Work from home for the last 50 days or more has brought in tremendous learning and have made them evolve, both professionally and personally. Like articulating presentations better, says Shailaja Pathania, who works for the Public Policy team. Or making those chappatis perfectly round as in the case of Hasit Mankodi, who is part of the Customer Services team.

“The last few weeks have been challenging, but our seniors and members of the HR teams, have ensured that our spirits remain high and Team Samsung carries on with its mission to transform lives with our innovations, with a bigger resolve than ever,” says Hasit. “There couldn’t have been a better test of work-life balance than these extended days of work from home.”

Hasit Mankodi: There couldn’t be a better test of work-life balance

Hasit says he’s a changed man. One of the biggest life lessons for him is not to take anything for granted–health, relationships, finances, and the importance of continuing to skill oneself.

One recurring image during WFH was kids interrupting video calls! On one of those days, Shailaja’s two-year-old son jumped in on a video call with his milk bottle, refusing to leave. That was the day she realized the value of team spirit.

“My team enjoyed the new team member’s participation. It just put me at ease,” says Shailaja.

Shailaja Pathania: This is a home from where I work, not an office where I live

To manage the long working hours, she had to put down an extensive schedule for every workday, with small breaks thrown in so that she could manage the toddler. “This is a home from where I work, not an office where I live,” she says. This mantra has allowed her to find time for the kid, and also cook two meals a day (dinner is the husband’s domain!)

Amit Bansal is in a different space altogether. As luck had it, he had to take his family to his hometown Indore for personal work just a week before the lockdown began, and he’s been there since then.

“I have definitely been more productive working from home. Co-working fabulously with the team, understanding the lives of team members, and helping each other manage their time better, for work and for home,” says Amit, who has spent eleven years with Samsung, and is currently part of the online team for consumer electronics.

Amit Bansal: You Only Live Once

And in between work, he has been able to reconnect with his kids, thinking up innovative breakfast recipes for them. “I have started believing in the mantra of YOLO – You Only Live Once and I am now taking time out to do things that I missed out on earlier, which includes building up a fitness regime,” says Bansal.

Varun Nailwal, who leads the wearables team is also rekindling some old passions. He’s had a bunch of graphic novels that he’s collected over the years, but in the humdrum of work-life, he hasn’t paid much attention for years now. “It’s a great stressbuster for me, though not the biggest of all.”

Varun Nailwal: Conversations with my daughter work as an energy booster

The biggest stressbuster for him has to be his 3-year-old daughter. “Conversations with her work as an instant energy booster, any time of the day.” With both parents home, and all the chats they are having, his daughter’s communication skills have improved tremendously.

Work From Home also allowed greater co-working between teams, and getting to know the others better. Hasit says he has realised the importance of communication in our lives—professionally and personally. “Be it communicating with the teams over emails and con-calls or the team interacting with our consumers over the digital platforms, there is a new experience.” Adds Amit, “There is a new found respect for each other, and for each other’s time, which is also the reason for being more productive.”

It’s a new normal, but Change is still a constant. And Change is in fact one of Samsung’s core values. GeNext is living it every day!

Raju with his son: Learning something new is key

He’s got classes fixed with his teacher for every Friday, and the weekend, and is already getting the hang of the keys and basic notes (c, d, e, f and g… high and low keys) so far. His teacher isn’t someone far away, peering into his life through the laptop, but his 9-year-old son Austin!

“After a hectic day of con-calls and video calls, this helps me unwind,” says Raju. “Through these days, I am learning to learn, unlearn and learn in the new Un-tact society every day.”

Raju and his team are talking to several partners and in-store promoters from different parts of the country every week to understand and listen to how consumers are behaving, especially where stores have opened. He calls them ‘Samsung Warriors’ on the ground.

So what have we learnt about consumers?

– They want contact-less payments. Big jump in credit card/debit card transactions
– They are coming to stores all researched, spending less time, closing orders quickly
– Smaller town consumers are picking larger TVs (43-55 inch), bigger refrigerators (300 litres and above), higher capacity washing machines, and microwaves.

“Even at my home, the ROI on the microwave has shot up over the last 40-odd days with my wife and daughter churning out cakes and muffins,” says Raju. His humble contribution is the finely cut almonds! So that’s one kind of learning.

The other is ensuring skill development and training of thousands of in-store promoters, hundreds of sales staff and also partners on not just our new products but also the new normal, consumer behaviour, and most importantly how to keep themselves and consumers safe at the store floor by maintaining hygiene and social distancing.

Video Conference with ‘Samsung Warriors’

Many of our in-store promoters are getting calls from consumers with their requirements, and several of them are opting for Samsung’s unique strategy of demo on video, remotely.

“There is going to be a whole new way of working going forward. All of us, our team, partners need to be on the same page on that. We have to take care of both our consumers and partners,” he points out.

Even as retail opens up, to ensure consumers get the Samsung products they want, his team rolled out a unique and the true O2O (online to offline) program. In this, consumers can pre-book Samsung products on its official online store Samsung Shop (https://www.samsung.com/in/offer/online/ce-sale/) and get up to 15% cash back. Booked products will be express delivered from the nearest Samsung Authorised Retailer as lockdown restrictions get lifted in different parts of the country. Of course, following all standard operating procedures.

