Lessons to be learnt from COVID – 19 by

Corporate India

Corporate Tax Planning

Assignment

MFM

Group Members
Name Roll No.
Usha Dogra 06
Jacqueline Fernandes 08
Jude Fernandes 09
Priya Gurav 15
Payal Joshi 18
Dishant Nagrani 29

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 LESSONS LEARNT BY CORPORATES DURING THE COVID ‘19

COVID-19 has forced the world into a new reality. We have to self-
isolate yet remain connected to our work and clients. COVID-19 has
also graphically demonstrated how connected we are, and how that
connectedness is a source of great vulnerability,” argues Michael
Davies, CEO of Continuity SA, part of the Dimension Data group.
“To survive, our organisations (and governments) have to become
truly agile, able to adjust or even change their business models with
extreme rapidity. It has become apparent that digitalisation is critical
in helping organisations to adapt at the necessary speed, and so is a
primary driver of resilience in this new era.”
It’s early days yet, but he believes that there are clear lessons
businesses should be taking note of already:

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(A) IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) ON CORPORATE
SECTOR:

The pandemic has pushed the global economy into a recession, which
means the economy starts shrinking and growth stops.
In the US, Covid-19 related disruptions have led to millions filing for
unemployment benefits. In April alone, the figures were at 20.5
million, and are expected to rise as the impact of the pandemic on the
US labour market worsens. As per a Reuters report, since March 21,
more than 36 million have filed for unemployment benefits, which is
almost a quarter of the working-age population.
Further, an early analysis by IMF reveals that the manufacturing
output in many countries has gone done, which reflects a fall in
external demand and growing expectations of a fall in domestic
demand.

Restaurants are a useful

Social distancing leads to a collapse in activity proxy for person to person
retail activity

Global restaurant diners were

down 89 per cent year-over-
year as on 18 March. Data
suggests this will fall to a 100
per cent decline and remain
there for several weeks.

Many restaurants, already

operating on thin margins, will
be forced to lay off staff and/or
close in the coming weeks

Weekly unemployment claims

in the U.S. surged 33 per cent
wk/wk data released for the
week of 14 March.

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 (B) WHAT DO COMPANIES NEED TO DO?

The Corporate sector and companies need to think over these five
horizons

Midst the lockdown, all the employers and the workers are still
assessing the situation, coping to work with the change.
This is how the employers and workers respond to the coronavirus
outbreak:

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However, the situation has shifted after 2 months into the lockdown.
Workers have gotten used to working from home. The productivity
has increased and even the employers share a comfortable space
with the workers working away. The outbreak has helped in building
a better relation where the employers have better faith in their
workers.

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(C) LESSONS LEARNT BY CORPORATES MIDST THE OUTBREAK:

1. Create Communication Pathways:

 Strong communication pathways are the key to successful

leadership development programs. It’s important to
continuously communicate to employees what they can do to
grow within the organization.
 What are the competencies required in future leaders? What
are the roles the organization needs to fill? What are the
learning opportunities or programs they can pursue?
 Additionally, opening the door for ongoing conversations about
an individual’s long-term plans for their career helps foster a
culture of growth.
 These conversations are important for employees at all levels
and at all points in their tenure with the organization–a newly
hired, entry-level employee can benefit from them just as much
as a senior employee on a management track.
 It’s the employer’s responsibility to work with employees to
help them think about what their careers might look like five
years down the line and help them build the expertise needed
to get there.

2. Build a Learning Environment:

 It’s important to consider how to implement leadership

development programming. Face-to-face, online, and virtual
hybrid learning is important modalities, and there isn’t one
“right way” of executing this. It’s about balancing options and
creating a learning environment that meets employee needs.

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 Online learning offers some unique benefits, particularly in
large organizations, as it allows for more interaction across
locations and offices.
 This can result in improved communication throughout the
organization and larger employee networks that can facilitate
coaching and mentoring. Professional development via a virtual
modality also offers students the opportunity to immediately
apply what they’re learning to their own work, in “real time” so
to speak, and to use their new knowledge to help others on
their teams learn and grow.

