Business in the midst of epidemics for start-ups and SMEs.

How many businesses out there have ever included disease outbreaks on their business risk assessments? Up until recently, and all thanks to 

Covid-19, disease outbreaks were not an issue I considered a risk that needed mitigating by a business. But given the way world markets are tumbling in the wake of Covid-19, is it not time that businesses took epidemics as a potentially serious threat to their businesses? Read the newspapers these days and you will read of Toyota keeping its factory in China shut and how that will impact their revenues, Primark with 40% of its goods coming out of China trying to find alternative source markets or Apple with its Iphones assembled in China having to delay production and launch of their new smartphones, which will indubitably have a negative impact on their revenues. These are all big companies; they can weather the storm, but what of start-ups and SMEs, how are they currently faring, and how will they fare in the future if disease outbreaks, as predicted by WHO become prevalent?

An e-commerce start-up that I am rooting for and am quite bullish about has found itself at the mercy of Covid-19. They have China as their sole source market, and so for the first two months of this year, they have had depressed sales because until recently, nothing was coming out of China. The founders of this business are bootstrapping, and cannot afford even a day of closed Chinese borders unlike your Apple, Toyota, et al. We all know how fickle clients are; there are only so many apologies and explanations you can give to your buyers for why their goods are stuck in China- even if the reasons are beyond your control, as is the case with Covid-19- before they switch their patronage to your competitors, who have diversified source markets.

 If the Covid-19 epidemic is not contained soon, it will bankrupt many a start-up and SMEs with high exposure to China. It’s time businesses took another look at their business models and re-did their business risk assessments taking into account disease outbreaks and how they could mitigate them.

How is your organisation affected by Covid-19? What steps have you taken in your organisation to mitigate its impact? Going forward, what strategies do you have in place to combat another epidemic? Drop your comments in the comments section and let’s discuss.