POST COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS CREATED LOT OF CHALLENGES BY CHANGING ENTIRE WAY OF DOING BUSINESSES

COVID-19 Pandemic has totally shake up the smooth and routine working style of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and other businesses in Pakistan and world at large and hence creates space only for “survival of the fittest” of pro-active and smart businesses. SMEs in comparison to large enterprises usually don’t possess sufficient resources, specially financial and managerial and they highly dependent on their routine business transactions and small numbers of customers as a result running out of stocks, some hardly continue to operate etc. SMEs generally includes agriculture, manufacturing, retail, wholesale, trade and service sector.

Businesses experienced surprising changes during global lockdown period due to COVID-19 Pandemic and put business CEOs’ and owners in a massive dilemma situation, which includes:

01.Restructuring human resources utilization by doing work from home, at work places and on field;

02.New way of utilization of human resources reduces overhead of businesses by shrinking work place and economizing rent, utilities, cost of human resources and development, office renovation and other overheads;

03.Economies in cost of seminars and management meetings by switching over to webinars and teleconferencing etc in terms of meeting space, utilities, parking space, movement time, entertainments etc;

04.Enhancing enabling services of Hi-Tech due to working from home and using e-banking services etc;

05.Change physical way of sales, services and advisory into on-line and home delivery sales, service and advisory. Also changing functions and work style of sales force;

06.Forced to pro-actively watch and monitor business cash flow even every day to manage financial crisis and even avoid to go on bankruptcy;

07.Cancellation of export orders and local sales demand forced to change production system from process costing to job order costing to survive;

08.Build resilience capability of business process;

09.COVID-19 lock down shatters business processes by creating shortage of raw materials, shortage of human resources, supply chain disruption, transportation disruption, travel ban, airline and sea shipment suspension has forced businesses to go for “borrowing and lending concept” from other businesses on barter or cash system to meet customer demand;

10.Global oil crisis force businesses to think to go for alternate energy supply like wind energy, solar energy, bio energy etc for smooth production process;

11.COVID-19 create a prudence time for businesses not to go for expansion as it is testing time. So if business has high local and export demand for their product and services then it is advisable to businesses to go for “toll manufacturing” instead of going for expansion. Toll manufacturing means to get their product manufactured from other businesses by providing them raw and other materials and that other business will only ask for “service charges which covers overhead, labor and profit margin”;

12.To explore new opportunities within own business or to go for business diversification to survive.

CEOs’ and persons charged with governance and owners of other enterprises need to adopt above drastic changes after ten time thinking with medium and long term benefits and purposes instead of for short term benefits and purposes to keep their  human resources, suppliers, lenders, customers intact to maintain consistent business.