Covid-19: Events like these forcing businesses to rethink strategies : Pankaj Gupta
By Mohit Manghani | May 28, 2020
In these testing Covid-19 times, businesses and individuals are going the extra mile to decimate the impact of the pandemic. In doing so, one critical problem companies are facing is managing business continuity. As organisations look to turn current challenges into a competitive advantage, business continuity plans are being tested and reworked every day given.
In an exclusive interview with Retail4Growth, Pankaj Gupta, Director, RP Foam Home Pvt. Ltd. shares his take on biz continuity during covid-19.
Business continuity
The most basic business continuity requirement is to keep essential functions up and running during a disaster and to recover with as little downtime as possible. A business continuity plan considers various unpredictable events, such as natural disasters, Covid-19, fires, disease outbreaks, cyberattacks and other external threats.
I believe that events like this are forcing companies to be more aware of the issues they would have in a large-scale disaster. What we’re seeing with COVID-19 is kind of a forcing function causing people to rethink just how ready they are because this is one of those areas that for a lot of businesses gets put on the back burner until there is maybe a pressing need.” Yes, ofcourse it does help us to create a great atmosphere to work and also advancing us.
Measures taken
During times of crisis, business operations—the intelligence engine of an organization—are more important than ever. Business continuity and disaster recovery plans are being tested by rapidly evolving challenges, such as travel restrictions, and as large-scale remote working becomes a reality. We are also taking various steps towards ensuring continuity in business, like Prioritize people safety and continuous engagement, Reshape strategy for business continuity, Communicate with relevant stakeholders, Maximize the use of government support policies, Build resilience in preparation for the new normal, Online Promotions, Training Videos, Social Media Giveaways.
Role of Technology in Future
Technology is a vital force in the modern form of business globalization. Technology has revolutionized the global economy and has become critical competitive strategy. It has globalized the world, which drives all the countries to more ethical standards. Globalization has lead to new markets and information technology is one of the technologies fostered to the new market in this increasingly competitive world. Technology has helped us in overcoming the major hurdles of globalization and international trade such as trade barriers, lack of common ethical standards, transportation costs and delays in information exchange, thereby changing the market place.
Sustainability and continuity
Recently, natural and human-enabled disasters have caused many high profile events that resulted in significant losses of life and property, and that have highlighted business vulnerabilities to environmental factors. In response, many organisations have implemented business continuity plans and adopted more sustainable business processes. Sustainable business strategies are presented from the perspective of location and infrastructure, product design, and operational process design, and are related to the various phases of business continuity planning. We also introduce some generic strategies that are both sustainable and that facilitate business resilience.