Corona, Chaos and Business Continuity

We are living in an interesting time. Probably the most unique time in everyone’s lifetime. We have recorded case of coronavirus in 188 countries among 195 total countries in the world. At the time of this writing, the total death figure is over 11500 and confirmed cases are more than 270,000 across the globe. The new cases are increasing at a rate of 10% -15% daily. As per current data, regardless of the age group, no one is invulnerable of this virus. Medical staff across the world working tirelessly to help affected people and scientist working round the clock to find the cure of this deadly virus.  

We, humans, are herd animals of the monkey tribe. Our individuality is partial and restless; Always we seek to be ourselves and the herd together, not One against the herd.

-    Anna Louise Strong 

With the outbreak of corona, our herd mentality kicked-in which was stored somewhere in the deepest corner of our mind since our days of the caveman. That created chaos around the world. We are seeing a blind rush to purchase the toilet paper, sanitizer and essential food items. Take any big retail brand in the world they are struggling with stock refilling with this unusual high demand. We are seeing the supply chain is getting a break and that created problems for many businesses. Stock exchanges across the globe are failing, people are losing jobs, international borders are being sealed and panic is everywhere.

To maintain business continuity in this challenging time, we must understand one thing. We are way past those days when the internet used to be luxury. Its necessity now. There would be various business continuity steps for different companies based on the business model but we can classify the generic business continuity steps as below:

1) Identify the unique risk associated with your business and long-term impacts and threats

The first and most important task of any business is to assess what is affected, what can be affected what are long term and short term threats to the business. This data gives a clear idea about the action plan

2) Update your BCP ( Business Continuity Plan ) :

Update BCP as per situation and risk analysis 

3) Communicate with Employees, Partner, Customer and Supplier:

Hysteria is contagious so its absolutely necessary to communicate with all the stakeholders. Organisation also need to make sure that any unwanted rumours will not impact your business and the respective party will receive below information from your authorized source:

• The gravity of the situation
• What functionality/service is impacted?
• What actions/measures you are taking 
• What you are expecting them to do

4)   Create a comprehensive, emergency operations centre.

Its always recommended to start one dedicated, comprehensive emergency operation centre which contains a representative from all the teams and management to tackle any situation.  

5)   Employee Wellbeing:

The health and safety of employees should be the top-most priority for any organization and they should take necessary precautions that include:

• Communicating about the prevention steps
• Advice on Social distancing 
• Work from home 
• Sanitizing the workspace

6)   Supply chain: 

As we have already identified the impacted supply chain organisation need to Communicate with supplier/client to discuss the current situation and possible solution to keep the supply chain intact. 

7)   Monitor:

The organisation needs to keep an eye on the ever-changing situation in this outbreak so it can change its sail direction and take proper measures to stay afloat into this critical time.

 Also, last but not least, the biggest challenge brings the biggest possibilities. Organisations need to take a look into new arenas where they can help customers/clients.