The 2020 Novel Corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic started insidiously in Wuhan, China in December of 2019. It appears to have affected most regions in the world. It is first and foremost a health crisis which risks lives of many thousands possibly millions. Although the economic impact of COVID-19 was initially not recognized based on the experiences in China, Iran and Italy it has now become clear that this pandemic is going to affect how we conduct our lives and significantly reduce economic activity in many sectors of the economy including travel leisure and hospitality industries. As many countries go into lock down almost all sectors of economy will be affected. This will test the resilience of businesses as well as the ability of business owners and business executives who need to plan and execute measures to save their businesses.
In many ways none of what you are experiencing is new, SARS epidemic is still within the living memory and Ebola epidemic in West Africa only occurred a few years ago. These 2 conditions had much higher case fatality than COVID-19 (11% and 50% respectfully), and of course most business owners and executives who lived to the 2008-2009 financial crisis, remember the recession and austerity which followed. What is certain is that the COVID-19 pandemic is going to cause significant amount of uncertainty in the business environment in the short and medium term.
The World Bank has estimated that the cost of COVID-19 pandemic to world Economy would be in excess of US$ 1 trillion in lost economic output and this would mean a recession or no growth in the next year. Many small business owners and executives of medium-sized businesses are clearly apprehensive of this and are concerned about the health and well being of the people around them, their staff and the very real worry of whether or not their organisation is going to survive. There is considerable amount of help being made available by governments around the world including the UK government and the Bank of England. However, prior to accessing this help it is important to understand how the crisis is going to affect your business and execute business continuity planning for the next 12-18 months, being especially clear about what to do if you are facing a failing business plan. This book aims to empower small business owners and executives to be able to deal with this crisis in a holistic way and understand the help being made available by the UK government in these testing times.
