Republic of the Philippines

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Pablo Borbon Main I, Rizal Avenue, Batangas City
COLLEGE OF ACCOUNTANCY, BUSINESS ECONOMICS &
INTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT

A CASE STUDY: THE COVID19 PANDEMIC

(Critical Situation Analysis and Management)

Final Requirement
in Business Process Outsourcing 201

Submitted by:
CORDERO, ELIZABETH D.
BSBA OMGT 2201

Submitted to:
MR. ANGELO C. PANILAGAN

MAY 2020
I. CASE SITUATION

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

II. SITUATION IN THE IT-BPM

Despite the government directive of continuous Business Process Operation, there

is massive absenteeism as employees were not able to leave their houses due to
lockdown affecting transportation and the fear of being infected by the virus.

III. IMPACT TO BUSINESS

A. Background of the pandemic and the general impact it leaves to the country
or the world as a whole. Cite impacts on business as a whole.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by

severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a new strain of
virus first detected in Wuhan, China in 2019. COVID-19 is known to target a
person’s respiratory system. Infected patients may exhibit symptoms such as fever,
cough, shortness of breath, and in some cases, muscle pain and sore throat. Some
patients may also be asymptomatic. On March 11, 2020, the World Health
Organization (WHO) has characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic due to the
exponential increase of the number of cases in more than 100 countries. On March
16, 2020. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte placed the entire Philippines under a State
of Calamity amid the threats posed by COVID-19.

Currently, the COVID-19 has reached and affected the most and advanced as well
as the poorest countries but the most glaring difference is in the manner of their
respective governments to manage the containment and the isolation of the disease.
The case of massive unemployment does not discriminate the above countries. The
obvious difference again has been manifested in the way countries cushion and
mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the working and toiling masses. The
governments of both the strongest and the weakest nations have been facing the
problem of how to reach a proper balance of controlling the movements of the
peoples and to continue with the functioning of the economy or the balance between
the virtual and actual economic activities. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the
best and the worst manners of how on one hand autocratic and rightist governments
have taken advantage of the situation to tighten and suppress the democratic activities
of their people, and, on the other hand, some governments have seen the decisive role
of their peoples in controlling the spread of the COVID-19. This can only be done
with ensuring the participation of the people and can only be done by being open,
transparent and always in consultation with them. In the current phenomenon, there is
a great difference of how social media play to mitigate or to aggravate the
development of COVID-19 vis-à-vis 2003-3 SARS and the MERS 2012. It can be
used by those autocratic and dictatorial states to control the projection of its effects in
the positive management of COVID-19 in their nations. But it can also be used to
expose and tell the truth of some countries mismanagement of the pandemic in their
respective countries. Through social media, the world has come to know that most of
the countries, including the most advanced are not prepared to face a phenomenon
like COVID-19. It has also showed that the more the leaders of these countries are not
convinced with the seriousness of COVID-19, the most number of cases of their
people are affected. The earlier these leaders have taken actions, the most effective
these nations and the people to have contained the deadly virus.

The pandemic is creating a global conjuncture in response to which various forms

of struggle are emerging and proliferating. At the same time, its management is far
from being homogenous across national contexts: national political dynamics have
their own specificities and generate significantly different contexts for processes of
struggle and subjectivities, though against the background of a global conjuncture
connecting us all. These forms of sociality within the context of the macro-dynamics
at play and described above could also have effects on a potential new class
composition. To name just a few salient factors: rising mass unemployment; fear of
contagion in the workplace and spontaneous behaviors of refusal; the increasing
visibility and social recognition of low-wage, racial and gendered service workers;
social isolation; and the blurring of the lines between production and reproduction for
those who work from home and have to jostle between increased domestic burden,
cramped living spaces, and the times and constraints of waged work.

