Kinara Capital CEO dresses up for WFH, keeps a demarcated office space, attends multiple video calls to keep up with new normal

Hardika Shah, Founder and CEO, Kinara Capital is used to working on the go with frequent travelling. So, working remotely was an easy transition for her.

She told ET Panache, "From a tech standpoint, the transition was seamless for all of us in the company. With over 100 branches in India and our head office in Bangalore, we were used to a decentralised mode of working. We were already on a cloud-based digital system so when Covid-19 emerged, we were ready to confidently move our entire operations of 1000+ employees to work remotely. Our first priority was to safeguard our customers and our employees so we had switched to Work from Home (WFH) mode even before the first nationwide lockdown was announced."

For Shah, the one thing that has taken some getting used to is being on multiple video calls all day long. "Pre-Covid, we weren’t using video as much because you were bound to meet in person at some point. As all travel is on hold right now, I am managing WFH with creative cooking and some fun hobby projects on Sunday

s," she shared.


Maintaining a routine and changing into work clothes helps mentally demarcate work and personal activities even when the physical space is the same, feels Shah.

"It is very important to maintain that given we were completely homebound for days. Having a separate dedicated workspace is a must since this is the new normal and here to stay for some time. There are others in the house who are also working from home so we all need individual workspaces to be able to focus and be on video calls without interrupting each other," the Kinara Capital boss said.

The challenges of being in a lockdown are similar for Shah to those that many have faced as their daily lives were interrupted.



"We had to change our routines to be online all day long. However, these challenges do not compare to what’s happening on the macro scale because the world economy has taken a hit and many small businesses are struggling," she shared.

It is very important to maintain a routine according to the Bangalore resident. "Every morning, I begin my day by feeding the stray dogs in the neighbourhood. I make breakfast and get dressed as I would have when going to the office. I have kept my food routine the same which was a good forcing function to take care of cooking and cleaning without any outside help," she shared.

The social part of life has also moved online for now but more people across the world are connecting, feels Shah. "I have ended up chatting with people I haven’t seen in years across the US, Australia, parts of Europe, Singapore and Thailand," she said.

Every Saturday, the Kinara Capital CEO has an early morning Zoom call with some of her business school friends in the US. On Sundays, she is usually on a few Zoom calls with different family groups, sometimes they play games like Housie or Antakshari for fun.

"My creative pursuits are stress busters and bring me joy. I love to cook and create my own recipes. I decided that we will not repeat any meals while working from home. My sister tracked them all and we counted over 147 distinct dishes that we cooked in two months. We made a plethora of global dishes from scratch including sushi, gnocchi, falafels, and we also explored new local recipes such as nuchina unde, a Kannada specialty," she shared.

Outside the kitchen, Shah would pick up a new item to create every Sunday. "I indulged in making homemade lavender candles, olive oil soaps, body lotions and pulled out my old sewing machine to stitch colourful masks and now I have a matching one in almost every colour for my different outfits," she elaborated.