3. Foster Opportunities for Coaching and Mentorship:

 There are key differences between coaching and mentorship,

but the success of a leadership development program depends
on both being encouraged and actively promoted within an
organization.
 Mentors are often in different areas of the organization, higher
up in the organizational hierarchy, and able to guide mentees
through their careers. They serve as a resource for
brainstorming ideas, sharing personal experiences, and
identifying opportunities for development.
 Coaches, on the other hand, regularly work one-on-one with
employees to set goals, identify plans for development and
growth, and achieve career goals.
 Systems for coaching and mentorship can be formal or
informal, but either way, an organization needs to support their
existence and create opportunities for both to take place.

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4. Allow for Mistakes:

 As employees proceed through a leadership development

program, it’s important to give them opportunities to put their
knowledge and skills into practice. One way to do this is to
identify or create low-stakes problems to solve independently.
 For this to be successful, coaches should push employees to
think outside the box and give them permission to take risks
and make mistakes.
 Coaching employees through these complex challenges while
allowing for safe mistakes is an excellent way to help
employees learn in a real-world format and will help build
better leaders who know they are encouraged to think
creatively and bring new ideas to the table.

5. Start from a Place of Strength:

 When developing leaders, it’s important to remember the

principles of positive organizational development and
appreciative inquiry—methods that start from a place of
positivity during training and development.
 Rather than focusing on what an employee needs to improve,
emphasize the employee’s strengths, reframing areas of
weakness as opportunities for growth rather than issues that
need to be addressed.
 Providing ongoing support for how employees can meaningfully
build skills in areas where they might require additional
education or guidance and allowing for open dialogue around
how those areas could be strengthened, gives employees the
confidence they need to become strong leaders and
contributes to a culture of positive growth.

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 By following the tips above, smaller-scale programs can be
implemented quickly and cost-effectively, with the goal of
growing over time. Organizations that are starting out should
recognize the importance of finding the right partner (like a
college that specializes in this type of work) to build capacity
and increase the organizational leadership development bench.
 Institutions like Champlain College Online can help you find
efficient ways to scaffold and grow your existing development
initiatives: for example, our truED program has recently
introduced Champlain Stackables, a customizable leadership
and management learning solution featuring stackable learning
options, designed help organizations affordably fill skills gaps
within their workforces and focus on the key areas that matter
most given their unique culture and business objectives.
 Although it may take some initial effort to jump-start an
organization’s internal leadership development program, it is a
critical investment for organizations of all sizes.
 The organizations that take the time to create these programs–
whether it’s done internally, or with a partner–will realize the
benefits of cultivating talent from within.

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6. Don’t wait for the dust to settle:

 One of the major underlying challenges of COVID-19 is that no

one knows how long it will last. That’s why John Muffolini, the
national leader of technology, media and telecom with MNP,
an Alberta-based accounting, tax and business consulting firm,
says simply waiting out the pandemic is not an option.
 Many of MNP’s Canadian clients felt initial supply chain
disruptions in January when Chinese manufacturers started
closing — disruptions that were unpredictably protracted by
recent Canadian shutdowns. “This is an unprecedented
situation,” he says.
 So even if finances look okay now, we’re advising all our clients
to have detailed plans to deal with reduced sales pressures as
well as how they are managing cash flows to pay their vendors,
creditors and employees.
 It’s important to be aware of the various government programs
being announced to help with credit liquidity, tax relief and
wage subsidies. Businesses may face tough decisions ahead.
Knowing all the options and planning for the inevitabilities is
critical.

7. There are still opportunities:

 It’s easy to despair at a time like this, but Muffolini suggests

looking for business bright spots and ways to innovate.
 “Although bricks-and-mortar distribution to customers may be
on hiatus,” he says, “logistics companies are growing like crazy
because of the huge focus on distributing products and services
online.”

