BUSINESS CONTINGENCY PLANNING AND CORONA: Section1
Businesses need to have a contingency plan for era of Corona and Post-Corona
Written by Moh Yarmohammadian; PostDoc, Professor at IUMS & International Advisor, WBIUS
Every business needs to be survive during the crisis and in turbulent environment. Business contingency planning helps businesses and corporation to continue their businesses and make sustainable revenue while improving their productions and services, as well as protecting them from soaking in chaos. It also important for businesses since helps them assess risks, disasters and unusual situation, prioritizes them and converts them in solutions and respectively to goals and practical and realistic action plans.
Impacts of Corona on businesses and corporations
Coronavirus is a type of virus, resulted in a disease named COVID_19, which recently transmitted from animals to humans. It started from Wuhan, China and then spread to Southeastern Asia as endemic illness, breakout throughout other regions of the world and due to WHO announcement recently seen as a pandemic disease.
The author explained that “This virus resulted in huge pandemic in this century, influenced all sectors of societies, governmental and private, international relations, foreign affairs and federal, state level even local authorities, military section and health and education systems, large manufacturing enterprises , service industries, and small businesses. Each level of business, has been gotten different Corona effects, results or outcomes”.
On January 22, 2020, the Johns Hopkins University, developed an officially-referenced coronavirus disease tracker. Update tracking of the spread of the COVID-19, with data visualizations available for sharing and download. The Johns Hopkins tracker draws from formally trustworthy sources. The COVID-19 map from Johns Hopkins University helps us to track global cases and crucial bio-statistics of the virus in real time and provides statistics trends on confirmed cases and confirmed deaths.
I have explained before, in previous post at the same website, that the Coronavirus is not the GUEST but the NEIGHBOR. Because the virus that human beings have destroyed its host (Bats) environment and houses, had to decide to transfer and live in our neighborhood. We should be ready and our institutions should be prepared to peaceful coexistence with this new rude neighbor for long term.
According to Sandra Gittlen, in her recent article, “As organizations embark on or revisit their response to pandemics generally and to the coronavirus specifically, Gartner said they should plan for 25% absenteeism, an estimate based on the fallout from other viruses, such as the ones that cause SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and avian influenza.”
So businesses have to asses related risks and impacts of Coronavirus on their efficiency of services, maintain the level of productivity, secure supply chain and assure delivery and availability of services for the end users.
They can refer to and follow released governmental and especially health guidelines and protocols to protect themselves, their employees, as well as customers while providing services. Health and Safety are important and at the first priorities. Society expect you as wise business heads to provide healthy goods, safe services by protected healthy staff. You can read, respect and follow the Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers to Plan and Respond to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19); Plan, Prepare and Respond to Coronavirus Disease 2019 which provided and published by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The following interim guidance may help prevent workplace exposures to COVID-19, in non-healthcare settings.
Business Culture and Coronavirus; Organizational ethics to professionalism
You as a professional business person should also concern about cultural, moral and ethical aspects of impacted, suspected or infected Corona staff or clients. To prevent stigma and discrimination in the workplace, use only the guidance described below to determine risk of COVID-19 infection. You have to concern and assure not to make determinations of risk based on race or country of origin and be sure to maintain confidentiality of people with confirmed coronavirus infection. There is much more to learn about the transmissible, severity, and other features of COVID-19 and investigations are ongoing. Updates are available on CDC’s web page.
According to the governmental body of Small Business Administration (SBA) “Health and government officials are working together to maintain the safety, security, and health of the American people. Small businesses are encouraged to do their part to keep their employees, customers, and themselves healthy.’
Business information Infrastructure ( IT)
Clint Boulton indicated in a CIO post on March 19, 2020 that “as the COVID-19 coronavirus rattles industries, it’s more important than ever for IT leaders to ensure employees have the tools they require to work remotely and securely”. During the social distancing ( I would like to say Physical distancing instead), travel restriction and quarantine regulations role of IT, social networking, and digital systems for remote working and online services, becomes much more obvious and inventive. The businesses which planned and invested in IT and established a secure and dynamic digital platform are winners and save money and secure sustainable revenue. Organizational resiliency comes from attention to early warning alarms, and have contingency plans for future. Despite having some challenging outcomes, remote working taking advantages of secure virtual network and strong IT infrastructure is among increasing trend for this turbulent global and local environment.
