Companies are responding to the COVID-19 outbreak with 5 sets of actions

McKinsey & Company have compiled a view of the major work streams that companies are pursuing, based on conversations with hundreds of companies around the world on COVID-19 challenges.

Getting it right is not easy though. McKinsey have consistently heard about five challenges:

• Having an intellectual understanding isn’t the same as internalizing the reality
• Employee safety is paramount, but mechanisms are ineffective
• Optimism about the return of demand is dangerous
• Assumptions across the enterprise are misaligned
• The near term is essential, but don’t lose focus on the longer term (which might be worse)

McKinsey conclude by saying that the coronavirus crisis is a story with an unclear ending. What is clear is that the human impact is already tragic, and that companies have an imperative to act immediately to protect their employees, address business challenges and risks, and help to mitigate the outbreak in whatever ways they can.

Read the full article here.