COVID19:
A TIME FOR CORPORATE INTROSPECTION
Dr
R Srinivasan
Introduction
Winston Churchill is
quoted to have said “An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a
pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity”.
This maxim applies to
the corporate sector aptly in all circumstances, especially when the world is
locking itself down in the era of COVID 19. World Bank while assessing the
global slowdown said, “Global growth is
projected at 2.5 percent in 2020, just above the post-crisis low registered last
year. While growth could be stronger if reduced trade tensions mitigate
uncertainty, the balance of risks is to the downside. A steep productivity
growth slowdown has been underway in emerging and developing economies since
the global financial crisis, despite the largest, fastest, and most broad-based
accumulation of debt since the 1970s. These circumstances add urgency to the
need to rebuild macroeconomic policy space and undertake reforms to rekindle
productivity”[1].
The Corona Pandemic has not helped the World Bank outlook. On the contrary, there
are fears that the economic impact will worsen the global economy and take the
levels perhaps below the melt down figures of 2008. Kenneth Rogoff said that
2008 was like a dry run COVID19 in his analysis in the Guardian[2].
The Dow Jones
Industrial Average tumbled 6.3 percent, or more than 1,300 points, to close the
day at 19,898.92, its first close below 20,000 since 2017 and the broad-based
S&P 500 dropped 5.2 percent to finish at 2,398.10, while the tech-rich
Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 4.7 percent to 6,989.84, reported ET[3].
In UK, USA, Japan,
India and EU, business is coming to a halt with hardly a trickle of output.
Nations are wringing their hands and placing further restrictions while at the
same time trying to reach out or enhance medical equipment producers to
supplement national reserves. In the organized sector, corporates have downed
their shutters. IT majors have asked their people to work from home.
Transportation and logistics chain are standing still except for a teeny weeny
segment catering for essential services. LOCKDOWN is translating into lockout,
though no employer or government is willing to look at the status as a lockout.
In these times of
cataclysm, an unforeseen opportunity is available to the corporations and big
brother industry – an opportunity that may well translate into higher
productivity when the world turns around firmly from the pandemic. The purpose
of this article is to look into some of those vistas that a promising future
presents. Broadly, we will consider Production and Processes as the two fields
we will explore. It is necessary to emphasize that the scenarios being discussed
are in the pre-COVID19 scenario when the corporate, presumably, was in its full
form of operations.
Production
Maintenance
of buildings and infrastructure. A number of compromises
are accepted and even ‘unsafe’ equipment are milked to prudent capacity in
order to meet production targets. While we work from home, it would be better
that those friendly calls from foremen, those little notes from section
heads/junior managers or even work men are pulled out and synthesized. A
dedicated team (if one doesn’t already exist in the company) now goes through
these in order to make detailed plans, identifying suppliers for replacement,
contractors for installation, permits and passes that need to be obtained from
various authorities, etc.
We should not finalize
the plans just by such expert committees alone. This is also an opportune
moment to consult with the people who actually work on these equipment hands on
and take their advice if they have a better one.
There are two benefits
of doing so: one, the man on the field will feel important. Two, the industry
may benefit from a more practical suggestion than those availed through
‘experts’.
The scenarios presented
in the box are representative. The scenarios will be far truer and lengthier
when such a focused “audit” takes place.
Processes
Rarely in the daily
life of a corporate can the luxury of time be indulged than during the present
calamitous era of COVID19. Many a friends of mine who are up to their neck in
the corporate world have, however, a different opinion. COVID or no COVID, they
just want to get back to their offices fast. The reason stated by them is the
cause of this paper. Their ‘video or con-call’ starts at 0800 and continues
till about 2100 or more on a daily basis!! They would rather be at work in
their office.
There is no activity
more damaging to productivity than a prolonged conference. From Harvard to
Timbuktu, there is as yet not even an iota of proof that calls and con-calls
have produced anything more than humor, some well-intended and mostly
acrimonious[4].
Instead of perennial con-calls (my apologies if the way I spell this appears
satirical!), the following activities may serve to bolster productivity and
help in the reconstruction of business when COVID19 is bid adieu.
Review Performance:
Performance Assessment Reports, by whatever name they are called are a standard
HR tool to assess retentions/promotions/adieus. However, most of the managers
who write them, like the ones who review them, have been chased and hounded
over production targets when these assessments were due. This is a time when
the appraisal process itself can be holistically reviewed to see whether it
matches the organizational objectives or has come to stay as a bureaucratic
tool to chastise angels and celebrate demons, (or vice versa if you please). This
is also a time when the senior management, assisted by HR, can re-review them
to see if they have missed a man who should have been promoted or raised a man
who didn’t much deserve. The luxury of contemplation can be indulged now.
