It may be a public health crisis above all, but the COVID-19 outbreak has quickly become a profound and unprecedented business disruption, poised to wreak global havoc at levels no financial model, economic forecast or business plan could have predicted, and with no clear end in sight.
While we may not know how this global crisis will play out, we do know it won’t be the only one business leaders will face in the coming years. With global value chains, increased migration and climate change creating massive new risks, neither executives nor directors can afford to treat the COVID-19 crisis as an anomaly.
Whether it be pandemics or other calamities, the time is now to start preparing every business for a world in which these disruptions are the new norm. Business leaders who do will put their enterprises in a position not only to endure the next crisis but to seize opportunities for growth, investment and long-term success in the recoveries that follow.
In the linked article below, Sidley partner Tai-Heng Cheng discusses five steps business leaders should be taking – or at least considering – in preparation for an uncertain future.
