Crisis Management – Mr. Atul Juvle, Schindler India Pvt. Ltd.

The Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur had the honor of hosting Mr. Atul Juvle, General Counsel, Compliance Officer & Company Secretary - India & South Asia at Schindler India Pvt. Ltd. for a talk as part of “Vaarta” -the institute's flagship industry expert guest lecture series, on 17 October 2019. An alumnus of JBIMS, Mumbai and a Fellow Member of ISCI – Company Secretaries of India, Mr. Juvle has over three decades of industry experience. Drawing from his vast insights gained over the years, he delivered an interesting session with a two-fold structure – the former revolved around efficient crisis management techniques while the latter focused on future industry expectations.

Introducing the first topic, Mr. Juvle spoke about what constitutes a crisis in a business setting, the necessary organization framework required to deal with a crisis, the impact a crisis could have on the business, the appropriate procedures to be followed should a crisis occur, ways to mitigate a crisis and prevent further escalation, and the importance of establishing official channels for communication. Citing examples of crisis handling in various real-life examples, he illustrated the do’s a don’ts in a crisis. Highlighting the importance of communication in managing a crisis, Mr. Juvle told us about the seven basic principles of communication to be followed during crisis management and charted out appropriate courses of action for different time intervals to effectively respond to a crisis. Maintaining that action taken during the first twenty-four hours of any situation could have a lasting impact, he cautioned to be wary of providing unsolicited information and speculating while asserting that it was imperative to have a single source of truth and monitor the situation closely for the next seventy-two hours to avoid the spread of misinformation.

Moving on to the next part of the session, Mr. Juvle spoke about the need to constantly keep oneself abreast of the latest developments in one’s area of expertise. He discussed how qualities sought for during employment have gradually changed over the years while pointing out certain traits that remain relevant today. Emphasizing on the need to be business enables, he focused on the need to grab every opportunity at learning to stay ahead in the corporate race.

The session was followed by a Q&A round during which Mr. Juvle answered questions ranging from whistleblower policy and international regulations on confidentiality to redressal mechanisms in the corporate world.

Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur would like to thank Mr. Juvle for taking time from his busy schedule to interact with the students and engage them with his valuable insights.