• 11 comments
COVID-19 Image

COVID-19 has been labeled a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Countries across the world are now struggling to contain its threat.

While it first surfaced in China at the end of 2019, the coronavirus outbreak has spread globally with thousands of cases being reported over numerous countries. The epidemic seems to affect countries at different rates but has a generalized negative impact on the global economy. The damage caused is reflected in the decline in international trade and in the stock market turbulence.

In these unprecedented circumstances emerges an urgent need for each business to immediately adapt to this new era. At present, the primary focus of businesses should be on taking measures to protect their human capital. Companies ought to find viable and innovative solutions in order to continue operating with minimum losses and organize effectively their daily routine in a limited physical interaction setting.

For this reason, a great number of organizations have already put into action new practices, such as offering their employees the freedom of working remotely, attending virtual trainings, and cooperating through online collaboration tools.

Cyrus

Source: U.S. Department of State

How could companies adapt in order to come out unscathed from the COVID-19 era? Will they try to create new business models to overcome these obstacles? Do you think that this situation could be the beginning of a new way of thinking, acting and working?

Share your views in the comment section below.


Comments

Anonymous Tue, 03/24/2020 - 12:01

I think it may be impossible for many businesses to survive the strain, they cannot adapt quickly enough if the haven't adapted new processes or tools already...

Anonymous Tue, 03/24/2020 - 04:36

I think we overexaggerate.. OK it definately affects the world of business but it doesn't mean that we are dealing with a new era.... It is way too much!!

Anonymous Tue, 03/24/2020 - 04:41

In reply to by Anonymous

Exaggerate?? Have you seen the stock markets? Do you know that a great number of businesses that are now closed due to coronavirous won't open again? Unfortunately, we're dealing with a new era that is much darker than what most people think of..

Anonymous Thu, 03/26/2020 - 04:45

In reply to by Anonymous

The main problem is that this outbreak (from a market perspective) has unquantifiable effects, as opposed to the 2008 financial crisis, therefore no one can really know what the actual economic impact might be and what policy measures should be taken.
That being said, I think that the markets are already ahead of themselves (as always) and, with current data in mind, oversold. After all, the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which affected about 30% of world population and caused the death of as many as 50 million people, led to a global recession that only lasted 7 months (according to a study by Deutsche Bank).

Anonymous Wed, 03/25/2020 - 04:51

costas Kappos
Certainly this is a major event which is going to change several functions of our lives. The repercussions for many businesses is going to be unprecedented. A lot of small businesses will not be in a position to sustain the effects after this situation surpassed.

For the past few years there has been a lot of talk about the digital era, I4 and the need for businesses and society in general in moving aggressively towards the digital transformation era. Before covid-19 makes its presence, people believed that all these things are happening at a fast pace, but we had the impression that businesses had the time to adopt to the new requirements imposed by technology. However due to the virus situation we're facing today, the demand for this digital transformation to take place now is going to rise exponentially. The time allowed for people and businesses to adopt to the new environments would be nearly zero.
For one thing we can be certain. All businesses that have an innovation mentality, that are making serious attempts at creating an Innovation culture and adopt start-up mentality not only will survive but they will thrive.

Anonymous Fri, 03/27/2020 - 04:53

I think it is very hard to answer that COVID19 pandemic will drive for a new era in business, as it is completed unpredictable situation, with huge but different impacts on different countries, cultures and etc. Specially, to big companies, to move for new business model in a short time is complex. However, that could be an opportunity to try or test in hard condition things that are already in place but not in a long scale in companies. eg.: ecommerce, product deliveries for companies that is not used it in a regular base, omnichannel. After that crises, some practices will be wider like home-office (it is big test now!) will be definitely expand even in some activities that was not considered before, non-presential conference, distance education, managing by distance even in manufacturing area and others. And digital tools will be key for that to speed up data collection and treatment, responses and management support. Innovative companies will get some current experience to set up changes or to consolidate process.
Anyway, the best now is that this crazy situation should be got over sooner for people health and economy health as well, otherwise the impact in poor people, small business, governor’s and companies investment power will be hard and long.

Anonymous Mon, 03/30/2020 - 04:56

As in every crisis, there are some silver linings; VP for Microsoft 365, Jared Spataro, reported (as of March 29th) a massive 775% increase in use of the company's cloud services in regions that have enforced social distancing or shelter in place orders (that includes the US, India, China, Canada and several European nations) and a significant spike in MS Teams usage, which now counts more than 44 million daily users, generating over 900 million meeting and calling minutes (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/03/29/update-2-…)

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