'Think long-term and retain key resources,': Naveen Kukreja, Co-founder & CEO, Paisabazaar

What was the problem you were grappling with?        

In April 2020, the country went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, halting the lending industry and causing our revenues to drop by 90% in a month. We went through an existential crisis, unsure if we would recover and survive. We had to cut costs to stay afloat, which meant losing a lot of our workforce, especially from our sales team. While we retained our core and high-calibre people across verticals, we realised there still existed a gap in terms of what we could afford to pay in terms of salary. Cutting costs further meant losing some key talent.  

Whom did you approach for advice and why?      

I turned to my leadership team for advice. Through the pandemic, this team was the think tank that guided the organisation.     
 
What was the advice you received?   

While survival was the top priority, we agreed to think long-term and retain key resources, especially in critical functions like product and technology. Instead of another round of lay-offs, we decided to cut senior people’s salaries for a couple of quarters starting in May. This was voluntary, yet everyone participated.
    
How effective was it in resolving the problem?    

Retaining our core talent enabled us to start quickly when the industry recovered. It also helped deliver industry-best initiatives like the Digital Stack during Covid-19, which have contributed enormous value and helped us leapfrog in terms of digital capabilities. Today, we are a robust business with strong fundamentals. We are nearly 2.5x of our pre-Covid business volumes and have been profitable for over a year due to our high-quality team’s performance over the last three to four years.