Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. All right, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: You are listening to Bloomberg Business Week. He transformed our
Speaker 1: next Guest a division of ge Um, and he turned
Speaker 1: it into the publicly held gen Packed. It's an I
Speaker 1: T services company managing risk and compliance applications. It's based
Speaker 1: in India. It has more than nine employees. He however,
Speaker 1: has been stuck in New York because of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: Great to welcome to our audience and to Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: Gen Packs president and CEO. He's Tiger thiagarag On and
Speaker 1: he joins us on the phone. As I mentioned in
Speaker 1: New York City, Tiger, nice to have you here with us. Um,
Speaker 1: how are you doing so great to be on the show,
Speaker 1: and thank you doing really well? Um. I guess the
Speaker 1: Dutch statement has to be calvetted with in these times.
Speaker 1: Will expand upon that, because you're right, these are unusual times.
Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit about what your world
Speaker 1: has been like for the last six months. I've been
Speaker 1: I'm based in the in New York City in Manhattan,
Speaker 1: and I've been operating the company from my home, which
Speaker 1: is an apartment in New York City, and you know,
Speaker 1: the global close to a hundred thousand employees who are
Speaker 1: all working from home or most of them are running operations, uh, consulting,
Speaker 1: digital engagements, analytics engagements with a lot of our global
Speaker 1: clients who are also working from home. And that's you
Speaker 1: know that that's an interesting challenge which we weren't necessarily
Speaker 1: all prepared for, but we got there and and at
Speaker 1: some point in time it you start wondering is there
Speaker 1: a time when this will end? And so shifting online,
Speaker 1: I feel like we're all kind of wrestling with it
Speaker 1: at this point now several months in, because we're beyond
Speaker 1: I've said this before in this program, we're sort of
Speaker 1: beyond the triage stage where you just sort of get
Speaker 1: through it, and now we have sort of different rhythms
Speaker 1: and different interactions. We're learning different ways of doing things.
Speaker 1: What have you learned you and especially your team in
Speaker 1: terms of interacting with each other about kind of who
Speaker 1: you are and and sort of how you operate as
Speaker 1: a company. Oh so much, Jason, We've learned so much.
Speaker 1: I'll start by saying that the technologies that we are
Speaker 1: using that our clients are using that the whole world
Speaker 1: is using have always been available for some years now.
Speaker 1: Technology is that allow us to collaborate together, to communicate
Speaker 1: irrespective of distance. Um, the reality is we didn't use
Speaker 1: it to its fullest extent, and now what the pandemic
Speaker 1: has shown us is the way it can be used. Um,
Speaker 1: it's very productive. You don't necessarily have to travel every
Speaker 1: time you want to meet someone, and you can get
Speaker 1: large groups of people to engage with each other. Now
Speaker 1: is that equal to socially interacting face to face, having
Speaker 1: a dinner together. It's not. But you know, I think
Speaker 1: what the world is learning is how do you mix
Speaker 1: and match this? And hopefully, as we come out of
Speaker 1: the pandemic, can we actually take all the best practices
Speaker 1: we learned here and bring them into the world of tomorrow.
Speaker 1: One example would be how inclusive is this current culture
Speaker 1: where everyone is on a is on a video conference
Speaker 1: call rather than three people on video conference and ten
Speaker 1: people in a room. Unfortunately, those three people get left
Speaker 1: out and that whole ability to drive more diversity and
Speaker 1: inclusion is a big plus that hopefully we can all
Speaker 1: hang onto. Well, what what you know, let's stick with
Speaker 1: that for a little bit um in terms of d
Speaker 1: n I, diversity and inclusion. I mean, these are not
Speaker 1: new topics. You know this tiger, and we've been talking
Speaker 1: about it for decades, and yet here we are and
Speaker 1: we're all astonished, and we are shocked at the inequalities.
Speaker 1: And like I said, they've been around for a while.
Speaker 1: How do we, as Jason mentioned to one of our
Speaker 1: earlier guests, Abigail Disney, you know, how do we move
Speaker 1: beyond conversation to real action that actually results in significant
Speaker 1: change so that the world is lifted everyone benefits. Tell
Speaker 1: it's such a great point. We've been added, The world
Speaker 1: has been added, We as a company have been added.
