Pandemic gives a fillip to C-suite gig economy

What is the vision strategy of COHIRE?

COHIRE is a pioneer in C-suite gig economy. COHIRE was established as a by- product of the pandemic and its spillover to the economy. COHIRE enables startups to easily on-board C- level managers to manage key functions like technology, marketing, sales, product at a divided cost. This model enables them to co-hire experienced, C level professionals quickly on a shared basis yielding significant cost savings and a slew of other benefits.

The vision of COHIRE is – talent is a rare commodity and it should be shared by all hence we continuously endeavour in enabling CXO’s to work for multiple companies like an employee that works on a shared basis.

How are you helping tech startups onboard C level executives? And, for which functions?

COHIRE not only help tech companies but other startups, SMB and large organisations to on board C-level business leaders to drive key functions like marketing, sales, technology, finance, products and many more at a fraction of their CTCs.

We help companies’ onboard professionals with 20+ years of leadership experience, give startups their best chance of succeeding in highly complex, dynamic and disruptive market-places especially during a pandemic. We make this possible, more than ever by making such leaders accessible and affordable.

Can you please share a few success stories, particularly in tech startup space?

One of our clients in technology industry is – ABC, a Bangalore based edtech company, had an impressive track record of polishing the talent of fresh engineers by enhancing their skills and placing them in prestigious IT companies, yet it was unable to fully exploit the opportunities in a growing market.

We deep dived into this problem and in about six months the fortunes of ABC saw a turnaround. We quickly evolved a strategy to enhance its content and communication and make it more target oriented to benefit from the numerous avenues available in the B2B space.

We devised a coherent PR action plan that created an immediate business impact in terms of revenue by greatly boosting the visibility and brand recall value of the company.

Another one of our clients, Flatworld Solutions is an IT outsourcing company in India that has carved a niche for itself in the MEA, USA and Europe. Flatworld is engaged in outsourcing services across a broad spectrum like engineering, BPO, web analytics, legal process, IT, etc. It had mostly depended on word-of –mouth publicity and SEO for its growth like many other companies of the past.

With the advent of digital age, Flatworld realised that it was imperative that they ride the internet bandwagon if they wanted to flourish in this new age. This is when they abolished their reticence and contacted Outsourced CMO (now COHIRE) to help them truly arrive in the age of the internet.

We started by interacting with various teams and managers at Flatworld to gain an insight into their working methods and challenges.

During our interactions, we realised that the company viewed paid digital campaigns as a high-cost, low return strategy and consequently had stayed away. We decided to change this perception and strategised a digital marketing plan that was based on return on investment matrix. We focused our plan on the most probable opportunities and clients types across geographies that could be tapped gainfully. This strategy paid handsome dividends and continues to do so in the present times.

Do you foresee the same trend happening in other industries also, particularly for CIO and CDO roles?

COHIRE is a concept which cuts across all business domains at CXO levels and the way all companies needs to digitalise their businesses or automate their operations there will be more and more demand for CXO level CTO, CIO and CDO.

Hence, we feel that apart from regular hiring of smart and skilled professionals in these domains there will be increased adoption of COHIRE model as well.

How has the Covid crisis given a boost to the gig economy in India?

In its traumatic wake the pandemic is sure to leave behind a trail of economic devastation that may devour businesses of all sizes, particularly smaller companies (startups and MSMEs). To survive this period, more than anything else, businesses would have to cut costs and minimise cash-burns especially in areas like business operations, marketing, finance and technology.

This has led to many companies hire gig workers than permanent employees. In this context it may help startups to adopt paradigm-shifting models designed singularly to help businesses drive key business functions across domains like technology, operations, marketing, sales, and finance, at dramatically lower costs.

In India lot of business have benefited from gig economy but at a blue- collar space but this crisis has created a need for gig economy at white collar space as well to save huge business cost.

Your perspective on new trends in C-suite tech hirings, in the future.

In the last couple of years, the tech hiring has tremendously picked up in India due to increased adoption of technology by local Indian business but the fact that India has been the preferred destination for technology outsourcing across the world

This trend is here to stay for some more time and more so with this crisis many companies are also expected to shift their base to India.

There is a definite increase in the demand for entry and mid- level but at the C-suite tech professionals level as well. The new perspective is that these C-suite professionals will have to manage large and complex teams remotely as against from a physical office. With less of corporate travel expected than before remote tech management / operations will involve all together new skills from the C-suite professionals.

Any other significant factor?

As India embarks on a new journey of economic development in the next decade there are many exciting and new opportunities that will come up now and then.

This will also create a niche need of senior talent across all industries and domains. This talent needs to be easily available but at an affordable cost as well for the businesses to grow and prosper.

New innovative concepts like COHIRE are here to bridge the gap in availability of C level talent and cost, which will play a significant role in the success of any business, apart from being a dominant player in gig CXO economy.