A look at covid-19 and the corporate world
March 2020
By Sabine Pevy, Account Director
No, this is not the WHO map of infections - it’s the online media world talking about Covid-19 and its impact on the corporate world, with Twitter accounting for 61% of a staggering 175.7K items just in the context of business in one day alone.
Spanning well over 100 nations even just from English language posts, this is what they are talking about: Globalism, workforce safety, business continuity, government support.
Rethinking supply chains and concentration of business: #AmericaFirst / #KAG2020 – COVID-19 is a “threat to globalism” as key industries may be forced to “repatriate” their supply lines and not rely on one region for their business according to chief economists Bill Lee & John Lonski.
Work-from-home: #STPIINDIA / #STIPINEWS – major corporations and industries, such as Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) are putting in place work-from-home provisions for their employees to curb the epidemic, keep them safe and to ensure business continuity. #familiesfirst / #wfh / #remotework / #telecommuting / #teleworking
Government support: as in #China businesses are struggling from the effects of COVID-19 and call for governments to cut business rates and rents.
As all these conversations show a serious pandemic like COVID-19 demonstrates the importance for businesses worldwide to have in place solid supply chain structures, comprehensive workforce policies and crisis planning, and to ensure effective communication with employees and customers to maintain trust in the organisation and support business continuity and resilience.
Spreading like wildfire
Like the virus itself, ideas and even one article can spread and develop across the globe rapidly – this is true for disinformation, bad news and good news, such as an article in Forbes about Zoom supporting schools with their tool so children can learn remotely from home - “Zoom CEO Eric Yuan Is Giving K-12 Schools His Videoconferencing Tools For Free” - with 5.3K Twitter shares, 817.5K Facebook likes and 142m pageviews. Being aware and being informed are key to keeping on top of risks and opportunities as these move rapidly around the world.
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