Reinforce
Sales/Marketing Ethics. Yes, ethics. A number of middle
and lower level managers either step to the left or right of this domain
particularly when QE reports are due. A review of sales figures can now be
undertaken to find sudden spurts in the third month of any quarter. If
consistently seen with reference to a particular Branch or office, time to
check. In the process, if it is seen that certain procedures for checks and
balances need to be strengthened, now is the time. It is also a time when
random sampling can be used to contact high value customers to find out their
honest assessment about the marketing/sales team as well as the product.
Cost-to-Process
(CTP). This is a concept I would like to talk about at this juncture. We are
pretty familiar with CTC, cost of production, cost of sales, etc. However, it
is not difficult to appreciate that even processes incur costs. Take for
example, the need for certain stores in the production line. How does the
workman demand? How fast is it processed? The intangible phenomena is actually
worked by people who get paid to move this cycle. Can they actually move it
faster than now? With time in hand, this question can be studied and company
specific models can be evolved for implementation when normalcy returns. Use
the opportunity to propagate to the last man down the line that efficient
processes and efficacy of business actually mean the same.
T&D.
Training and employee enrichment is an activity that can be done at peace.
Virtual Conferences and training sessions, limited in time of course, can be
formalized to impart training to employees while they sit at home in front of
their mobile/tab/laptop/tv screens. Virtual feedback on how to utilize the
knowledge for enhancing productivity would pay dividends.
I am reminded of a boss
of mine who would insist a personal interview before and after a training
program. He had just two questions to ask.
Before the training
session: What do you expect to learn?
After the Training
Session: State any one point you learnt and tell me how will you implement?
I had seen many of my
colleagues opting not to go for Executive Development Programs so long as he
was the boss!!
Compliance
Regime. The compulsions of time and targets would have
resulted in striking compromises in compliance regime in the so called peace
time. While waging the war on Corona, it would be good to visit compliance
policies and their execution. Take for example, Effluent Treatment. When global
warming is threatening life on earth, it would do well to emerge as a Green
Company. Apart from advertisement value, the service to community will set you
apart. Innovative ideas to emerge as one during these times can pay rich
dividends.
Legal
Battles. There is no corporate that doesn’t have a folio of
cases and a troop of legal minds to fight its cases in courts. It is time now
that the senior executives visit details of each case to review the company
stand. It is also time to foreclose cases where a bit of generosity to an
employee can bolster company image.
Ancillaries/Subsidiaries.
This is the time for senior management to interact with them, notwithstanding
the wealth of information already available through middle level managers. What
problems do they face in interacting with the company, what their observations
for betterment, have they faced any specific trouble with any individual
employee (in official capacity), how are they coping with the lockdown? Is
there that the ‘big brother’ can do for them? These are but few questions.
Interactions at leisure now can yield inputs that may help energize activities
in future.
Support
staff. are actually what their nomenclature suggests –
support. COVID19 time is a good time to tell support staff that we are
concerned. Even state/provincial authorities can be approached for centralized
assistance to their families in terms of medicines, provisions, etc. A dollar
spent on them in their hour of need will repay thousands in due course. We must
remember that loyalty is a two way passage. What comes down will certainly go
up!! Incidentally, we should not forget the housekeeping/security/other such
contractors. Since most of their labour is likely to on daily wages, reaching
out to them will earn the kind of goodwill that only a challenging time like
now can present.
CSR.
Nothing builds company image like good CSR initiatives. In other times, top
management may not have the time to innovate. But as Churchill said, CSR is the
order of the day in crisis times. An assessment of the outlay having been
taken, corporates can divert substantial amounts for substantiating medical and
paramedical equipment/accessories. Big house can even create medical
facilities, donate ambulances, critical care equipment and carry out huge
sanitization drives in conjunction with state administration. Smaller entities
can supply and add on to these resources in any manner that is feasible.
CSR can also look to
providing for SHGs of women who are into tailoring, for example. Such units can
be provided the cloth and raw material necessary for manufacturing safety
attire, scarves, masks, aprons, etc for the medical community which is fighting
to save mankind. Such an initiative will not merely bolster small and micro
industries, but will provide financial relief to families dependent on them.
Conclusion
The objective of this
article is to rekindle the thought process of corporate minds. Every success
story is necessarily written by blood and sweat. More importantly, it is
co-written by the capacity to introspect and evaluate one’s own self in times
of crisis. Corporates, it is accepted, exist because some business needs to be
carried out and profits earned. But beyond those profits, there is a necessity
to introspect from an angle that is out of the box, for such introspection when
opportunity affords it, can turn the corporate’s business as well as social
image gainfully. By avoiding wasteful exercises in merely consuming time in the
lockdown scenario of COVID19, much could be changed for better productivity if
we avail the opportunities presented by compulsions of time.
[3] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/covid-19-impact-dow-jones-sheds-more-than-1300-points-in-latest-us-stocks-rout/articleshow/74701979.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
