Ismarketboomforreal? Willknowinaquarter: KMBirla

There is an open question over how much 'froth' is there in the euphoria seen in the financial markets and it will need another quarter or so to confirm that this booming trajectory is here to last, according to Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla.

Reflecting on the year gone by, he said the coronavirus pandemic has brought devastation and asked people and companies not to "ignore the comorbidities -- whether in life or business", while asking them to build reserves of knowledge, ideas, collaboration and goodwill to emerge stronger from crisis.

He also presented a contrarian view to the notion that work from home will be the 'mega trend' of the decade saying office is not just a place where people come to work but is a melting pot-of people, ideas, and conversations.

Terming volatility as a 'froth', Birla said it along with uncertainty have been an underlying phenomenon for almost two decades now and financial variables have become even more volatile in these unusual times.

Stating that after the outbreak there were prophets of doom predicting irreversible shifts in consumer demand and the evisceration of sectors but there has been recovery across sectors.

In India too, he said the the initial prognosis and narrative of experts proved to be excessively pessimistic but the country has witnessed strong recovery across manufacturing sectors, cement to paints, and automotive to aluminium.

"However, how much froth there is in the euphoric financial markets is still an open question. Perhaps, we still need another quarter or so to confirm that this booming trajectory is here to last. The economists, I am told, are now searching for alphabets that will adequately describe this trend of cautious optimism," he said.

"Quite notably, COVID-19 was more crippling for people with comorbidities. The analogy can partly be extended to businesses. Partly applicable, since comorbidities make businesses less able to withstand shocks like the financial crisis of 2008," he added.

However, businesses are also bit different in that unlike human conditions which often are beyond control, there is no genetic predisposition towards comorbidities for businesses.