AGMs to go virtual in future, says India Inc.

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 6 (ANI/NewsVoir): The year 2020 saw a meteoric rise in the adoption of digital technologies across all business functions including stakeholder engagement.
As the hybrid workplace becomes a reality, India Inc. feels it is essential to embrace virtual as a virtue to fortify trust and deepen engagement with stakeholders.
Bringing together the pioneers of stakeholder engagement, Chorus Call India, a leading conferencing solutions provider, organized a first-of-its-kind virtual symposium to delve into the nuances of shareholder management in the virtual world. The event saw participation from industry stalwarts such as Suresh Narayanan, Chairman and MD at Nestle India Ltd., Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Aarin Capital and Manipal Global Education and a Padma Shree awardee, JN Gupta, Co-founder and MD, SES and former Executive Director, SEBI, Murli Subramaniam, General Counsel & Company Secretary at Nestle India Ltd., Kabir Ahmed Shakir, Global CFO, Tata Communications Ltd., Sandeep Batra, CFO, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd. and Shweta Arora, Head - Investor Relations at Hindustan Zinc Ltd.
Focusing on the vitality of good governance and its impact on stakeholder value, JN Gupta underscored how organizations should go above and beyond the specified laws to achieve good governance and create long-term value through sustained engagement with stakeholders. His address was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Mohandas Pai. Hailing India Inc. for demonstrating good governance amidst such crisis, he went ahead to pose questions on the impact of the pandemic on shareholder engagement. Citing respective experiences, the panelists threw light on how virtual AGMs resulted in higher shareholder participation and engagement and how they are looking to shift from week-long roadshows to virtual platforms. Elucidating on the benefits of technological solutions such as those offered by Chorus Call, organizations such as Nestle India Ltd., Tata Communications Ltd., Crompton Greaves Electrical Ltd. and Hindustan Zinc Ltd. successfully navigated challenges around two-way communication or around voting.
In his keynote address, Suresh Narayanan emphasised on the importance of corporate compassion over corporate ruthlessness. Articulating the five Cs that constitute stakeholder management - Context and purpose, Calibrating performance matrices, Culture of trust, transparency and timeliness, Continuity of the business model and Competitive advantage in managing shareholder expectations, he stressed upon the vitality of the message, irrespective of the medium as that is key to stakeholder engagement.
Host and convener of the session, Jerry Bindra, MD, Chorus Call India said, "We all knew that video will be the next big thing in the collaboration solution industry and over the course of the last one year we have become more comfortable with video conferencing calls for businesses. As the hybrid workplace becomes a reality, one of the key priorities for leaders today is how to keep stakeholders engaged. Constant engagement through virtual meetings, whether it is AGMs, quarterly earnings calls, CEO town halls has become increasingly crucial for organizations. At Chorus Call, we have been tracking this shift and are curating and managing large scale virtual corporate meetings that truly matter. We have delivered over 4,000 virtual meetings over the course of the last year, working towards creating a more permanent solution that fits the hybrid world."
The session was organized to guide custodians of stakeholder management on how they can elevate shareholder engagement at a time when the AGM season is picking pace. The event saw participation from over 200 CFOs, company secretaries and investor relations and compliance professionals. The learnings and experiences of the industry leaders brought a multi-dimensional perspective on how virtual can be embraced to enhance shareholder engagement. The message underscoring the purpose and intent, delivered timely, accurately, and consistently on the right virtual platform is imperative to bring a near in-person experience in this era of hybrid workplaces.
Although the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has now allowed AGMs to be conducted through VC on or before December 31, 2021, it has in the latest circular made it clear there is no blanket extension this time round for companies, especially for those that had to conduct AGMs by December 31, 2020. As per industry reports, virtual AGMs have seen better turnouts with practically no technical glitches and no interruptions from combative shareholders, giving the comfort to CXOs to move their engagements online.
The conference recording can be viewed at (https://ccwebcast.com/virtue)
Chorus Call is a global teleconferencing service provider with over five decades of international experience. The company is uniquely positioned by virtue of being the only conferencing services company in the world which is also a market leader in the design and manufacturing of audioconferencing equipment, through the brand name Compunetix (https://compunetix.com).
Chorus Call has been successfully operating in India as a leading service provider and is well recognized for their high quality standards and superior customer service. What differentiates Chorus Call from the other collaboration platforms is that they combine technology with active managed support by a team of experts to ensure that every virtual event is delivered exactly as planned.
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