Page 13 - IMDR EBOOK 20 OCT 2020

"Pandemic and Beyond: Naviga ng the New Normal" E - Book Year 2020

Impact of COVID-19 across Industry Sectors: An Exploratory Study
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Dr. Giribala Dewasthale - Assistant Professor- DES IMDR, Pune
ABSTRACT
Much has been written about COVID- 19 in the past few months. Slowly India is
shedding its siege mindset and bracing itself for the economic impact of this pandemic.
Studies are ongoing about the impact of the pandemic across industry sectors. The
purpose of this study was to gather perceptual data from those in leadership roles in
business organisations, regarding the impact of COVID-19 on their business
operations. The objectives of the study were twofold:

1. To investigate the impact of COVID 19 across industry sectors
2. To investigate perceptions about the future (July 2020 and beyond)
The study was exploratory in nature. Data was collected over a period of 10 days from
22nd April to 1st May. An inductive categorisation method was used to code the
perceptual, qualitative data and draw inferences. Given that respondents had to share
qualitative data about their business operations and the paucity of time, a convenience
sample of respondents known to the researcher was used. The sample adequately
reected various industry sectors as well as leadership levels within organisations. A
total of 50 valid responses were collected.
78% respondents acknowledged that the pandemic had a negative impact on business
operations. The top 3 challenges appear to be difculty in staying connected with
customers, reduction in corporate spending and decrease in productivity due to remote
work. Sales have seen a sharp decline due to travel restrictions, social distancing, and
restrictions on sale of some commodities and customers resorting to budget cuts and
putting projects on hold. Companies are struggling to recover xed costs in the absence
of revenue generation due to sharp drop in sales. Increase in costs are due to
enablement of digital platforms, increased freight and cartage costs and increased
costs of raw materials. Focusing on existing customers and building collaborative
relationships is the new normal. Communication has shifted from face to face to online,
voice calls, video conferencing, social media and virtual platforms. Virtual modes of
communication seem inadequate to generate new business. Going forward it would
seem that businesses and their stakeholders must face up to some harsh realities and
prepare for them. It appears that consumer sentiment will see an uptick only post
Diwali.
Key words: COVID-19, Pandemic, Business Impact, Sales, Business Operations,
Stakeholders, Customers
1. Introduction

Much has been written about COVID- 19 in the past few months. As the world and India
tries to wrap its head around the scale and extent of this pandemic that has caught
everyone off guard, words such as social distancing, work from home, testing, tracing
and quarantine have become a part of our day to day vocabulary. Slowly the country is
shedding its siege mindset and bracing itself for the economic impact of this pandemic.
Studies are ongoing about the impact of the pandemic across industry sectors. The
purpose of this study was to gather perceptual data from those in leadership roles in
business organisations, regarding the impact of COVID-19 on their business
operations.

Pandemics are a highly uncertain environmental event which have a negative social
and economic impact on organisations and people. Faulkner (2001) suggests that a
disaster is a situation where an enterprise is confronted with sudden unpredictable
catastrophic changes over which it has little control. This is exactly what COVID-19 is
turning out to be.

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