Setting the scene
The COVID-19 humanitarian crisis has impacted you, your business, and your employees. As CEO you may have been under immense stress and pressure to ensure the continued survival of your business. Everything from health and safety, organisational re-design and difficult calls ranging from retrenchments to negotiations with suppliers. However, this (predominately) introspective view should NOT dominate your thinking and planning solely. The reality is that COVID-19 is a sever shock to supply chains, both globally and locally. This means that the flow or raw materials, goods, imports (some of which may be critical to your business) are just not coming through. Compound this with suppliers who are facing the same financial and operational challenges you are facing, many of whom may have shut their doors completely. It is for that reason that you need to understand the impact and consequent actions you can take when your supply chain is disrupted. This is critical as re-establishing your supply chain and the relationship inherent with it will be a key factor in ramping up production and sales in the post COVID-19 world.
The impact of COVID-19 on global supply chains has had practical implications for business in this time. First and foremost, China which is a global powerhouse for production of goods and import of raw materials has all but shut down. The heavy travel and health restrictions have halted the flow of goods necessary for economic growth. This may mean irregular inventory resulting in increased working capital requirements to maintain the stock on hand. Bulk purchases and the economies of scale gained through that are paused whilst you might be facing the reality of not being able to meet your short-term obligations.
Second, the disruption of the supply chain and your ability to provide the goods and services to your customers will impact customer behaviour. As customers struggle to find the products they need, they might switch to competitors who can supply them. As disposable income decreases customers are more likely switch to substitute goods at a lower price point.
Supply chain disruptions do not only affect your back-office, but your customer facing side as well. This might frighten you as the solutions seem out of your reach (opening Chinese and other borders and returning to normal production schedules).
So, what do you do? This module seeks to address just that by giving you and your team practical steps and actions to overcome the current supply chain strains and help guide you through this difficult and complex topic.
