{"id":2489,"date":"2020-08-01T17:14:46","date_gmt":"2020-08-01T17:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gronenonline.com\/_gronen1\/?p=2489"},"modified":"2020-08-01T17:14:46","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T17:14:46","slug":"what-business-professors-are-saying-about-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gronenonline.com\/_gronen1\/2020\/08\/01\/what-business-professors-are-saying-about-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"What Business Professors Are Saying about COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Blogger<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tima Bansal<\/em><\/a> is a professor at the Ivey Business School.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This post highlights the contributions made in blogs by professors<\/a> from over 50 business schools, applying their many years of research to the COVID-19 challenge.<\/span><\/h2>\n

The day before our university closed down, my MBA students debated the price that the company that discovers the COVID-19 vaccine should charge. None of us expected the university to shut down indefinitely the next day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Two months later, I am still talking about the implications of the pandemic. Today (May 6, 2020), my students and I discussed the long-term implications of the US and Canada COVID-19 stimulus packages. But now we discuss the question virtually, not in person.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not the only business professor talking about COVID-19 with my students. Business professors worldwide are considering the impact of COVID-19 on business and society. As businesses fail and markets slide, business professors have insights into how businesses can manage such crises and avoid them in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this post, I want to highlight the contributions made in blogs by professors<\/a> from over 50 business schools over the last six weeks. These professors have applied their many years of research to the COVID-19 challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

No one can resist a good list, so I have grouped the ideas into six recommendations for business.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Respond quickly in a crisis<\/span><\/h2>\n

Businesses need to act quickly to meet society’s basic needs when a disaster first occurs. These are opportunities for companies \u2014 especially first responders \u2014\u00a0 to build their reputation and differentiate themselves from others (Meyer, Pedersen, & Ritter<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

One research team calls this rapid responsible innovation<\/em> (Gutierrez-Gutierrez et al<\/a>). <\/em>Companies need to stay calm in crises: exhibiting confidence, retaining their employees, and helping victims (Walls and Walls<\/a>). As examples: Spanish companies produced medical products and designed new mobile apps (Gutierrez-Gutierrez<\/a> et al). Nigerian companies replaced cash, a vector for spreading the disease, by offering cashless transactions (Nwagwu<\/a>). Many manufacturers have retooled to provide equipment to slow down the transmission of the pandemic (sanitizers, personal protective equipment).<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Don\u2019t just manage risks, build resilience<\/span><\/h2>\n

Ideally, businesses would prepare for potential crises. However, Dowell<\/a> says that businesses are unlikely to prepare for major events, such as pandemics and climate change, because they find it difficult to understand \u201clarge, complex systems and all the interrelationships.\u201d It\u2019s the Goldilocks syndrome: businesses are paralyzed if the disaster is major and imminent, yet they are apathetic if the disaster is slow and distant. The disaster has to be \u2018just right\u2019 to catalyze firms to act (Rivera<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

But, there is an answer to this paralysis. Rather than preparing for a specific disaster, Linnenluecke<\/a> advocates for building resiliency. This is the ability to respond and adapt quickly to any new situation. Paths to resilience include:<\/span><\/p>\n