'If you continue doing a certain activity for 21 days, it becomes a habit'

As Coronavirus has taken the world by storm, businesses all over the globe are resorting to innovative ways and acting responsibly to prevent the spread of this infectious disease. Although, we have witnessed a considerable economic loss world-wide, it is our duty as leaders and entrepreneurs to thoroughly understand the risks involved in continuing operations without taking any stern and serious measures.

 

Work from home has become a very effective and popular choice today for companies to tackle this grave issue. In times when communication mediums have strengthened fourfold with the advent of digital transformation, working from home doesn’t become a major challenge for employees today. However, it’s also important to do adequate resource planning to combat these testing times.  

 

I believe most employees today across the globe might have made the transition in an efficient manner and things have been far better than desired. Anticipating such undesired situations from the beginning, will help companies make necessary arrangements in advance. Now that the Government has imposed a regulated nationwide lockdown for 21 days, most businesses have made peace with the work from home model. You can never predict what could go wrong in the future and hence top management will need a short-term and long-term plan in place to tackle this issue at a strategic level. When it comes working with clients, partners and other stakeholders, most of them are supportive, understanding and considerate in these difficult times as well. It depends a lot on the nature of business. Needless to say, many of them are even open to the idea of using the latest communication tools and platforms to connect with teams, conduct meetings and operate remotely during this lockdown period. Apart from that, there has been a considerable shift in the way brands and companies are marketing their products due to the outbreak of this pandemic. Aligning strategies to these changing requirements innovatively, will be important to ensure that operations don’t get hampered in any way.   

 

For marketing agencies, re-evaluating the strategies that they might have already planned for our clients will be crucial by considering the changes in content consumption trends and customer behaviour. Research shows that if you continue doing a certain activity for 21 days, it becomes a habit. People will slowly get habituated to using products related to personal hygiene, due to which, there is going to be a sharp increase in demand in this sector. Similarly, content marketing is going to gain more popularity as audiences now have more time to spend on the internet Experts have also sensed that the insurance segment is going to bounce back in a big way and mobile banking is going to be the preferred choice in the coming few months. OTT platforms, e-learning, media and entertainment have also cashed in on this opportunity due to the sudden increase in digital consumption globally. The focus has also gradually shifted to CSR activities to create a better brand image in these trying times.  

 

Lastly, somewhere deep down we know that these are testing times for all of us. However, we also firmly believe that this is only a temporary phase that we can easily overcome if we stand together, support each other and do our bit to stop the spread of this dangerous virus. We would also like to add that we support the Government’s decision and hope that India bounces back stronger as soon as possible.

 

(The author is MD, Big Trunk Communications)