Prepping for a new venture, cooking and playing the piano: Sudeep Singh’s cheatsheet to a productive lockdown

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted businesses across the board. Many businesses have temporarily shut shop and lakhs of people all over the world have been forced to work from home. But Sudeep Singh, former GoWork CEO, says the challenges businesses are currently dealing with may be only half the picture.

“I feel the challenges that we are dealing with right now are only partial in nature as we will be able to truly assess the impact on business once normalcy begins to restore. The gravity of the Covid shutdown will be fully visible then and like everyone else, I am concerned about firefighting that,” he told ET Panache.

For Singh, the lockdown (while not ideal) comes at an opportune time. The former GoWork CEO stepped down as chief executive on 31st March and used this time to prepare for his next venture.


“I am currently working on my next venture which is already at an advanced stage of execution and will be announced very soon. So in that sense, though the lockdown has slowed things down a bit, it has not had so much impact on the business, since the project is yet to go on the floors officially.”

Plan, Plan, Plan

One leadership lesson the pandemic has taught him - maintain healthy cash flows and don’t just chase valuations.

“I believe that the times of crisis require more strategic investment than the other times. So I am currently in the process of re-strategizing the allocation of funds, recruitment plans, infrastructure and logistics for my upcoming venture, in order to utilize resources optimally and mitigate the potential impact of Covid-19. My focus right now is on building a solid contingency plan that could help us take off smoothly in the initial months.”

A Welcome Break

The lockdown hasn’t been all strategy and preparation for Singh.

“It (the lockdown) has also coincided, in a way, with the long-overdue break I meant to take between the two ventures to spend some quality time with my family. Except that I would have liked to plan a mini-vacation during this break.”

Since a vacation right now is out of the question, Singh spends his day strategizing for his new venture, hanging out with his four-year-old daughter, exercising, learning to play the piano and cooking.

“I find cooking very enjoyable actually, and my family relishes my preparations too. I recently made meatloaf with mashed potatoes and grilled veggies and it was a very satisfactory meal because it was self-cooked.”

One thing that he is looking forward to once the lockdown lifts - golf. “I cannot wait to play a good game of golf and catch up with my golf circuit.”