According to the insights from PwC’s latest Global CEO Survey launched at Davos, while executives may be less focused on short-term issues like inflation and economic growth for 2024, there is a growing consensus on the longer-term threats posed by climate change and artificial intelligence (AI).
So it comes as no surprise when one of the country’s youngest and biggest food delivery companies, Zomato has up to 40% of its delivery fleet as electric vehicles (EVs). Among many other initiatives and growing focus towards sustainability, the platform’s users today can opt out of plastic cutlery while ordering food.
“Zomato is trying to be as sustainable as possible, and nobody (shareholders/investors) has to tell it these things. The next-gen is actually a lot more conscious of the need to be sustainable than perhaps my generation,” said Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Co-founder & Executive Vice Chairman, the largest shareholder of Zomato.
Speaking at the Storyboard18 and Network18 Group’s Power of Purpose: Sustainability Edition on October 18, Bikhchandani delved deeper into the discussion on sustainability.
“The agenda very often at home is driven by children in terms of what at has to be consumed or what is not to be consumed. Today my children (below the age of 30) talk a different language about sustainability with their friends – down to the fact that ‘I don’t really want to own a car, I’m happy to opt for an Uber and travel in metro,’ while there’s a car in the driveway,” he shared.
According to him, the next generation is much more committed to sustainability and it’s not just for profit.
Apart from the younger generation and business leaders, the role of government is huge to drive sustainability.
During the fireside chat with Storyboard18’s Delshad Irani, Bikhchandani highlighted that awareness around EVs would not have been possible in India without the government taking an active role.
“In a country where more than 70% of our power source is thermal, if you want to shift it to a greener and more sustainable mode, it won’t be possible without government policies. Other than providing subsidies and taxation policies, it’s also about building awareness— the government has a huge role there.”
The InfoEdge Co-founder also spoke about the growing career opportunities in the sustainability sector. Additionally, he discussed how awareness around sustainability is often led by government, next-gen employees, investors, and shareholders.
“Until about five or seven years ago, sustainability was not a discussion for us at InfoEdge. I remember one of our investors once highlighted to us that our ESG (environmental, social, and governance) score stands at A-minus. Since then, we straightaway moved to supplement some of the energy sources with solar, replacing some of the transportation with EVs, and encouraging the use of public transport,” he shared.
“Investing in EV companies, but don’t own an EV”
Sharing his personal experience on the usage of electric vehicles or driving sustainability, Bikhchandani pointed out that he is considering buying an EV in the next few years.
“One can use the car for ten years before you replace it; so my car (at present) is seven years old and it is a hybrid car. The hybrid also is encouraged by the government- they can run all days of the week (despite the odd/even rule). So, while I don’t own an EV, it’s an active consideration to purchase one in the next three years,” he shared.
“But it is not clear to me that a fully electric car right now is very stable… I have three years, I’ll wait and watch,” he remarked.
His statement holds significance because of investments in battery-tech companies, EV finance companies, and EV companies like Matter, which is an Ahmedabad-based electric two-wheeler start-up.
“At least eight to 10 companies that we have invested in are directly in the sustainability space,” he said.
“Used AI to write an article on start-up ecosystem and I liked it”
Further steering the conversation around how AI has impacted businesses, Bikhchandani said that AI will go everywhere— it’s about adding AI to your current business to improve customer experience, and to improve productivity.
InfoEdge began to invest in data science analytics in 2018 and now is investing in machine learning, predictive AI, and Gen-AI. In the last two years, it has launched 22 different features in Naukri alone using AI, which are making the site work better, which are improving user experience both for recruiters and for job seekers.
“Some of the start-ups in the AI space may cause job losses; there are start-ups where the telephonic sales process (inbound/outbound) is done by AI, so this may eventually end up replacing human beings. But that is something we have to understand and be willing to live with and perhaps make efforts to mitigate those job losses somehow.
But there will be other aspects where the AI will create jobs. In the long run, AI should create more jobs than the losses and job losses that are caused— although there will be a process of transition,” he pointed out.
Sharing his personal experience, Bikhchandani said that he once used AI to pen down an article on his behalf, which turned out to be error-free and to his likeability.
“Once one of my friends connected around 55 of my panel interviews, podcasts, and videos to an AI platform —which ingested all of the data to then answer questions on my behalf. So, when another friend of mine recently asked me to pen an article for him on ‘the role of start-ups going forward in the Indian economy’, I went ahead and asked that AI platform to share some thoughts…and it gave me a 1000-word article, which I didn’t have to edit it and did a pretty good job,” he shared.
Towards the end of the chat, Bikhchandani emphasised the need for business leaders to be in touch with employees and users.
The conversation stemmed from the recent incident where Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal went undercover as a delivery agent for a day to experience the challenges faced by delivery workers.
“In the past, I’ve also spoken to job seekers. It is important that the senior leadership of any company is in touch with the frontline employees, is in touch with consumers and users,” he concluded.