Operating Your China Business During a Crisis and Contagious Disease Outbreaks
Published: March 2020Businesses across China were disrupted early this year due to the novel Covid-19 outbreak. The nature of this outbreak has led to some fast-thinking on the part of business organizations throughout the world – who have had to balance the quarantine conditions imposed with the need to resume normal work processes and await resumption of supplies. In this special edition of China Briefing magazine, we identify key concerns for business managers during such crises, including managing a remote workforce, using IT solutions to navigate business operations more efficiently and securely, and addressing the legal risks in case contractual obligations are not satisfied.
In this Issue:
- Managing Your China Business Operations through Contagious Disease Outbreaks
- Using Tech Solutions to Remotely Coordinate Your China Business Operations
- HR Management during Public Health Crises: Learning from the Covid-19 Outbreak
- Preparing Your Business Against Exposure to Legal Risks
Businesses across China were disrupted early this year due to the novel Covid-19 outbreak. The nature of this outbreak necessitated immediate and radical containment measures, including the lockdown of entire cities and shutting down of transit systems, which halted the resumption of normal economic activity after the Lunar New Year holidays. Such disruptions have seriously affected business operations in and with China. It has led to some fast-thinking on the part of business organizations throughout the world – who have had to balance the quarantine conditions imposed with the need to resume normal work processes and await resumption of supplies. That in turn has catapulted the importance of contingency planning and activated telecommuting as a safe fallback option.
The disruption, however, raises many questions, foremost among them concerning the management of daily operations, impact on finances and supply-vendor relationships, capacity and security of existing IT infrastructure, supervision of remote-based staff, and liabilities facing businesses in the event a crisis prevents them from fulfilling their contracts.
This special Crisis Management edition of China Briefing magazine begins by identifying the key concerns that business managers will need to address on a priority basis regarding the financial and operational health of their enterprise. This is followed by a discussion of the key considerations for enterprises investing in IT infrastructure or cloud-based internet tools to support or streamline their operations. We also focus on the more practical fallout of contagious outbreaks and their impact on the health of an enterprise’s workforce. We discuss the necessary policies that must be activated at this time to effectively manage human resources and monitor key compliances issued by the government. Lastly, the magazine explains key safeguards available to businesses to manage legal risks that may arise at this time.