Explore the clouds with a silver lining: Rai advises LMA Members To address concerns around the economic slowdown

Ludhiana: Though the extent and impact of Economic Slowdown may be contested by the economists, the government or the businesses, the downturn is real and poses a big challenge to the survival and growth of businesses. To address these concerns around the economic slowdown Ludhiana Management Association-LMA organized a Seminar on “Opportunities in Economic Turbulence” on December 23 evening. President Kamal Wadhera emphasized “The question confronting Businesses during Economic Slowdown was should businesses resign to the challenge and hedge their risks or identify opportunities that do exist, but are not evident at the first instance.”
Mr.Sumit Rai, Managing Director & CEO, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance India’s one of India’s leading Life Insurance Players,  the resource person for this session maintained that though the slowdown was real and painful, it presented businesses with opportunities, that are normally not available during the times of rapid economic growth. An agile and proactive organization, is able to identify opportunities and leverage on them for increasing its  market share, size and presence. 
Rai also shared his optimism about the growth possibilities in Indian economy by asserting that our demographic profile would ensure high economic growth due to the enormous consumption potential of our society. However, our success would depend primarily on our ability to create adequate number of jobs as a failure to do so, could be too difficult and painful to manage. He submitted that there was no dearth of funds or liquidity to fuel the  businesses growth, as the banks were flush with funds. Rai attributed the slow down to the collapse of  liquidity delivery mechanism by the Banks and the NBFCs due to dubious promoters, profligate investments & extra cautious lending by the intermediaries. The negative news flow had also triggered a reduction in consumption and discretionary spending by consumers, whereby the slowdown may lead to recession. He however asserted that though the data points were indicating a recovery, but the impact would be evident maybe after a few quarters due to the lag effect. 
Rai advised the LMA members to adopt a 5 factor Balanced Strategy leading to competencies that can withstand the challenges of both rapid economic growth and the slowdown. These factors were Boosting the Core Business, Deep Futuristic Thinking, Hunting for Deals, Changing Lanes in Times and Hiring the Best and Most Passionate People. He summed up by saying that while the Opportunities would always be there irrespective of the cycle, it was important for a leader to spot them and leverage these for sustained business growth. 
Dr. Sandip Kapur, Sr. Vice President LMA proposed the Vote of Thanks to Mr. Sumit Rai appreciating his endeavour in connecting the dots between the macro economic situation, business challenges and leveraging of opportunities by successful business to  trigger a paradigm shift in the way in which we perceive and respond to the Economic Slowdown. Mr. Sumit Rai was felicitated by LMA Vice President S.S. Bhogal, Dr. Mrs. Paramjit Kaur, General Secretary, Mr. Harmohinder Singh Pahwa and Past Presidents Mr. J.R.Singhal and Mr. Anil Kumar.