In the midst of the chaos surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, it's interesting to see the varied responses across the business world. They seem to fall into the following categories.

  1. Those that have had a strong BCP in place (and implement it well) - These are most likely mature organizations or nimble startups that have taken on the challenge and focused on continuing to provide services to their customers while managing their internal teams responsibly. Resulting in their ability to communicate what they are doing and why they are doing it rather succinctly both internally and externally.
  2. Those that have had a knee jerk reaction - Invariably resulting in practices (internally) that aren't probably the best for their employees and have focused on minimizing the impact on their business first. Including sending out random messages about COVID-19 prevention to their entire customer base (because everyone else seems to be doing it).
  3. Those that are watching from the sidelines - These are entities that really haven't reacted and still hope things settle down naturally. Restrictions enforced by governments have however resulted in a mad rush to figure out what to do.
  4. Those that haven't been affected at all - Some businesses that are already completely online / have online distributed teams that work from home for the most part. 
  5. Those that have capitalized on this - There are a number of organizations that have capitalized on this by doubling down on their business / running campaigns/driving discounts in the hope of aggressively acquiring customers during this period. 
  6. Those that are shoring up resourced to meet an organic demand - These are entities that find themselves on the forefront of consumer demand as a result of this epidemic and have to either step up to meet demand (without putting too much of a risk on their teams) or hunker down and weather through this artificial peak. 

The point of this isn't to judge the way each business has chosen to operate (we rarely know the stresses within an organization sitting on the outside). In a capitalist consumer-driven world the paths that each take are governed based on their internal compass and where they see opportunity. The market has a natural ability to weed out those services that don't work for the betterment of the consumer over a period of time. 

Given the carnage we're already seeing on the streets there is a good chance that a number of small businesses and freelancers aren't going to make it through a downturn of this magnitude.

However, in the midst of this chaos and panic, it's possible that as a founder/business owner of a more established/funded business you might find yourself in a position to make a decision that might hurt your business in the short term but is the right one to take for the community at large (and your employees).

For those that have chosen to walk this path, respect!