Despite the devastating economic downfall and ensuing mayhem, the business expects recovery by June 2021. According to a survey conducted by PWC India, 82% of corporate business expects to get back to power by June 2021 as companies have given more preference for crisis management, operational efficiency and innovation.
225 CXOs across industries were surveyed by PwC India between June 17 and July 10, to assess the COVID-19 impact on business, the challenges it had imposed, and interventions considered by business leaders. 75% of the 225 CXOs expects lower revenue in the year 2021. Only 15% are expecting the decline to extend till FY22 as per the report titled ‘Value Conservation to Value Recovery’.
Priorities of respondents evolved from the small survival initiatives such as business continuity and employee well-being to initiatives for rebounding, these initiatives include to get back the demand and cost optimisation.
Sanjeev Krishan, Partner and Leader Deals, PwC India, said a pragmatic progression is visible in steps taken by CXOs from ‘repair’ to ‘rethink’ to ‘reconfigure’ in future. Digital simulation has become the key to facing this tougher environment and be resilient and competitive.
Due to the crisis, a significant revenue decline was faced by infrastructure, real estate, industrials, retail, hospitality and media & entertainment, a per the report. The main reasons for the decline in demand were due to the collapse in demand, supply chain disruptions and liquidity constraints. Sectors that were found somewhat resilient to the situation were IT, healthcare, pharma, telecom, utilities and consumer essentials. Ability to adapt to the changing market and crisis management was the key to resilience.
From the survey reports, 77% prefer to accelerate digital enablement. The localisation of manufacturing/supply chains, development of newer logistics models, collaboration to add capabilities & navigate bottlenecks and development of newer products & services centred around emerging themes and affordability are other significant anticipated interventions.
The definition of success out of COVID-19 for CXOs were different, 34% wanted their organisation to be more resilient, 19% wanted to protect or gain market share and 19% wanted to achieve break-even cash flows, as revealed from the report.
