The world is totally into new world with COVID 19. What are the odds that a modern industrial setup which thrives on massive consumerism might come to a standstill? COVID-19 a viral disease caused by virus SARS – COV – 2 has brought the whole world to shut down its operations. Soon, it was declared a pandemic by WHO earlier this year. This disease has spread like a wildfire and affected millions of people across the globe. COVID 19 which shows up in patients with mild symptoms like a flu has claimed a lot of lives worldwide. One of the major ways to prevent this disease is to impose a lockdown and maintain social distance among people. This seems impossible to be imposed for a longer duration as the modern world is a close-knit society with concentrated populations majorly in urban spaces.
The pandemic has put a major impact on the economies of major developed countries as well. Factories and offices where shut down and people were working remotely.
Due to nil or low operations businesses filed for bankruptcy or laid off its staff. Industries like tourism, aviation, F&Bs and other nonessential products were gravely affected.
Resuming after lockdown.
Unless you are living under a rock, it is very well known that things are not going to be the same after the lockdown. The punctured economy will be pushed by the government to restart its operations. This new world after the lockdown will be more cautious,prepared, and distant. The ecosystem will be revived by opening manufacturing and online marketplaces, yet a major part of the economic ecosystem will be under a lockdown. Due to a major loss in monetary gains, people will have lesser money to spend on pleasure and luxury.
Technology has taken over and provided us with an option to work from our homes and avoid gathering up in office spaces. The things which we took for granted have become a distant dream. Some industries might diminish due to the pandemic, while some might survive it and find its own demand across the globe. Majorly business comprises of two places a manufacturing unit or on site and an officesetup.
Some steps that can be taken by industries to control the spread are
– Identify the employees who can work from home and the ones who are really required to come to the office.
- Provide with transport facilities for employees and have check points to check the employee’s health and have a facility to contain someone who raises a red flag if they
- Actions need to be taken to manage the offices with 25% – 50% staff, without gathering a lot of people
- Sanitize offices to avoid contaminated surfaces to spread thedisease.
Impact in business immediately after the lockdown:
We have never before attempted to shut down the modern global economy, much less reopen it in the setting of an ongoing pandemic. It has disturbed every section that’s has stopped the cycle of business environment worldwide. Majorly it impacts the demand and supply gap.
Companies are planning different approaches, even based on the same underlying fact base. This implies that leaders across the public and private sectors should build learning and adaptation into their reopening plans from the start. Relevant lessons might come from other geographies, other sectors, or from peers and competitors. Leaders should be prepared to incorporate new information and alter their approaches, either incrementally or radically, as new information becomes available.
Since IMP supply IRON & ALLOY POWDERS to various industries, it has forced us to rethink our business strategies based on market scenario and its impact on individual industries.
It must be reflecting on the pricing strategies since difficult stage to control this factor. Costings likes transport, incoming raw materials/packing materials, labor cost and overheads are the major concerns to control. There is also risk of losing some payments from the customers who may closed the units due to lack of workers, processing cost, etc. High chances of getting the due payments and to run the cycle is the most challenging job for the business owner. How to works on fund?
When the lockdown started, IMP made some strategies for the problems would face in future and established the process to bring the production online with following employee safety first with government guidelines.
Economy is moving towards downline and also making us think for innovations/automation to increase the production with reducing cost.
It is quite difficult say in this early stage, but every business needs to work on their pricing and quantity to produce with maintaining the quality to keep the market share.
It also creates the scope for domestic manufacturers to provide options for import materials like various metal powders, diamond cutting tools, food ingredients, lots of pharma intermediates etc. to run the local business smoothly.
COVID 19 has both positive as well negative impact on business and every industry must make their own SWOT analysis how to take into next level.
COVID 19 will be a platform to establish your business with new policies, new peoples, new innovations etc.
IMP is ready to supply its quality products to various industries rather than importing and relying on many factors.
IMP can supply high purity iron to nutritional supplements, pharmaceutical industries, cosmetic, chemical, oxygen absorbers, water remediation etc. applications and IRON & ALLOY powders for diamond cutting tool industries which is 80-90% depends on import. It will be good potential for this industry to buy locally become globally.
No matter how badly we are affected, humans have always survived through difficulties and found a new method to overcome. On an optimistic note we can hope that a vaccine will be found in the upcoming months which might normalize this unprecedented lockdown and fear. Industries can use this time and resources wisely and train their employees with new set of skill sets to survive in the future. Adjusting to this new normal might cost the industries a hefty amount but only those who will survive these tough times might stand ahead infuture.
