Nagarro companies through an entrepreneurial, agile, and CARING mindset, and delivers on its promise of thinking breakthroughs. The company employs over 8,400 people in 26 countries. It is headquartered in Munich, Germany and has its primary development center in Gurgaon, India.
India CSR interviewed with Manas Fuloria, Co-founder, Managing Director, CEO, Nagarro. Excerpts of an interview:
The ongoing health crisis has got lives at stand still- how as a brand have you addressed the challenges internally within the organization?
I must admit that each day of dealing with Covid-19 was a new and different day. The pandemic came at us fast, like a fast-moving sandstorm transforming quickly from a dark line on the horizon into an envelope of darkness and chaos. The first order of response when the pandemic struck was to keep our work running despite it. In the new world of infections and lockdowns, we had to work from home.
Most employees switched from working in an office to working from home from one day to the next. It helped that Nagarro had already invested in laptop computers for nearly everyone, unlike some other large industry players. An intense operations and logistics effort helped supply machines continually to new joiners and repair or replace defective ones.
Therefore, barring some expats who chose to return to their home countries, the disruption to our engineering bandwidth was almost zero. Yet the disruption to human beings was severe. In the extended Nagarro family, many lives were lost and there was much suffering, loss and grief. Like in the rest of the world, we just picked ourselves up from our personal tragedies and carried on somehow. At the end of the year, the vast majority of our colleagues continue to work from home.
Work from home did not degrade our productivity or client satisfaction – it may even have enhanced them. While we sorely miss our real-world interactions, a majority of colleagues indicate that they would not like to go back to working in the office every day. We keep all options open – this is indeed a new world to navigate. Meanwhile, we have created several informal digital forums and activities to hold on to the company spirit and culture even in this increasingly virtual world.
Any initiative under-taken by the company to help society at large during pandemic?
In various places, Nagarro was able to use its fast software development capabilities to support the government response to the Covid-19 pandemic. When requested, Nagarro also helped consolidate and analyze data related to the management of the pandemic.
In India, during the pain and misery of the first lockdown, we set up a small isolation clinic with the Gurgaon administration, helped organize food packets for vulnerable populations, and arranged transport for stranded migrant workers to return to their homes. We assisted Niti Aayog’s various digital initiatives, including an effort to re-connect workers with jobs, and an effort to route foreign aid efficiently and transparently. Nagarro’s core value is to create futuristic break-through solutions.
Any example you could share which has been a success in addressing social/developmental challenges in India.
Nagarro’s focus has always been on good corporate citizenship. As a part of our sustainability agenda, we work on issues that are not directly connected with our business but have significant social impact. For example, we have worked with the Haryana Government on a road safety initiative called Haryana Vision Zero, inspired by the Swedish concept of Vision Zero. And through our active involvement in and sponsorship of this project, we have saved more than 400 lives. Our trained road safety associates investigated over 1300 crashes and analyzed 3 years of police FIRs. On the basis of these, they reported 488 blackspots across the state to authorities, out of which 185 blackspots have been rectified. In parallel, they audited over 6500 km of road to identify accident-prone areas and worked with the administration to rectify 2400 km.
Brand’s CSR philosophy and the key focus areas to bring a positive change in future?
We like to think that the word CARING is our superpower – it represents our top core value. CARING denotes a humanistic, human-first way of thinking, whether internally, or with our clients, or with society in general. It implies an emphasis on ethics. CARING also serves as an acronym for the other core values: Client centric, Agile, Responsible, Intelligent, Non-hierarchical and Global. We have historically pursued even sustainability aspects with the same entrepreneurial passion that we bring to our business. Exactly as on the business side, on the sustainability side as well, the approach has been to provide a supporting framework for entrepreneurially minded Nagarrians to impact the topics they are most interested in.
What is the scope for technological solutions in addressing roadblocks to development and growth?
Technological solutions can indeed streamline development and growth processes, that is, they can make them faster, more collaborative, and more efficient. They can also improve transparency and reduce corruption. At the same time, technological solutions operate in a larger context, which may be social, or political, or inter-institutional, or a mix of these. While the process of designing a technology solution can certainly be used to strip away, one by one, the excuses for lethargy or lack of collaboration, technology is not a panacea. Each technology solution is ultimately dependent on social, political and inter-institutional alignment for its success.
What will be your CSR focus for FY2021?
Our CSR focus is rather entrepreneurial and agile, much as our company is. Covid-19 has of course taken prime place in the early part of the year. We have had to care for each other – helping organize oxygen, beds, medicine and vaccinations. We have also donated some equipment to the local administration and to charities.
Another big project for 2021 is the creation of a model pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly street in Gurugram. This project, called the Anath Road project, is being done jointly with the Gurugram Municipal Development Authority and a major car company. We would like to create a street that every other part of Gurugram wishes to emulate.
Beyond this, we wish to embark on a more quantitative approach to ESG topics, especially important since we are now a listed company. We will likely start with our energy consumption across the world. We are trying to figure out what that even means in a context where most of us are working from home! But we will figure it out, as we always have.
