It’s time for Watsons, not Sherlocks!

The post-Covid world remains a mystery that businesses and innovators are working hard to crack. Here’s a novel brain that insists on looking at the problem in a bold way.

Will we ever get to enjoy the same ‘normal’? Will India be a dark horse and find its winning jockeys in tier-2 towns and products made right here, instead of being the garage and farmhouse of the A-listers of the world. Vivek Iyer, Partner, Financial Services, PwC will make you uncomfortable before leading you to some epic answers. Because as visceral as his analytical eyes may be, he will force you to pick some conveniently-forgotten forceps—the human way of looking and asking.

As we trudge our way through this pandemic, he challenges us to hope. But first, he urges us to be ruthless about picking the right questions.

What’s the biggest change that has come out of this pandemic, in your reckoning?

Contrary to the way things look now, the biggest issue is ‘acceptance of the new normal’. Whether and how soon we find a vaccine—irrespective of that answer, the world will be in a lockdown-ish state for many more months. With the unrelenting pace of deforestation, we are going to grapple with new species and animals. New diseases and their effects cannot be turned a blind eye to. Are we ready for that? Specially in a world where, thanks to the flight connectivity speed we enjoy, any infection can travel from one point of the world to the other end in just 48 hours! So we would have to learn to adapt ourselves. You have to change the way you look at the situation. The reluctance to do that is causing, and will cause, mental health issues and other problems. We are still looking at things the old way. We are waiting for the world to resume to the way things were. But that ‘normal’ is gone.

And is that something India can handle?

India, fortunately, has an untapped demographic advantage; and digitization can be quite the strength for this region. Companies can start democratising talent recruitment and infrastructure in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities now. People would not need to migrate for work. The meetings and brainstorms can happen in hot-sites, co-working spaces and host locations; but a major chunk of work can be done elsewhere.

Have you spotted any big shifts that are already underway as enterprises get ready for the post-lockdown realities?

Yes, some of the recent conversations I had with our clients show that there is a push for arranging a proper digital infrastructure. Work From Home (WFH) environments are being looked at in serious ways. It makes sense from a cost-benefit analysis. For new on-boarding and virtual interns, many unprecedented steps have been taken. Organisations are investing in setting up VPN, security, BYOD in a strong way keeping the next phase in mind. They have realized the productivity outcomes and gains of remote working so it seems that it will continue even after the lockdowns as a norm rather than as an exception. That said—IT players will have to be trust custodians now and they will have to look at data confidentiality and cyber security in a new manner.

Any domino-effects on other sectors—like real estate?

Yes, significant ones. While the residential segment would see a substantial spurt in demand, the commercial side will take quite a beating. Companies have figured out the price tags of physical infrastructures. They have already started investing in digital ones and will only keep office investments for core work, mission-critical staff and occasional meetings. No one is interested in large offices now. But with that, innovation may also suffer in the long-term as human interactions and meetings take a backseat. HR will, surely, emerge as a strong function.

Who will survive and who will fade away in this never-before struggle?

For years we have heard ‘the strongest’ but now the word is ‘the most adaptable’. The ability to change gears and redefine customer service in the given constraints of resources, money and time—that is going to be critical. When I was doing some audits recently, what came up as a recurring problem is the concern about productivity. But the metrics being used to measure productivity are not apt—why are we measuring hours instead of outcomes! Let people feel they are in-charge of their work. People are already dealing with social isolation, confusion, disorientation and depression. Why to add trust issues to that list. But if we trust them and empower them, everything gets solved in a splendid way. The problem, as I said, is that we are waiting for some ‘big normal’. Why not build up on small wins?

Is this a good time for India to try its muscle in the product space also? Can we have a SAP, IBM or Apple coming out from here?

The question is wrong to begin with. Why are we looking at another SAP or Apple? Let us bring out something that our innovation think-tanks are really meant to. Our best minds are hiding inside college campuses. Our big-bang products may not come from Bangalore or a start-up ecosystem but from a campus in some small town. We should harness this big fuel—their curiosity. They are so sharp and fast in coming up with answers. But we need to have the right problem-definitions first. We cannot be recycling questions and ideas forever. We need to stop manufacturing machines in our colleges. External start-up ecosystems are important, but what we need to foster more is curiosity. Then we can sit back and marvel at the phenomenal outburst of innovations that we will witness. But we should not be desperate to come up with solutions. We need to focus on genuine problems. That’s the biggest problem—changing how we think.

A lot of big players have either become lazy or panic-stricken. Homegrown companies can tap this gap but only if they address real problems.

You sound like Sherlock—So defining a problem is that important? Please elaborate.

I always ask my clients to catch the real pain-point with no masks or blind spots. Once you know the real problem instead of beating about jargons and business clichés, you hit the right nail. And I prefer a Watson any day to a Sherlock. Because Sherlock is gifted, he is a genius. It is Watson who brings the human element. I have worked with a lot of Sherlocks—amazing geniuses but they have an emotional side that proves that Watsons are necessary to have around. I started my life as an aspiring Sherlock but now I am happy with Watson. I love to spend my time with young minds and innocent brains—those who still have stars in their eyes and whose lenses have not been coloured.