Can Culture Save an Organization?

The last six months have been a rollercoaster ride for us. This pandemic changed everything

and pushed us to sat down to re-think our way of working. In the beginning, we faced a lot of

trouble adjusting to “new normal”. Closing down the office and shifting everything to work from

home was challenging.

ShopKirana is one of the few firms which did not close down its operation for once. We

effectively used our strong supply chain and worked in tandem with public administration &

police department to serve essential commodities to people. While doing so, we realized

ShopKirana has technology and supply chain to help people from other cities also. Hence, we

expanded to Kota and Jabalpur without sending anyone on the ground. This required a huge

shift in mindset.

We are an operation oriented firm. To deliver essential commodities to the general public through

retailers, we inevitably need few employees to ensure logistics and supplies. The security of

employees and customers is the first priority. We fumigated the warehouses then provided masks, kits, glove, and sanitizers. The salaries of people working on the ground increase to 1.5 times. Soon the coordination became easy and we are able to serve the country in the time of need.

ShopKirana has been able to achieve big milestones because of undying belief in our culture.

We as a company fail, fight, and celebrate success together! In normal days, there was almost

daily cake cutting as we either crossed a milestone or it’s a birthday. Now it has shifted to

hangout parties. Once in a month, complete HQ used to walks down to Chhappan to enjoy Poha

and jalebi in breakfast. We shifted our tradition to a “virtual breakfast party”. It gives us an

amazing opportunity to interact with them and their family. There has been constant effort to

bring everyone on the same page. We arrange alternate days sessions ranging from –“how to

punch- in on portal” to “how to file taxes”. The HR team has also allocated 1 hour daily where they call up 6-7 people to just know how they are doing.

We have opened our office again with 10-15 people only. But it doesn’t feel like office without

people. We received a lot of messages that they miss playing music, dancing on the stage,

evening snacking, and our highly competitive video game matches! I am sure that ShopKirana

family will endure this pandemic and come out stronger than before.