What we expected to happen in 2025 may happen sooner.

One tip on man-management
Pay their salaries and make sure that the employees’ lives can maintain a semblance of normalcy.

One assistance you seek on behalf of the industry from the government
GST rates for the industry need to be lowered.

One headline you want to see by the end of 2020
Vaccine for Covid-19 has been clinically approved.

Adi Jain: Packages that actively repel the Covid microbes can be a new normal 

Adi Jain, director, Paras Offset

One maintenance tip you are following
Inching of machines during the lockdown and extensive cleanup and checking prior to restarting machines.

Your advice during lockdown to your team
Have a to-do list ready whenever offices open; research on new clients, new product lines can go on despite the lockdown.

Your healthcare mantra for Covid-19
Regular exercise.

One skill you have acquired during the lockdown
Software development skills.

A favourite webinar that you attended in the lockdown
I have completed a full-fledged software development course online to update my computer science/software development skills.

One packaging innovation that could be the new normal
Packing substrate that actively repels the Covid microbes.

One lesson from the pandemic for the industry
Printers, book printers, in particular, are working on unreasonable and unheard of credit terms set by our buyers. There needs to be a concerted move for rationalisation of these terms.

One tip on man-management
This is as good a time as any for optimising your organisation chart and employee base as there will be wholesale labour/employee shifts with many talented employees looking for new opportunities.

One assistance you seek on behalf of the industry from the government
No reduction in spending on government printing work.

One headline you want to see by the end of 2020
‘Covid-19 virus vaccines’ human trials successful.

B Prasad: It’s a time for inward pilgrimages

B Prasad, managing director, Printech Digital Imaging

One maintenance tip you are following
Keeping jetpacks in wet condition whenever machines are kept idle and protective measures against rodents.

Your advice during lockdown to your team
Exercise; use common sense to protect self and family from virus; follow guidelines on Covid-19; read more; reduce watching TV to just three hours; keep talking to family members and friends. It’s a time for some inward pilgrimages.

Your healthcare mantra for Covid-19
Eat less, do yoga, shun social media, read more, and be positive.

One skill you have acquired during the lockdown
Fine cutting of onions for evening snacks at home.

A favourite webinar that you attended in the lockdown
Attended one on 18 May. Technology Outlook: Production Inkjet by Elizabeth Gooding.

One print technology, which could be revolutionary in the post-Covid-19 world
3D printing.

One packaging innovation that could be the new normal
Sorry, it’s not my domain.

One lesson from the pandemic for the industry
You have asked me for one lesson, but I will give you two lessons. First one is: don’t panic. Fear is the natural human response to human threats. Covid-19-like pandemics are frightening, no doubt, but you see there were so many in the past and there are many animal diseases existing that have the capacity to cross the species barrier in future as well, some may cause a new pandemic. I think it’s the effective fear-free communication that has to come from the government.

My second lesson is: adopt and practice working-from-home. I think it’s going to be the new normal. On a lighter note – thinking of how to print from home.

One tip on man-management
Separate personal problems from work-related problems.

The assistance that you seek on behalf of the industry from the government
Debt relief, enhanced debt relief and express bridge loans.

One headline you want to see by the end of 2020
Virus ends, businesses bloom in India.

GN Visvakumar: The pandemic shows us the importance of keeping cash reserves

 
GN Visvakumar, director, Rajams Digital

One maintenance tip you are following
We made sure to run all the machines at least five minutes every alternate day with the local staff to keep the machines in order and avoid spoilage by rats and insects.

Your advice during lockdown to your team
The advice to the staff is to stay indoors and follow government guidelines.

Your healthcare mantra for Covid-19
Have healthy food, exercise, play in the terrace and spend time with my family members.

One skill you have acquired during the lockdown
Learnt advance techniques in Microsoft Excel through tatasteellearning.com. Though I know the basics of Excel, with this course I was able to understand various short cuts and techniques.

A favourite webinar that you attended in the lockdown
My favourite webinar on tips, tools and tricks for working with a remote team by Peter Van of Dscoop. He explained how to identify the best tool among the various platforms and how to use them with the team and the various platforms like Zoom, Officevibe, Microsoft Teams, Wrike, Sharepoint, Intercom, DailyBot, mobile apps, and more.

One print technology which could be revolutionary in the post-Covid world
The web-to-print platform will play a big role in the post-Covid-19 era as most preference will be given for contactless business — order, design, execution and delivery will be the future.

One packaging innovation that could be the new normal
As most of the people prefer home deliveries one-time or single-use packaging will be the new normal as groceries, vegetables, fruits and food have to be delivered in disposable packing.

One lesson from the pandemic for the industry
The pandemic shows the importance of keeping at least 5% of investments in reserve in the form of bank deposits or cash. Investing and re-investing everything earned into the business will land in big trouble during a situation like a lockdown.

One tip on man-management
The post-lockdown operations with minimum staff and restricted working hours show how the business can be managed with minimum manpower.

One assistance you seek on behalf of the industry from the government
The many incentive packages announced by the government for the industry won’t be available for everyone. Those who already availed loans and facilities with the banks and NBFC’s only will get some benefits. Instead, the government can give loans up to 10% of the previous year GST annual turnover will benefit all the businesses whether they availed loan or not.

One headline you want to see by the end of 2020
We are back to normal.