Harit Nagpal, managing director and chief executive officer, Tata Play, opened Goafest 2024 with a talk on how one can disrupt, adapt and then thrive. 

Starting on a light note about the shift in venue (from Goa to Mumbai), he stated how he confused Rohit Ohri’s (global partner, FCB and chairperson, of Goafest 2024) call to him about the venue change to Hawaii instead of Powai. 

“That (the venue change) is disruption. We had no choice but to adapt to it and now we’re thriving. Like darr ke aage jeet hai (there’s victory once you conquer your fears), disruption ke aage adapt hai (adapt is next to disruptive),” he said. 

He went on to say that disruption can come from anywhere – God, technology, and government regulations among others, and one has to adapt to thrive.

Nagpal then shared four life examples of how adaption led to thriving businesses.

Going back to the pre-independence days he shared a story about his grandfather.

“He was a commodities trader. He lived somewhere close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.  He went down to Andhra Pradesh and bought tobacco in truckloads and sold it in Rawalpindi to traders,” he said.

Then the disruption came in the form of India and Pakistan separating. 

“Along with his family, he came to Delhi and settled in the camps. They had to adapt and he looked for work to feed the family. He and his friend found a trader who sold sugar for 60 paise per kilogram. He bought several bags of it and sold it at Southern Bazaar for the same price. People were wondering why were they doing this. They did this for three years and this ended up helping them build a house and run its expenses,” he said.

However, the money was not being made from selling sugar, it was from the bags of sugar which is what they sold.

The next incident Nagpal discussed was from 1977, while he was in school and the launch of T-series.

“I was in school. When aunts and uncles travelled from the US, we asked them to get LPs because a shopkeeper in Gulmohar Park would buy them for INR 400 each. My pocket money at that time was INR 25 per month. That man would buy the LP for that price and then convert them into multiple cassette copies. It may have been illegal or promoting piracy, but it was disruptive. Then, gradually he started tying up with record labels,” he said. 

He then cut to 1989, and a funny incident while he was owning and driving a Maruti 800.

“In Chembur, during the monsoons, the roads would get flooded. Two little children would come and push the Fiats and Ambassadors which would stall because of the water. However, that would only give them money on the days it would rain heavily. The mechanics there saw an opportunity to disrupt,” he said before revealing what they did.

“If you parked your car and went for a meeting, when you would come back, your car would run around 100 metres and stall. That’s when a mechanic-looking guy would show up. What he was doing was cutting the plastic tube which was part of the car’s petrol tank which caused the car to stop working. He would repair this in minutes and make INR 50 for the same. He disrupted, adapted and thrived,” he stated.

Nagpal went on to add how the mechanic extended his business by roping in a ‘business partner’ who would pick up a bag/briefcase from the car, while the owner was out seeing the car being repaired. 

He then cut to 2020, and the pandemic and referred to it as the mother of all disruptions.

“There was a common phrase CFOs took us through – BCP (business continuity planning). Through this, one planned for the ‘expected unexpected’. But could anyone have expected this (the pandemic)?,” he asked.

“Planning went through the roof. Each one of us had Microsoft Teams and Zoom before this, but if you gave me money to use it before Covid, I wouldn’t have. But with the pandemic, we adapted and used it. Everything that happened physically converted to digital,” he shared.

He further added that before the pandemic, 23% of Tata Play’s consumers recharged online. This changed to 76% in 2024. 

“People we thought were illiterate are now digital natives. If you had to work in one of our call centres, you had to be stationed in Pune. Now, 80% of our call centres are handled by employees working from home or remotely. They are paid by the hour. Girls who have got married and need to work from home, have the opportunity to. Our offices don’t have fixed rooms. We all sit in open places, wherever we have place. I work from office about a day and a half every week. Covid which was a disaster but it was a disruption and has helped make us work much better,” shared Nagpal.

He went on to reveal that the next big disruption will come faster and will be bigger than previous ones.

“Disruption isn’t new. Inventions have kept happening. We got used to them over time. It didn’t end there. In the recent past – the world wide web, PCs, phones, email and AI are disruptions. We stepped on them and they have made our lives better. Disruption will continue. I don’t know what it’ll be but it’ll come faster than the next one and will be bigger. Covid came 100 years after the Spanish flu. The next one will come sooner and will be bigger,” he added.

He also stated that market leader brands also need to disrupt. If they don’t, others will. 

“The right time to disrupt is when you’re feeling comfortable. If you want to become the number one bank – you have to disrupt the consumer and not what’s happening in the industry. Scared of cannibalising, rarely do market leaders disrupt. Because they’re comfortable. But someone else will kill you if you don’t,” he added. 

“I have worked across six industries in the last 40 years. Each time I changed an industry I was told – this industry is different and what works in other industries doesn’t work here. 

But we sell to the customers. The same guys buy cars, colas, candies and airline tickets. If we look around, nine out of 10 startups are technologies that are in search of customers. They’re not looking at the customer’s benefit and addressing that,” he said.

Nagpal ended his talk by stating how he doesn’t believe Gen Z and millennials are as different as they are portrayed to be.

“They have the same hormones as previous generations and we need to work on them. So don’t look to disrupt by changing the basics. The marketing mix will stay the same. If a Zebra has to disrupt, he doesn’t change his stripes. He stands differently. That’s what needs to be done,” he surmised.