Speaker 1: I think everyone's been added on various dimensions, whether it's
Speaker 1: gender equities or its racial equity. As we you know clearly,
Speaker 1: at least in the US, we're very focused on it
Speaker 1: these days. But it's been a focus for some time,
Speaker 1: and yet I would argue not enough has has changed
Speaker 1: and not enough has moved. I'll start with I think
Speaker 1: much more transparency and visibility to metrics that shows improvement
Speaker 1: is something that we have been big believers in. Uh So,
Speaker 1: tell me the diversity at the top of the company.
Speaker 1: Tell me the diversity and the board. Show me what
Speaker 1: goals you have and what what you know? I'm I
Speaker 1: hate to use the word, but what targets you have
Speaker 1: and show me progress against those targets. We all have
Speaker 1: financial goals that were held responsible for. Why is it
Speaker 1: wrong not to have Why is it wrong? I mean,
Speaker 1: why shouldn't we have diversity goals? Because the reality, better
Speaker 1: solutions get get created when you have diverse minds at
Speaker 1: the table, and you the way you get divorce minds,
Speaker 1: it's people with divorce backgrounds divorce experience. So I think
Speaker 1: the theory of the cases talked about enough. I think
Speaker 1: the way your drive action is by driving metrics and
Speaker 1: by having a little totally agree transparency and metrics. Right
Speaker 1: numbers they tell you know, when you start looking at
Speaker 1: an organization and you look at either you know, the
Speaker 1: diversity and inclusion, you look at the composition of your workforce.
Speaker 1: When you look at the numbers, there's nothing that you
Speaker 1: can hide. Right numbers tell a story that's right, that's right,
Speaker 1: and and and it's perfectly fine to say, look, I
Speaker 1: have a goal and it's going to take me some
Speaker 1: time to hit the goal. However, I've driven improvement this
Speaker 1: year versus last year in the previous year. And that's
Speaker 1: what progress is about. It's not necessarily saying already there
Speaker 1: at the time to Hill, no, I haven't, but I'm
Speaker 1: making progress, Tiger. One of the fascinating things about a
Speaker 1: company like yours is you have amazing insights and windows
Speaker 1: into a whole pety of other companies, their hopes and dreams,
Speaker 1: their struggles during all of this. What's one of the
Speaker 1: things that you've picked up either that you can generalize
Speaker 1: or that has really stuck with you about what other
Speaker 1: companies are dealing with for all of this, Jason, I'll
Speaker 1: start by saying that the one overaarching seeing that you
Speaker 1: could capture everything in is a significant acceleration in uh
Speaker 1: digital transformation. You know, I think I think it'll be
Speaker 1: fair to say that most companies, most enterprises across the
Speaker 1: globe have been on a path to embrace digital into
Speaker 1: the enterprise, to change business models, to drive efficiency, to
Speaker 1: drive better experience with customers, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: Just think about accelerating that from a five year journey
Speaker 1: to an eighteen month journey or a twenty four month journey.
Speaker 1: And that's what we've been seeing and I think it
Speaker 1: applies to every company in every industry. Well, it's interesting, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do wonder if we're going to look back Tiger
Speaker 1: at this moment in time. I don't know whether it's
Speaker 1: going to take us a year, whether it's gonna take
Speaker 1: us five years, and just how much this time unfortunately
Speaker 1: the stress um and the difficulties, but how it really
Speaker 1: kind of cause so many different changes in how we
Speaker 1: do it. Whether it's telemedicine, whether it's education, whether it's
Speaker 1: the digitization, which we've been talking about and increasingly seeing,
Speaker 1: but it's really picked up speed. Tell you you you
Speaker 1: got it. I mean, this is a tragic eight months.
