CLARK FREEPORT — The Clark Investors and Locators Association (CILA) hosted an online kapihan session entitled “Enterprise Resiliency and Getting Ahead of Covid-19 Crisis” via Zoom app shared through Facebook Live on Thursday.
The e-kapihan session was led by CILA chairman Dr. Irineo “Bong” Alvaro Jr., and CILA president Francisco Villanueva Jr., together with SGV & Co partner Maria Katherine Macaisa, and moderated by CILA executive director Christian Mañalac. Updates and insights on CILA’s different initiatives against Covid-19 pandemic and crisis management for businesses formed the core of the discussions.
According to Alvaro, the impact of the Covid-19 to the economy varies per industry. Hotels, resorts, businesses from the tourism and leisure sector, as well as services that require close contact were the first to take the hit economically while online business platforms such as other business process outsourcing companies, food deliveries, and logistics are some of the industries who can possibly survive the pandemic crisis.
“We are all eager to make a comeback that is carefully calibrated and aimed at containing possible resurgence of infections as we await the vaccine that could keep off the virus while making baby steps to restart our economy,” said Alvaro.
Macaisa shared how businesses are rapidly changing, thus the need to transition and adjust accordingly to navigate the financial and operational challenges posed by the crisis. This, she said, by creating an initial framework of the new ways of working in the transition of the companies and business at this freeport to a post-Covid setting.
“There are things you need to consider holistically. Adding dimensions and furthering the analysis around the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats can help lay around the business where you need to adapt, pivot, or stop doing certain things in order to transform the business operation,” Macaisa noted.
Villanueva suggested “robust action and strategic moves to manage the impact, and strategize amid the crisis by acknowledging the speed, scale, severity, and the societal and economic disruption.”
“This is the biggest economic problem that we are facing because we are all grappling with the situation. We have to continuously review our SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis and update it because we have a more volatile platform. Things are definitely changing,” said Villanueva.
