Advisory

Post COVID-19 Challenges

by Chee Shi
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COVID – 19 and its impact
For more than two years, businesses all over the world faced the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, and the chaos it brought upon all of us.
IN the last two years or so, every way we saw the business needed to shut its door, as government gave the order that to do so.
This was an effort to contain the spread of the virus.

Every one was encouraged to stay at home.

The main objective was to stop the transmission of the virus in crowded places.
Due to this measure, a lot of businesses need to stop operation.

A lot of workers were lay off, some lost their jobs due to cash flow issue.

While others lost their jobs because the owners were not able to sustain the business operation.

The reason being the operation has zero income.

Government effort to ensure zero cases of COVID-19, resulted in a lot of businesses having zero income. so is this trade off a good measure?

Luckily most governments decide

  1. to ramp up the vaccination processes,
  2. come to their sense to live with the virus, and
  3. slowly opening up the economy again.

Are you ready to face the challenges of the re-opening of economy?

Some businesses, while during the isolation and tough measure of government in containing the spread of the virus, were taking measure in preparation of the re-opening of the economy.

  • the smart one would have reviewed, and made changes in their business operation.
  • Some start the automation of some of their processes.
  • Others decide to divert to some other more sustainable businesses,
  • more in tune with the demand and requirement of the new normal.

What are the  consequences of business not in operation for more than two years?

  1. Lose of good workers.

Due to the slow down in business, companies in managing cash flow, most of them will just lay off their workers, so with skeleton work force, now with the opening up of the business, new workers need to be recruited.

One good example I noticed in Singapore was the fast food chain – McDonald.

They seem to be going round to try to recruit staffs in anticipation of business on the upward turn, now that the government has decided to relax the rules.

  1. Cost in training the new recruit.

I spoke to one of the McDonald manageress, she said the new staff needed training and obtained the necessary food health handling certification before he or she can start the work.

That mean cost is involved.

  1. Take time to recruit new staffs

If a business only starts its recruitment now following the government announcement of the opening of economy and live with the virus, by the time you manage to get the new staff on board, it will be another month gone.

Then the new staff needs to get acquainted to the new work environment and the way how the new company work.

  1. Machinery need to be maintained.

During the two years shut down, some of the machinery might not be in working condition.

And now need to restart,

  • the company need to carry out maintenance, and
  • services to ensure the machineries are in tip top condition.
  1. Looking for new office space.

Some companies might have given up the extra work space during the two years closure.

Now with the re-opening, they have to look for new work space, hence need o incur extra cost

Did you do some preparatory work during the two years scaled down operation?

Some managements have foresight, while waiting for the economy to open up again, they have already gotten their plan in place.

So once the economy opens up, they can hit the ground running, and getting business in as others are just about to do the necessary adjustments to face the new normal.

One good example is Changi Airport.

Once the government announced the opening of the boarder, they just hit the ground and run.

We can see from the data, in the first quarter of the year 2022, the numbers of human traffic and cargo passing through Changi Airport.

The news reported that Changi Airport had the highest in both categories among all the airports in the region, or even in Asia, beating Hong Kong.

Businesses good at adapting and innovating, will have not problem in operating in the new normal.

During the two years, we see what are the businesses which can survive any crisis or emergency shutdown.

If the business operators can make the necessary adjustment, and implement the changes, there is no reason the business can not grow and improve.

Conclusion

Good management will always innovate, adapt and make necessary adjustment to face the challenges.

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With the new normal, challenges ahead