THOUGHTS

Coronavirus Outbreak: Strategies for CEOs to Navigate the Covid-19 Crisis

Apr 3, 2020

In just a small span of time, the coronavirus outbreak has had a major impact worldwide. While some organizations have managed to find ways to maintain productivity, others are still struggling to ensure business continuity. With the fast-changing global situation resulting from the coronavirus outbreak, market activities are disrupted on many levels. Today, consumers are compelled to use online services to fulfill their daily needs, putting many industries under pressure.

Also, the government initiatives such as ‘lockdown’ and ‘social distancing’ have taken a direct hit on the transportation and travel industry comprising of hotels, tourist spots, and resorts. Besides, as the cases of infected individuals surge rapidly, business leaders are under great pressure. This compels them to assess the potential risks and act with a rapid response solution. To help save your business from the ongoing crisis, our market research experts have outlined critical strategies that business leaders must consider to navigate through the covid-19 crisis.

Strategies for Business Continuity Planning During COVID-19

Secure liquidity

During this crisis, a major challenge for small and medium-sized businesses is access to capital. As revenues take a hit during this period, organizations will need to keep running business operations at lower costs. This majorly applies to small and medium-sized companies where overhead costs like rent, utilities, and payroll leave very little liquid cash to business leaders. To combat this challenge and keep the business running smoothly in the long run, business leaders will need to look for new ways to provide immediate liquidity. This is where proposals such as ‘Small Business Workforce Stabilization Fund’ can be taken into consideration. This proposal will help small businesses impacted by the covid-19 to avail financial assistance and keep business solvent. Besides, business leaders must focus into developing incident management and scenario plans that are specific to the crisis, communicate effectively to stakeholders, and plan on how to meet government priorities without compromising the safety of the workforce.

In response to the coronavirus outbreak, some businesses are developing contingency plans, while others are adopting strategic initiatives. Is your organization prepared to combat the covid-19 pandemic challenges? If not, RFP here, and our experts will help you build rapid response plans.

Manage workforce

These days, talent management is the biggest risk business leaders are talking about. Lack of workforce can put high pressure on business leaders to ensure smooth delivery. This subsequently can result in greater delays, errors, and ultimately customer dissatisfaction. Besides, as people are less willing to move outside their home cities, filling existing vacancies will be tougher for business leaders. As such, business leaders will need to embrace a defensive talent strategy, which focuses on identifying and retaining key contributors. Besides, assessing remote work strategy and attending to immediate global mobility concerns, such as HR policies and first-aid plans can help businesses to efficiently manage the workforce and subsequently maintain productivity.

Ensure supply continuity

As China is the mass exporter of merchandise to countries across the world, the coronavirus outbreak in China has affected almost every industry, including pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, automotive, and consumer electronics. Although the ripple effects of the coronavirus outbreak are difficult to assess, business leaders can take steps to mitigate risks and prevent potential supply chain disruptions. Establishing an alternative supply base can reduce dependency on one specific region. Also, recent studies show that organizations that solely depended on China for parts and raw materials were drastically hit. Even the company’s whose suppliers depended on China for raw materials were hugely affected by the coronavirus outbreak. As such, it’s high time for businesses to avoid reliance on single-source suppliers for raw materials and other requirements.

To ensure supply chain continuity, supply chain leaders must also constantly monitor Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers. Suppliers’ production, warehousing, and distribution sites must be monitored and supply chain leaders must make sure that their Tier 1 suppliers have undertaken robust risk management programs.

Are you scrambling to manage the impact caused by the coronavirus outbreak? If yes, our experts can help you to optimize business agility and reduce costs in the face of business uncertainties. For a FREE consultation, contact us here.

Infiniti Research, organizations must follow a five-phased approach for building organizational resilience and ensuring ongoing operations.

#1 Defining the business model

Owing to the coronavirus outbreak, business leaders must initially focus on their core customers to ensure the continuity of operations.

#2 Identifying uncertainties caused by coronavirus outbreak

By leveraging SWOT analysis, business leaders can identify uncertainties from the coronavirus outbreak. Besides, information technologies (IT’s) potential uncertainties can also be taken into consideration.

#3 Assessing the coronavirus impact

The third phase involves assessing and categorizing uncertainties based on their severity for the business.

#4 Designing changes

This phase involves developing tentative strategies for executing changes. This phase also involves identifying and leveraging digital technologies and capabilities to facilitate business operations.

#5 Executing changes

In the last phase, business leaders must apply an agile approach to executing the initiatives. Besides, agility, speed, and quality are the key to enabling the continuity of operations.

Want to know how the coronavirus outbreak will impact your business? Request more info and our experts will help you gather data-driven insights and plan your next move to minimize the business impact of the pandemic.

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