It isn’t always that a person attempts to do something for his community and sustains it for over 800 days but Mr Suneel Thakur, working with PERSOLKELLY not just sustained it but has been lauded by the industry for his efforts.
Mr Thakur, a business continuity professional of 16 years, also has the unique honour of being the only Indian shortlisted five times in a row as a business continuity manager of the year at the CIR Magazine’s Continuity Insurance & Risk (CIR) Management Awards in the United Kingdom. Prior to his current assignment, Mr Thakur was the Deputy General Manager – Risk & BCM – VFS Global, New Delhi.
When Covid 19 pandemic struck India with full fury on March 20, 2020, Mr Thakur felt it would be nice if people were to get some authentic information of the infection rates and most affected areas. “I started it as a random exercise by scanning the government websites, websites of the ministry of health and a few other sources, and prepared a full table of data that was authentic and posted it in some professional groups,” he said.
Mr Thakur said that was the time when there was a tremendous amount of fake data floating around the various groups that was causing unnecessary stress in professionals. The multiple whatsapp groups were feeding incorrect information and creating needless panic in the minds of people.
“My attempt was to ensure that people did not fall for the fake data, so started extensive R&D on the data before starting the formal process of posting it. It also involved constant tracking of information from authentic sources. In fact I started the process of collecting and tabulating the data in March itself but started posting it in April 2020 because I did not want to have any non authentic data to be there in my posts” he said.
Mr Thakur said he had assumed that the process would continue for some time, but added that he started to enjoy it so much that he continued well past the first wave and then second wave of pandemic. “After the first 100 days of posting, it occurred to me that it would make sense to analyse the last 100 days. So I analysed and posted the results. A similar exercise was done after 200 days of posting,” he says.
Mr Thakur said it was also essential to analyse the data because that would give rise in understanding the trends and patterns, making it easy to take preventive measures. “I started getting calls on how much the data was helping fellow professionals who had not just started following it but took it as a benchmark to work out plans.
Mr Thakur said after the initial harder work, he used to spend about one and a half hours every day on this exercise but by and by he became so quick in doing it that updating would take just about an hour every day. On being quizzed on why he took such an effort he said this was a non profit service which he felt would help people. “And when I realised that companies were actually benefiting from it, it gave me a sense of satisfaction,” he said, adding that his only gain from his sustained effort was in getting appreciation from not just people he was familiar with but even those he did not know.
SECURITY TODAY lauds Mr Thakur for his efforts in helping the security industry by sharing information that helped in tackling the pandemic.
