As the world grapples with the severe health and humanitarian costs of Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, its stark economic implications are also coming to bear. The current environment has created uncertainties in business ecosystems across industries, rapidly exposing them to myriad risks. We are seeing challenges across customer demand slump, supply shortages, reduced cash flow and capex constraints. Ways of working have also seen a massive change with increasing adoption of work from home (WFH) modalities that also need adequate risk mitigation (cyber security) and protection (against financial fraud).

At KPMG in India, we feel that the impact of this crisis will depend largely on the state of readiness for individual businesses. It is important for organisations to be proactive while adapting their business models and strategies to the new reality, focusing on crisis management and business continuity plans and thereby RESPOND, not react to the crisis. We recommend organisations to evaluate impact across 6 dimensions: (1) Cash; (2) Cost & Supply Chain; (3) Capital; (4) Customer & Employees; (5) Risk Assessment and (6) Tax and Regulatory. Organisations should plan their response along 3 time dimensions: 

  1. Value preservation and protection: Immediate focus – protection of workforce, stakeholder communication and understanding and pulling of short-term cash flow levers
  2. Value creation: Over the next one-two months, putting the foundations in place to maximise value as and when the effects of the virus stabilise
  3. Value realisation: Over the next two quarters and beyond, the pandemic will have lasting impact, leading to new consumer behaviours and operating models.  

KPMG in India’s rapid and comprehensive COVID impact assessment helps identify specific measures across all 6 dimensions to help build resilience and nurture value. Our team of sector specialists and solution champions have been working with clients across industries, helping them navigate this crisis and build a ‘sustainable business model’ in a post COVID world.