26 JUNE, 2021: Drawing from her rich experience as a business transformation leader at the Tata Group, Richa Arora led an engaging session for the students of the Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management (EPGP) at IIM Bangalore on the topic ‘Emerging Trends & Opportunities: Going Beneath the Surface,” as part of the EPGP Seminar Series on June 24, 2021.
Richa Arora is Managing Partner & CEO of ESG Stewardship Services, ECube, and was previously President (Foods) at Tata Consumer Products, where she drove the growth strategy and outcomes for Packaged Foods across India. Richa has featured on Business Today’s list of Most Powerful Women 2020. She is a Chevening scholar from the London School of Economics.
During the seminar, Richa delivered insights on four key trends: The underserved 60+ “Silvers” demographic, the strategic importance of sustainability in business models, opportunities arising from rapid digitalization, and the application of technology (such as VR) in unexpected places.
The Silvers
The current generation of 60+ aged Indians (or “Silvers”), is more consumption-oriented and spend more than the previous generations. Currently, only 15% of companies have a cohesive strategy focused on this generation. Richa asserted that the “Silvers” market deserves much more attention and could be a significant driver of growth for responsive businesses in the next decade.
Sustainable Business and ESG
The second trend that Richa spoke about was the importance of pursuing sustainable (ESG) goals to deliver superior long-term business performance. She illustrated how companies, which are leaders in managing ESG risks, have been able to deliver consistently higher net returns than those businesses which did not. A right mix of optimism and activism is driving the growth stories of sustainable businesses, and is something that should not be ignored by companies looking to establish a sustainable growth.
Screen-time blues
With almost all of us spending our waking hours in front of our screens, for both work and education, and the Covid pandemic adding to our screen time, there has been an inevitable negative impact on health. With new chronic health risks arising because of work-from-home digitalization, Richa feels that an entire industry could be created to target “screen time blues”.
Technology in unexpected places
The fourth trend that Richa spoke about was about using AR/VR technology in unexpected places to capture consumer behaviour and influence demand. She gave an example of how a company uses VR headsets to simulate a virtual retail aisle, to create a close-to-realistic shopping experience to test customers’ preference for packaging design.
26 JUNE, 2021: Drawing from her rich experience as a business transformation leader at the Tata Group, Richa Arora led an engaging session for the students of the Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management (EPGP) at IIM Bangalore on the topic ‘Emerging Trends & Opportunities: Going Beneath the Surface,” as part of the EPGP Seminar Series on June 24, 2021.
Richa Arora is Managing Partner & CEO of ESG Stewardship Services, ECube, and was previously President (Foods) at Tata Consumer Products, where she drove the growth strategy and outcomes for Packaged Foods across India. Richa has featured on Business Today’s list of Most Powerful Women 2020. She is a Chevening scholar from the London School of Economics.
During the seminar, Richa delivered insights on four key trends: The underserved 60+ “Silvers” demographic, the strategic importance of sustainability in business models, opportunities arising from rapid digitalization, and the application of technology (such as VR) in unexpected places.
The Silvers
The current generation of 60+ aged Indians (or “Silvers”), is more consumption-oriented and spend more than the previous generations. Currently, only 15% of companies have a cohesive strategy focused on this generation. Richa asserted that the “Silvers” market deserves much more attention and could be a significant driver of growth for responsive businesses in the next decade.
Sustainable Business and ESG
The second trend that Richa spoke about was the importance of pursuing sustainable (ESG) goals to deliver superior long-term business performance. She illustrated how companies, which are leaders in managing ESG risks, have been able to deliver consistently higher net returns than those businesses which did not. A right mix of optimism and activism is driving the growth stories of sustainable businesses, and is something that should not be ignored by companies looking to establish a sustainable growth.
Screen-time blues
With almost all of us spending our waking hours in front of our screens, for both work and education, and the Covid pandemic adding to our screen time, there has been an inevitable negative impact on health. With new chronic health risks arising because of work-from-home digitalization, Richa feels that an entire industry could be created to target “screen time blues”.
Technology in unexpected places
The fourth trend that Richa spoke about was about using AR/VR technology in unexpected places to capture consumer behaviour and influence demand. She gave an example of how a company uses VR headsets to simulate a virtual retail aisle, to create a close-to-realistic shopping experience to test customers’ preference for packaging design.