Figure 1: Impact of COVID19 Pandemic

B. Five (5) specific impacts of the pandemic in the operation and management
of business processes.

As governments make significant interventions in response to the coronavirus,

businesses are rapidly adjusting to the changing needs of their people, their customers
and suppliers, while navigating the financial and operational challenges. With every
industry, function and geography affected, the amount of potential change to think
through can be daunting. (1) Non-achievement of key SLA’s or Contractual
Obligations, it is where the contract between a service provider and its customers that
defined the standards of service to be given by the provider is due and was not able to
reach the expectation of the customer. (2) Business controls and/or financial
posture of a contract or account is assessed as high risk, organizational control
involves the processes and procedures that regulate, guide and protect an
organization, and controls start with managing cash. (3) Data security issues, due to
either inadequate infrastructure at employees’ homes or the lack of supervision. (4)
 Liquidity, cash is king—and it becomes even more critical during times like these.
Some companies have low liquidity, and with minimal operating cash flows, the
remaining cash reserves are on average depleted in less than two months. (5)
Increase in costs, businesses are facing lower revenue that results in less cash flow
yet the costs in different aspects of the business are rampantly increasing because of
unexpected expenditures to still run the business despise the pandemic.

IV. MITIGATING ACTIONS

A. Specific actions that a manager should do in aiding the specified impacts of

the pandemic. Each impact must have specific actions.

In our present scenario, we are faced with overwhelming, competing challenges

and uncharted waters as to continually navigate the impacts of the COVID-19
pandemic. Out of necessity, we should prioritized the Now, focusing on supporting
business’ people, customers and suppliers, and orchestrating responses to supply
chain disruption. In parallel, leaders have sought to stabilize revenues and take care of
customers, to reshape businesses, to align with evolving demand and find new growth
pathways. Leaders are rapidly turning the attention to the Next, a period of
unpredictable and possibly muted economic recovery which will raise new
competitive threats and opportunities at great speed. What follows will not be a return
to pre-COVID business practices, but more likely a decade of the Never Normal, a
new era defined by fast changing shifts in cultural norms, societal values and
behaviors, such as increased demand for responsible business practices and renewed
brand purpose. Against this backdrop, leaders face the urgency and complexity of
reopening businesses. To outmaneuver uncertainty, reopening also requires a program
of reinvention. This presents an opportunity—and a need—for many companies to
build the competences they wish they’d invested in before: to be more digital, data-
driven, and in the cloud; to have more variable cost structures, agile operations and
automation; to create stronger capabilities in e-commerce and security. This agility
will be core to the long-term capabilities they build. Leaders should consider the steps
they take to reopen as the first in a long journey of wider transformation.

 Non-achievement of key SLA’s or Contractual Obligations due to

rampant spreading of virus and following the directive of authority to
stay at home
 Ensure production scheduling can rebalance production lines
 Work virtually to stay connected to customers and colleagues
 Train for online collaboration and taking advantage of the
technology as means of communication
 Provide resources and support employees need to be productive
 Continuously assess the situation and take relevant actions
 Assess permanent market shifts and re-optimize your organization
to meet new market needs
 Business controls and/or financial posture of a contract or account is
assessed as high risk
 Build response room infrastructure and leadership
 Coordinated marketing and communications with customers and
stakeholders is essential, coupled with continuous assessment of
the situation, and relevant and effective action taken decisively
when required.
 Discover chances concentrated on becoming more flexible in
responding to arising uncertainties
 Data security issues due to either inadequate infrastructure at employees’
homes or the lack of supervision
 Employing privacy frameworks in uncertain times
 Enforcing data privacy in new digital world
 Improve security, privacy and continuous oversight
 Liquidity
  Stay in close contact with major banks (e.g. verify credit lines) and
establish a working-capital crisis mode that prioritizes payment
obligations.
 Enter a stage of fixed-costs emergency mode. And consider the
usage of AI in treasury management to set up real-time cash flow
overview and forecasts.
 Implement sense capabilities that can quickly assess changes and
their impact
 Increase in costs due to unexpected expenditures in this time of pandemic
 Create a war room with responsive infrastructure and leadership
 Create a cross-functional rapid response team to deal with
emerging challenges
 Pay attention to the financial health of suppliers and dealers, as
well as partners in general.
 Internal communications must also be effective and there needs to
be business continuity planning for skills and capacity to address
risks.
B. Supports that may be provided by the management to the employees in the
center despite the pandemic.

Everyone is affected by the pandemic, no one is exempted, and we are all

experiencing the changes – the new normal – brought by COVID19. True enough that
the only constant in this world is none other than change, but we are flexible, resilient
and adoptive to face to this changes. However for companies and business that need
to support their employees, there are many ways to give support, as every firm works
to further stabilize businesses, it’s more essential that ever for management to
communicate with the employees in an authentically compassionate, caring and
confident way. The management can provide employees with all the proper personal
equipment or PPE’s, give them some bonuses, and always remind them that health is
more important in times like this. Management who regularly and candidly
communicate to employees regarding what they know and don’t know highlight
authentic vulnerability that – by and large – resonates with all employees. In this time
 of pandemic, communication is really important to continue the life of any
businesses.

