5 Coping Strategies to Survive the Coronavirus Crisis Abdul Rahman Janoo, Co-founder, Tericsoft Technologies

In this podcast, Abdul Rahman Janoo, co-founder and Director at Tericsoft Technologies, shares five
key strategies that his team, Tericsoft’s business partners and clients have adopted to cope with the
disruption that the Coronavirus pandemic has caused to the business community at large.
Abdul shares that on the day the lockdown was announced, he and his co-founder, Anand, took
immediate steps to align their startup’s strategy to prepare for an uncertain period that has rattled
the entire world.

1. Smart Salary Management: Abdul reveals that the company’s finances were badly hit as
   customers were unable to pay on time and direct purchase orders got delayed. This directly
   impacted their employees’ salaries. To soften the blow to their employees, the co-founders came up
   with a coping mechanism. For the first three months, they decided to pay the base salaries to their
   employees and the balance amount as equity shares. Despite the disruption caused by COVID-19,
   the company gave annual increments to over 55 per cent of their workforce in the current Financial
   Year.
2. Focus on Revenues: In order to meet the revenue targets, the co-founders decided to undertake
   services projects such as web and AI development. Though the ticket size was more modest in size,
   Abdul and team believed this would be the best approach if employees had to be retained.
3. Get a grip on executional and operational challenges: When WFH became a mandatory policy,
   some of the employees who were from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities had limited access to the Internet.
   This necessitated quick thinking on the management’s part and they recorded videos to help all
   team members keep track of workflows and targets. Regular catch-up calls also contributed to the
   efficient workflow processes demanded by the current scenario.
4. Pivot the product: Abdul and team pivoted the products to COVID-19 symptom monitoring
   solutions to help defeat the spread of infection at the base level. Pivoting their products turned out
   to be beneficial as it helped the startup secure fresh leads for the business.
5. Upskill employees: The startup used the unique opportunity presented by the crisis to help their
   workforce upskill themselves in product development. They mapped the go-to-market strategy both
   during COVID-19 and the aftermath scenario, in order to keep generating revenue through their
   products.