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 Amazon and Walmart, for example, are hiring more than
100,000 people for their North American distribution centres.
Likewise, any company that facilitates online interactions —
such as Zoom for video meetings — is seeing a spike.
 Mitsubishi Corporation, a global integrated business enterprise
with 10 different verticals across virtually every industry, shows
resilience in certain emergency situations with its diversity of
business. The company has been continuously modifying its
business model over recent decades. “Now pure trading makes
up only a small part of the company’s profits. Rather than
simply trading, we manage actual operations in each of the
value chains that we cultivated through trading. For example,
we have invested in shale gas and salmon farming operations in
Western Canada,” says Asako Vitous of Mitsubishi Canada
Ltd.’s Vancouver office.

8. Collaboration is still key:

 Business is competitive by nature. Something that has helped

The Woodbridge Group navigate COVID-19, however, is setting
aside competitive differences.
 CIO Hassan el Bouhali is regularly in touch with CIOs at other
manufacturers. “It gives me a chance to double-check my
assumptions and validate my thinking and learn from what
others are doing,” he says.
 Likewise, Mitsubishi is also sharing intelligence with other
Japanese companies, especially to parse any new government
and regulatory developments in the various countries where
Mitsubishi operates. “At a regional level, we cooperate,” says
Kitani. “We are trying to talk with Japanese companies that
operate locally to see what they’re going to do as the situation
evolves.”

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9. Plan for what could come next:

 As COVID-19 has spread, Mitsubishi has been able to quickly

transition employees to working from home with minimal
disruptions.
 In addition to strong IT infrastructure — critical because
“almost all the employees are connected to VPN,” says Vitous,
of Mitsubishi Corporation — risk mitigation training was crucial.
“Every year we do disaster drills and simulations and discuss
the possible implications on the business environment,” says
Vitous. “We get a notice from head office, giving us a scenario,
testing us with what we do in a natural disaster, for example, or
a breach in cyber security.”
 “If nothing happens, then such risk preparations are a cost,”
says Eita Kitani of Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas). “But
things always do happen. In Japan, there is always something,
such as the 2011 earthquake. We have yearly typhoons. It all
reinforces the need for constant vigilance.”
 Going forward, COVID-19 will shape The Woodbridge Group’s
approach to potential black swan events.
 “Crisis is also an opportunity to learn,” says el Bouhali. “I think
if there is one thing we should all learn, as a company and
individually, is that we should view risk management very
seriously as a discipline and at least twice per year take time to
review prevention and mitigation strategies for even wilder
scenarios. We shouldn’t disregard anything.”

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10. Put a crisis communications team in place and drill them

regularly:

 At times of crisis, communication with all stakeholders—

employees, business partners, regulators, customers, to name
a few—is absolutely critical. Yet it’s seldom done well.
 In the age of social media, it is all too easy for messages to get
muddled and to spread confusion. Clear roles and processes to
follow need to be thrashed out now, and the key spokespeople
thoroughly trained.

11. Keep up with testing and simulation:

 If you don’t know it will work, it probably won’t. A crisis is an
incredibly stressful time, and the last thing you need is a
response that has to be changed in mid-crisis.
 Regular real-life tests and simulations are the only way to
ensure your company is battle-ready—and that your troops
aren’t betrayed by their nerves.

12. Look carefully at your supply chain:

 Long, complex supply chains are a reality and this greatly
increases your vulnerability.
 Disasters that impact any part of the chain impact every link,
and the interdependencies need to be thoroughly understood
and planned for.

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 13. Work with experts:
 Business continuity planning and implementation are really
jobs for a specialist, so work with one. In addition, having a
work-area recovery facility is also critical.
 It’s not only disasters that can make it necessary—many clients
are using their work-area recovery contracts to provide extra
office space to comply with social distancing requirements.

14. Get digitalised:

 The current crisis has shown just how big a role digitalisation
and everything it implies plays in enabling agility and quick
response to the unexpected.
 Digitalisation is more than just technology; it has to encompass
a new process framework that enables rapid response to
changing situations, be they disasters or opportunities.
 Putting a genuine digital strategy in place is now an imperative.

“Overall, the key message for companies should be the need to build resilience
into their DNA. The ability to react quickly and decisively to change, and to be able
to recover quickly from a disaster, is central to long-term sustainability,

Thank you!

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