C. Over-all support maybe provided to affected employees.

Management can provide extra support for those employees who are directly
affected by the pandemic. Mental health is one of the most important aspect that we
can focus on, the management can provide session through social media – it is to
maintain the sanity of affected employees – this will work definitely. They can also
provide food packs (relief goods) and hygiene kits. The gist of this is to show
sympathy of the management to their employees and to give them hope.

D. Support maybe provided by the company to the community.

As the world emerges from this period of disruption, many companies are giving
support outside. Giving a hand to those in need is a plus point, we can see that even in
this time of chaos where we can just think of ourselves, they still insist to provide and
help others. We are talking about support for community, company can give
donations such as proper personal equipment or PPE’s, relief goods, masks, hygiene
kits etc. or they can also give the money to certain areas like barangays because they
know exactly the needs of their people/community.

V. BUSINESS RECOVERY PLAN/CONTINUITY PLAN

COVID-19 has affected every person and every industry across the globe, and it
continues to evolve at an unprecedented speed and reach. Lives literally depend upon
the ability of governments and businesses to respond quickly and implement
recommended changes. Take immediate steps to ensure the safety and well-being of
employees.

1. Establish a resilient culture

 Organizations should continue to execute work in a collaborative manner—
with critical knowledge workers augmented by digital capabilities.
2. Create broader ecosystems based on social collaboration
  Bring together highly skilled, distributed teams that can log in anytime,
anywhere and deliver on customer commitments at scale.
 Build a broader ecosystem around the organization’s workforce to enable
collaboration across a broader set of priorities—including healthcare and
childcare. This will lead to improved morale and engagement levels resulting
in better business outcomes.
3. Employ agile, elastic workplace models
 The best combination of working from home and the office, depending on the
nature and type of work and relevant skills required, can be enabled by
technology, data, security and cloud computing.
 Identify priorities and critical processes, including functions such as employee
payroll, healthcare and supply chain (to keep goods moving and services
ongoing); also, highly important processes and other services such as
payments, and necessary services in healthcare, insurance and banking.
4. Build a human + machine workforce
 Make transactional processes more digital and focus on value-led, proactive
operations driven by data and analytics to reduce stress on operations.
 Establish a command center for a virtual workforce to measure quality,
productivity, compliance, insights and intelligence, people engagement and
workforce well-being.
5. Adopt a distributed global services model
 Use a mixture of service models to de-risk the organization in a volatile world.
Distributed global services mean that high performance can be delivered
anytime, anywhere.
 Remember, empathetic leadership and communications are two key areas that
aid human resilience in difficult times.

This time is a real opportunity to innovate business operating model and to

fundamentally bend the cost curve to emerge stronger, faster and better than before.
Businesses could leverage new technologies—including applied analytics, artificial
 intelligence, machine learning and distributed ledger technology—in very different ways
to drive efficiencies, enhance productivity and improve resilience and competitiveness.

Crisis like this will teach us to be more flexible and adoptive, to continue living to a
new environment, and it prove that impossible situation could be possible – no one
expected this dilemma but here we are. Nevertheless, we should take comfort in the
resilience of modern economies’ ability to adapt, in spite of every negative happenings
we should be thankful we are living in era wherein technology is available and
accessible. These are all parts of new chapter, let’s embrace it and still believe that these
shall come to pass.

VI. EXTERNAL SOURCING

 Information about COVID19

www.covid19.gov.ph

https://www.google.com/amp/s/business.inquuirer.net/296071/covid-19-
pandemic-disrupts-property-boom/amp

 Impacts of Pandemic to Business, etc.

https://www.viewpointmag.com/2020/04/09/governance-and-social-conflict-in-a-
time-of-pandemic

 Impact of Pandemic to Business as whole

www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article52772#outil_sommaire_2

 Some Mitigating Actions

https://www.accenture.com

 Data Privacy information

https://www.isaca.org/credentialing/certified-data-privacy-solutions