Speaker 1: The pandemic is tragic. I mean, lives have been lost, Um,
Speaker 1: lots of people have lost their jobs and and so
Speaker 1: all of that is terrible. However, you know, we all
Speaker 1: have to continue to look for So what are we
Speaker 1: learning from this and what are the things that we
Speaker 1: can take forward? And there are so many things. One
Speaker 1: of this digital thing that we talked about, you know,
Speaker 1: almost every company in every industry, the switch to online
Speaker 1: is just amazing. Um, if someone had a five percent
Speaker 1: penetration on online versus offline, that's now gone to if
Speaker 1: someone was already that's easily hitting the six mark. Um,
Speaker 1: everything is moving to the cloud. Uh. All of these
Speaker 1: were transitions that were happening. Now people are jumping on
Speaker 1: it in an accelerated fashion. Um. You know the everyone
Speaker 1: wants analytics now, real time and insights, real time to
Speaker 1: take decisions. After all, when you have a highly volatile
Speaker 1: world where demanded supply spikes up and down, I mean
Speaker 1: think about it. You know, the first couple of months
Speaker 1: through the pandemic, the sale of wheat flour I believe
Speaker 1: went up plus. The sale of yeast went up by
Speaker 1: forty percent plus, and I never could imagine why. And
Speaker 1: then I realized people were baking at home. I had
Speaker 1: to listen. I couldn't buy flower for a while, and
Speaker 1: I found we had the Sea of King Arthur Flower
Speaker 1: on this program and she was talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: demand like they've never seen before. They had to completely
Speaker 1: change their supply chain, right right. So, when you have
Speaker 1: that kind of volatility, which which would say is going
Speaker 1: to last beyond the pandemic, because the volatility is going
Speaker 1: to be driven by many things up and down, you
Speaker 1: need much more real time analytcs that supply chain can
Speaker 1: deal with UM and all of that digital transformation and
Speaker 1: digital technologies are going to allow us to do that.
Speaker 1: That's got accelerated. All of that should be good because
Speaker 1: in the end the consumer and businesses get benefit of
Speaker 1: that much better experience, much better value. So so you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully that comes out as the hybrid is the way
Speaker 1: some people refer to it, which is a combination of
Speaker 1: everything that we used to do before, but everything that
Speaker 1: we've learned now, can we mix and match that, create
Speaker 1: more flexibility and work, create much more online and offline.
Speaker 1: No one is going to have only offline anymore. Everyone
Speaker 1: is going to have an online channel. So so Tiger
Speaker 1: for you as a CEO, I would imagine not knowing
Speaker 1: too much about it, but knowing how most big global
Speaker 1: CEOs operate. You were on the road all the time,
Speaker 1: You're constantly meeting people. You've got a lot of face
Speaker 1: time with a lot of your key folks. How has
Speaker 1: this changed you, How has it changed your leadership? Silent,
Speaker 1: what do you take with you into sort of whatever
Speaker 1: the next normal is going to be? Great question, Jason,
Speaker 1: so I shot by saying, obviously, I haven't traveled at
Speaker 1: all since the first few days of March. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: the longest period ever in my life that I haven't traveled,
Speaker 1: and it's it's fascinating for someone who used to travel
Speaker 1: a hundred fifty days a year. And the first thing
Speaker 1: that crops up is why didn't I think about this earlier?
Speaker 1: Exactly the same point on digital technologies, UM, and the
Speaker 1: realization that when the world comes back to the new normal,
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm going to travel a hundred fifty
Speaker 1: days ago. UM. I think I can get by with
Speaker 1: half of that, maybe maybe one third of that. So
Speaker 1: we're doing many more conversations with clients than ever before,
Speaker 1: not less, but many more, ten times more. All of
Speaker 1: them are virtual, all of them are video and phone,
Speaker 1: et cetera. UM. Obviously we are missing the ability to
Speaker 1: you know, be face to face, go have a dinner,
Speaker 1: go have breakfast, go have lunch. So the way I
Speaker 1: think about the world of the future is I think
Speaker 1: we're going to do many more of these virtual meetings
Speaker 1: than before. I think it's much more productive. However, every
Speaker 1: once in a while we're gonna say, John, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: come and meet you in Chicago. Let's go and have dinner.
Speaker 1: So the separation of I'm going to meet you because
Speaker 1: we're going to do more than just a business conversation.
Speaker 1: So if I want to do a one our business conversation,
Speaker 1: I don't need to fly down to Chicago. Let's do
Speaker 1: a call. I think that's gonna happen. You might say, Jane,
Speaker 1: I'm going to meet you. Just giving you a hard time,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, we really really enjoyed it. We hope
Speaker 1: you'll keep in touch with us because a lot of
Speaker 1: insights there. Tiger Thiagarage and he is the CEO of
Speaker 1: gen Pack, joining us on the phone from New York City,