8 business strategies in the time of lockdown

The world economic lockdown has caught of all of us unprepared for the new changes and transition of the situation. Because of this, many companies has been divided into more categories related to opportunity/crisis they face or the market has been lost. Below you can find the distribution by the type of business had they are place regarding the parameters mentioned above.

Figure 1. Types of business in the time of lockdown

The distribution of the companies is made based on more world statistics on the lockdown impact from March-April 2020 for business[1]. Also, this distribution reflects very well the Pareto principle 80/20.

Knowing the situation correctly we can find the right strategy both for using this opportunity as well as how to overcome the crisis we face. From this point of view we can find 4 general strategies for using the opportunity and 4 general crisis strategies.

Figure 2. Business strategies in the time of lockdown (I)

In the first two cases (Figure 2) it shows that these companies have a big possibility for the opportunity development, but they need also to have a contingency plan or how strategically to overcome this crisis in case it impact one of these companies.

Figure 3. Business strategies in the time of lockdown (II)

The companies that are in the position of the matrix of Figure 3, they also have an opportunity, but they are really threatened by the crisis. The companies that already face the “accident” they really need to think a complete new business strategy or event totally to restructure it. For example many restaurants that are surviving in the time of lockdown are turning a big part of their sales into specialty shops at their entrance as well as invest in food home delivery. The same are doing many hotels, they are providing catering or other new services based on their existing assets, such as home delivering transportation services.

[1] PwC Survey Reveals Expected Business, Economic Impact Of COVID-19 [online 2020]. Quoted: 21.04.2020: https://facilityexecutive.com/2020/03/pwc-survey-reveals-expected-business-economic-impact-of-covid-19/; Sondaj MiniCRM – http://www.minicrm.ro, martie 2020, p. 4; Youth Co: Lab survey reveals how COVID-19 is affecting youth-led businesses in Asia-Pacific. In: UNDP [online, 2020]. Quoted: 21.04.2020:

8 career strategies in the time of lockdown or unemployment

The lockdown because of COVID-19 has challenged all of us, especially the employees of different companies or organizations. But we need to know that such crises happen all the time in case of financial crises, unemployment, pandemic or different social unrest. It means that we need to be ready and approach professionally these situations in order to grow in our career or our business.

First of all in case of crisis we need to know where we are from the point of view of career in terms of income, life expenses and specialization we have. Secondly, in any situations there is a crisis but an opportunity as well as. It depends how we tackle different life transition experience. But in each case we need to see the opportunity and also be prepared for overcoming the crisis. Below you can see the four types of careers depending on the income we have or we need to have and the strategy needs to be undertaken.

Figure 1. Types of jobs in the time of lockdown or crisis

In this case we can have at least 8 strategies to save or develop our careers or personal development: 4 opportunity development strategies and 4 crisis strategies. The fist to 2 pairs of strategies refers to those who are in the new career development and that prove to have a good career even in the time of lock down or high unemployment. According to a general statistics analysis, there is around 20 % each of the total distribution of jobs in the time of lockdown[1]. Also this distribution follows the Pareto principles of 80/20.

Figure 2. Career strategies in the time of lockdown (I)

But the majority distribution of 60 % belongs to the jobs and careers that needs to overcome the crisis and think how to develop also an opportunity development strategy. The most difficult, but possible is for the 4^th situation that is in total crisis, this are lost jobs or unemployment both the for the home country worker or for the home comers from abroad.

Figure 3. Career strategies in the time of lockdown (II)

Finding a new job, or requalification and work for another field could be an option for unemployed people or for home comers from abroad. But why not to think of a developing a business model and launch an enterprise, reaching another level

[1] Poor Americans Hit Hardest by Job Losses Amid Lockdowns, Fed Says. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/business/economy/coronavirus-jobless-unemployment.html

How many jobs will come back after the COVID-19 pandemic ends? https://www.marketplace.org/2020/05/08/how-many-jobs-will-come-back-after-the-covid-19-pandemic-ends/