Every company should start a business-continuity plan in the epidemic of Kovid-2019

Kovid-caused uncertainty: The Kovid-12 epidemic has raised the question of survival for millions of micro and small businesses. It has created havoc for travel, tourism, restaurants, hotels, film industry, small food stalls etc. The epidemic, which began in China in January 2020, has spread to more than 200 countries around the world.

In the fiscal year 2020-2021, India's GDP is projected to be negative at 5.5 per cent. This has never happened. If the epidemic continues until December, the effects will be even worse than the worldwide depression of the 19th century. In the economic sphere, it has created great uncertainty. Business managers have the ability to deal with 'calculated risks'. But the skills of the business world to fight against uncertainties that are quite random, the probability of which cannot be known, are very low. How many times will the current epidemic last, will it increase or decrease, will it return once it is over, when will the effective vaccine be opened. We cannot say for sure whether the vaccine launched by Russia will be effective or not. Because of this the business world has to do daily or weekly planning.

Long term planning is not possible in the business world. How do factories know how much to buy raw materials or parts or intermiza air goods? How to restructure the delivery system if there is a long-term lockdown again? Suppliers who have been supplying goods or parts for years have to be told by the factory owners to 'wait and watch' and not send the goods now.

Pharmaceutical companies are thriving in this crisis. Moreover, India's agriculture is currently performing very well (four per cent growth rate). The condition of villages all over the world is better in this age of coronavirus compared to cities. If this epidemic continues, the movement of 'Go Back to Villages and Go Back to Nature' will start in the world. According to the 2011 census in India, 4% of the population lives in cities. The epidemic is city-centric and it likes population density very much. Many new industries will be set up in the villages. These Gandhians do not like this.

Management Questions: The big question of every type of management right now is continuity. This is why every business owner and their managers are told to be patient. In English, the word 'resilience' is better than patience. Resilience means cultivating the mental and financial resilience to return to the original state.

But if the fixed cost of the business is high, the workers and employees have to be paid from home, electricity, gas, water, security, office rent etc. have to be paid and the sales are zero, how long will the business owner be patient? For many businesses, the moratorium (deferment of interest or loan installments) offered by banks is not relaxed without cultivating resilience at a time when it has expired.

This crisis is even worse than the wartime crisis because the factories that were away from the battlefield during the war are still throbbing. During the war the employment rate is almost 100 percent and due to overtime it often reaches more than 100 percent. This epidemic has hit mankind twice. Millions have been killed and millions have been created.

Contingent benefits: One of the indirect benefits of this epidemic is that it has forced companies to go online. Has forced workers or managers to work digitally and has also to some extent made its own distribution system online. In addition, some employees have been forced to do 'work from home' for which they have developed new skills. Although large companies have had to cut production and sales, the epidemic has trained the big companies to 'downsize'. Many companies, large and small, have begun to cut costs. Another good thing is the performance of companies. For the first time, many companies have formed cross-functional teams to solve their perplexing questions. E.g. Taking care of the health of their employees and keeping in touch with them in this matter was an unfamiliar task for companies. Now, even for day-to-day and routine work, the company has to know whether the workers, employees or managers who work there are infected with coronavirus, right? Perhaps this has led to an increase in the work and duties of the company's human resource department.

Review Committee: Companies will have to form a 'Review Committee' of their chief managers at the end of the day and arrange a meeting on that day. Action will have to be taken to discuss the 'critical incidents' that have taken place in offices and factories during the day. The company will have to carry out day-to-day monitoring related to Kovid. No one knows who will be infected with coronavirus, at what time, or how seriously. The patient does not even know. Thus, anyone who is infected during the job and sees the primary signs of the disease must be isolated, but also all those who come in contact with the patient must be isolated.

This should not be delayed at all and should be reported to the top management almost immediately. Even if this is 'common sense', it does not happen in many industries.

Stakeholder Care: The head of a company that has employee-worker unions is required to work closely with the employees' union. The company's contractors, dealers and vendors are also considered important stakeholders of the company. Needless to say, the company has to make arrangements to stay in constant touch with them. In addition, the responsibility of the company which has canteen for the employees (in terms of hygiene and social distance) is greatly increased. It is possible that the workforce has downtime (free time) during this coronavirus epidemic.

In the meantime, the company's HRD department will have to make arrangements for 'upskilling' or 'rescilling' of the employees to create opportunities for the employees to get promotions. Rules such as how many hours to work, how many recesses to take, when to come or go, etc. cannot go unchallenged. This is because an employee or manager may not be able to get a job even if he or she has not been exposed to the coronavirus but a close family member or a close relative. This is common sense but it can affect the work of the company.

The Corona virus seems to be changing the way we work. Companies will automate or robotize the work. Because robots do not infect employees. And now many employees have to acquire knowledge of digital technology.