Enabling Bahri’s Three-Thronged Business Continuity Approach with Technology

Ever since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, countries around the world have been rolling out various outbreak control measures, including border shutdowns and internal travel restrictions. With these severe restrictions in place, many organizations are facing significant challenges to keep their operations running. However, Bahri is continuing full operations despite the ongoing lockdown, thanks to our robust business continuity plans.

For Bahri, as a company working in such a vital sector as logistics and transportation, emergencies and contingencies have always been key considerations when developing its business operating model and short- and long-term strategies. It is our ability to anticipate changing conditions and formulate plans to adapt to them that helped us remain resilient and sustain growth even in the face of adversities in the past and even today.

The governments in all the markets where we operate have taken measures to curb the spread of the deadly virus, and as a result, our offices remain closed. Nonetheless, we have been successfully managing the company remotely, with our operations reaching a rate of up to 95 percent and all our liners running to their schedule to continue servicing Bahri’s both local and international customers. Barring our crew members and a few employees manning some critical tasks, all our staff is staying at home and working remotely as directed by the authorities.

 Three-Thronged Strategy

 As the novel coronavirus situation started to evolve, we anticipated disruptions and devised a three-pronged strategy to respond rapidly to the unique challenges this unprecedented crisis has brought along. People, customers, and business sustainability are the three pillars of our predictive and proactive continuity plan at the heart, which is technology.

 As part of our structured and integrated response approach to dealing with the exceptional circumstances, we formed two committees to make risk-based decisions to minimize the impact of COVID-19 across our people, customers, supply chain, financial performance, and reputation. We also aimed to ensure continuous proactive and effective communication with both our internal and external audiences, and that our response is integrated with our key external stakeholders, including regulators and government entities.

 The Commercial Committee is headed by me in my capacity as Bahri’s Chief Executive Officer and consists of presidents of our six business units, as well as our Chief Financial Officer, Chief Support Officer, Chief of Strategy, and Director of Corporate Communications. Meeting twice a week, the committee follows up on business, plans ahead with possible scenarios, and reviews the progress of various campaigns launched by the company, in addition to decision making on important aspects of its operations, including the ability to deliver services and meet customer needs.

 On the other hand, the People Committee, which is headed by our Chief Support Officer and his team that includes one representative from each of the six business units, holds a weekly meeting to manage the crisis from a people or human capital perspective. The committee has played an instrumental role in expediting the readiness for activating remote working across all our offices and continues to assess the situation to respond to any emergencies.

 People Remaining the Highest Priority

 The health and safety of our people are of paramount importance to us, now and always. In line with our commitment to safeguarding their wellbeing, we implemented infection control measures even long before lockdowns and travel bans were announced. In addition to conducting deep cleaning and disinfection of office premises, we launched an internal campaign to raise awareness of the coronavirus disease and general hygiene. The campaign included motion graphics videos, brochures, roll-ups, and internal and social media announcements. Our HR team also devised policies to facilitate remote work smoothly and support employees whenever needed.

 Seamless Customer Service as a Commitment

 It is our promise to our customers that they will receive services of the highest quality without disruption. Our teams continue to provide customer support as normal with continuous communication taking place through phone, email, and virtual meetings. We are also equipped to host face-to-face meetings when required.

 Technology is the Engine of Business Continuity

 Despite facing the challenges posed by this unforeseen situation, our IT department was incredibly successful in accelerating the digital transformation of our operations.

 The team ensured the sufficiency of IT infrastructure by procuring additional laptops, accessories, and VPN licenses after conducting careful workforce planning. More than 550 employees based in our offices in Saudi Arabia and the UAE alone are working remotely. We also have set up home office workspaces for employees handling critical jobs to ensure the sustainability of operations. In order to bridge the gap in digital upskilling, we have provided training to our staff. Our team is also ensuring regulatory compliance and risk management, in addition to providing IT support remotely.

 Effective and continuous communication is key to business continuity. All our employees working remotely have access to business communication applications such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Outlook, and SharePoint. These solutions have been helping us to conduct regular business meetings internally and with external stakeholders. We have seen a 531 percent increase in the usage of Microsoft Teams during the period between the second and third weeks of March.

 At Bahri, we pride ourselves on our strong track record in the adoption of technology, and our embrace of these cutting-edge technologies enabled us to seamlessly execute our business continuity plan.

 At the outset, I believe businesses are no strangers to disruptions, but this pandemic has no parallel. The single most important learning for organizations from this crisis will be to embrace technology to take full advantage of the endless possibilities it offers. I sincerely hope that the fight against the infectious virus ends soon, and people across the globe can go back to their normal lives as early as they wish.