Dipankar Mukherjee: Pandemic forced us to find cost-effective solutions

The current scenario
The demand has shifted from offline to online channels in a major way. However, the quantum of demand has not seen major disruption, like some other sectors. The first few months, when even Amazon was not delivering, we did see a huge dip.

However, it recovered fast. But, the volumes are lower than last year.

Looking ahead
One major shift has been on the print-run. To be able to manage the cash flows and bring down inventory holding, the printruns have been brought down. Costeffective printing solutions are prioritised. The second shift has been on the ‘slow and steady’ approach.

Titles which have a reasonable probability of success are being prioritised. So, the pressure on commissioning and selecting the right books has increased.

In hindsight
Nothing could have prepared us for what came as a tsunami.

However, the few things we could have done are conserve cash, delay a few books and focus on collections from the market