Does COVID-19 necessarily mean threats of business failure?

by Yuqi Shi

Since social distancing and other restrictions have been carried out in states like Victoria due to COVID-19 outbreaks, more people are working from home while keeping physical and mental wellbeing. Meanwhile, businesses are forced to find ways to a new normal restart.

As well as taking safety responsibilities, businesses are also responsible for demonstrating ethical behaviour in daily operation. Protective equipment produced by 3M such as respirators and coveralls are facing increasing demand in face of COVID-19. However, the focus of 3M management is still on fixing the price at a reasonable level to balance product line costs, rather than seeking to make a fortune during the crisis. However, if 3M failed to maintain an ethical position, then a domino effect would be triggered. The supply chain might be challenged by volatile investment and a collapse in customer demand and satisfaction. Eventually, the damaged brand image might result in business failure.

Thus, strong internal policies and processes are required as guidelines for ethical decision-making to pursue the long-term public interest and customer loyalty.

On the other hand, COVID-19 also “forces” leaders from corporations to make an innovative use of digital technology to facilitate remote communication, online product delivery, etc. In this case, data integrity is of paramount importance to the ethical business conduct. These eventually all contribute to reshaping the future of businesses.

The burgeoning COVID-19 crisis does not necessarily indicate that businesses are broken, but does call for ethical and innovative changes.