The pandemic is possibly the closest comparison to the Great Depression. Debt is rising to record levels, supply chains have been disturbed, and demand in most sectors is weak. The question on everyone’s mind is how long is this going to last? How are business leaders across the world addressing the disruption?
ValueNotes Strategic Intelligence ran a survey, between June and July of 2020, to gather insights on how Covid-19 was impacting industries. Senior executives were invited to share the measures they were taking in response to the pandemic. There were 350 respondents, from across the globe, who participated in the survey. They were from a mix of industries such as construction, consumer goods and services, healthcare, industrials, and professional services, to name a few.
The immediate and obvious response has been to cut costs and ensure liquidity. Interestingly, more than half the companies surveyed have substantially reduced marketing spend in the last quarter.
A summary of the findings of the survey are available in our report titled Covid-19: Global Business Sentiment Survey, August 2020. Some of the key findings included -
- Food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, paper and packaging and consumer goods were a few industries where companies had seen growth in their revenues
- Professional services, automotive, industrial and consumer services companies were amongst the hardest hit
- Nearly 80 per cent of the companies surveyed had undertaken measures to reduce costs; more than half of them had substantially reduced their marketing spend in the last quarter
- 49 per cent of the respondents confirmed that their supply chain activities had been affected
- A majority of the companies cited identifying new growth opportunities and understanding customer needs as their top-priorities for the next 3-6 months
As forced shutdowns and stay-at-home orders continue to be imposed in many parts of the world, it's no surprise that barely 15 per cent of the companies surveyed believed that businesses and economies would return to normal before 2021.