This has two benefits. Consumers get their products faster, and it also helps Samsung’s retail partners.

Looking at the kind of strong demand, the pre-book offer has been extended till May 17.

Of the orders received since the pre-book offers started at the end of April, 37% orders came for refrigerators as summers are peaking. This was followed by demand for TVs (21%) as consumers are watching more content as a family and Samsung Smart TVs come with Personal Computer mode that aid both Work From Home and classroom studies. Microwaves (17%), ACs (12%) and Washing Machines (11%) followed.

“In every crisis lies big opportunity. That is what I believe,” says Raju, indicating how his team has been able to bring partners together for the O2O program.

To keep stress free, Raju practices the Organ as per the class timings (strictly set by Austin). In addition, a few times, the entire consumer electronics leadership team of Samsung has come together to do Yoga on video call, having discovered a few Yoga gurus in the team!

“I picked up a few breathing exercises that I now do every morning in my balcony, staring into the green in front of me, listening to the birds chirping.”

Three Mantras:

• Be a life-long learner
• Challenge status quo
• Listening is magic

His cooking will definitely get better as the days progress because he’s also signed up for a Masterclass, learning from greats such as Gordon Ramsay, Massimo Bottura.

Manu Sharma: Learning from Gordon Ramsay

“This is a perfect time to learn some new skills. Something that you may have kept on hold for a long time.” That’s his advice to his team as well, which works on ‘Make for India’ innovations at Samsung.

The ‘Make for India’ initiative was started back in 2014-15 to understand the pain points of consumers in India, and then work on that consumer insight to deliver those meaningful solutions in Samsung products through the three R&D centres in India, in Bengaluru, Noida and Delhi.

The result: India Centric innovations that were loved by consumers, making their lives better.

“We have everything in India – manufacturing, R&D, sales, marketing. We thought we can collaborate to understand consumers in India better,” says Manu, who heads the Make for India Task Force that comprises people from all of these areas of business. “Consumer insights and ideas can come from anywhere,” he says.

One of the first ‘Make for India’ innovations was Ultra Data Saving mode (UDS), which gave consumers control over their mobile data usage, helping them save costs. This was at a time when data costs were still very high in India.

When the S-bike mode was launched, Samsung looked at another real-world problem that consumers face, from a safety & convenience point of view.

But consumers in India and their preferences have transformed over the last few years. The fundamental changed is in the amount of data being consumed around entertainment, gaming and social media, as data costs have come down.

In this new era of data, with Gen Z and millennial consumers wanting to instantly share photographs on social networking sites, in came innovations such as Social Camera.

The ‘Chat Over Video’ feature developed by Samsung R&D centres in India helped Gen Z and millennials binging on video content to enjoy an uninterrupted and uncompromised viewing experience while chatting.

Samsung launches all new Galaxy On6 with Infinity Display and Latest ‘Make for India’ Innovation – Chat Over Video

“Today, apart from data, one of the biggest trend is intelligence on devices. A lot of intelligence is being built now on a smartphone…from the camera to voice, and to many other aspects. The important thing is how the smartphone is able to learn from consumers and solve their real problems,” he says.

Last year, Samsung Research Institute in Bengaluru, which is the largest R&D centre for Samsung outside South Korea developed the ‘Scene Optimizer’ for Samsung’s intelligent camera that can automatically detect what’s in frame and adjust accordingly to help you get beautiful photos. It adjusts exposure, contrast, white balance, and more, choosing from 32 modes.

The latest in the line of intelligence related ‘Make for India’ innovations is Alive Intelligence, which debuted with the Galaxy A71 earlier this year.

Based on extensive consumer research in India, the Alive Intelligence features such as Useful Cards, Multilingual Typing, Finder and Smart Crop – have been designed to help Gen Z consumers live a fast and organized life.

Samsung Launches its Most Premium Smartphone in A Series, Announces Galaxy A71

“We are doing a lot of work on building the intelligent capability of smartphones that would allow consumers to minimize their anxiety & help them express in more ways,” says Manu.

But in the current situation, the team came up with a simple innovation that was much required as consumer behaviour was changing. The World Health Organization recommended frequent washing of hands among a slew of other measures to halt the current pandemic. Hand wash is considered effective only when it lasts for full 20 seconds, according to healthcare professionals.

Manu Sharma: Today, apart from data, one of the biggest trend is intelligence on devices

So, a small group of designers and developers from Samsung Research Institute Bengaluru came up with a wearable app for Galaxy Watch that prompts users to clean their hands, a key preventive attribute to stay safe.

Samsung Develops ‘Hand Wash’ App to Keep You Healthy & Safe

Apart from smartphones, the ‘Make for India’ initiative has yielded several innovations around consumer electronics products such as refrigerators, televisions and smart ovens that have been loved by consumers.

Three Mantras

• Body: Critical to stay fit as it provides mental agility and energy
• Mind: Opportunity to reskill and learn new, so sharpen your saw to build great strategies
• Soul: Following one’s passion is great for mind & body

[Next Monday in Rediscover Yourself, we will speak to another Samsung India leader to share his or her experience. And in tomorrow’s Quick Tech, a senior technology writer will tell us about his favourite Samsung innovation and share some interesting tips for #WFH. Stay inspired]