An invisible virus, which originated in a small wet market, has brought the whole world economic machinery to a standstill in one of the most unusual example of “the butterfly effect”. The COVID-19 Pandemic has laid bare the various chinks in the armor of the globalized economy. The supply chains across the globe have been severely affected by the spread of the virus, forcing many service providers to declare bankruptcy or being on the verge of financial distress. But there are lessons to be learned and shared with everyone which will have long term implications for the world, I call this the 5 P’s of COVID-19 Pandemic
Preparedness: “I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best”- Benjamin Disraeli. Be ready to accept that this is the new normal, in which we may have to live for a long time. Before the pandemic, most organisations had a business continuity plan, but none of them accounted for the COVID-19 pandemic type of scenario, when pandemic started to unfold in other south Asian countries and countries, many organisations still did not start preparing for the worst, hence there was a last minute scramble when the disruption finally unfolded in India. In my organization, we kept an watch of what was happening in China and other south Asian countries, learnt from our colleagues there and had already started implementing the BCP for our India operations, we announced work from home for the majority of the team, well before the actual announcement came from the government. The point I am trying to make is having a BCP is good, but global awareness is better.
We live in a globalized economy and its important to stay aware of how an event in say China or Europe, can have an impact on your business in India. I am still hopeful that we will be able to be back to the new normal, very soon.
People: Your people are your biggest asset, empowerment of the right people in the organization can go a long way in making any organization successful. Some organization consider employees as only “Human Resource”, but that’s not the sustainable way to work. An organization which keeps its employee engaged and aware of its progress has a longer sustained growth. A well aware and empowered employee knows what the organizations strengths and weaknesses are, andis able to take right decision based on that knowledge. We saw that in action many times during the start of the COVID-19crisis with flights cancellations, our operations team aware of the developing situation used their knowledge to route the cargo based on their discretion to ensure it is delivered to the destination. We received many appreciation mails and calls from our customers for the way Agility handled their cargo in the time of crisis.
Having the right talent is just the half job done for any organization, it’s only the nurturing of skills and right empowerment that can ensure organizational growth.
Price: In the COVID-19 pandemic scenario price was not a factor for the customer, with majority of air and ocean cargo capacity out of service, whoever was able to provide a suitable, executable solution, won the business. All that the customer wanted was we move their shipment. We have a set of partners with whom we have built strong relationship over the years, these partners were eager to offer us best solutions at the best price, so that we can service our existing customers. Similarly, our customers did not question us for prices quoted, as they knew we were not overcharging them, even in the times of crisis. Price can help you win one transaction, a relationship can help you win a lifetime of business, hence invest in building relationships.
Product Mix: There is an old saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. COVID-19 Pandemic has severely affected organizations which went for over specialization by having only one product or variants of that product. Over specialization can help you garner huge market share in a normal economy but can severely expose your company in cases of events like the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic. There are logistics companies which specialized in only serving only vertical like Automotive, Fast Fashion, Chemicals or Life Sciences; while all of these verticals have faced issues in the current pandemic, some verticals like Automotive & fast fashion were severely affected, LSPs who were serving these verticals on exclusive basis were more affected than the ones like us who have solutions for a gamut of verticals.
Liquor manufacturing companies started manufacturing alcohol based hand sanitizers overnight, a product they are likely to start marketing more aggressively in the days to come. Auto companies who manufacturing medical equipment’s like low cost ventilators, will probably continue manufacturing the same in the long run too. Specialized LSPs need to also start expanding their product portfolio to serve wider gamut of vertical, to cushion themselves from “Black Swan events” likely to occur in the future. Product diversification is the way forward.
Place: Traditionally large corporates have been located in the metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, etc. which they would have considered as an advantage but in the current scenario, these places have been the most affected. In future, organizations would move probably move away from metros to non metros. With work from home becoming the new normal, even traditional businesses can now attract better talent from anywhere in the world, place will no longer be constraint while hiring for the right talent.
Satish Lakkaraju, Chief Commercial Officer, Agility gives an insight on 5Ps of Covid-19 pandemic, which will help to overcome the challenges the supply chain sector is facing.
