The Covid-19 novel coronavirus pandemic has affected the entire world. Billions of people have been confined to their homes as governments attempted to prevent the outbreak from spreading. By 2020, globalization had reached an unprecedented level, as nations and economies became deeply intertwined. The pandemic has entailed restrictions in terms of international travel and communications, which inevitably affected businesses across the globe. As a result, previously established supply chains have been disrupted, and companies must find new solutions to adapt to the new reality.
The pandemic has had an impact on virtually all industries on a worldwide scale. As practical observations suggest, the operations of international companies were severely damaged by the restrictions. As global travel was partially banned by many countries, transportation between nations became difficult. Giants of their respective industries managed to maintain stable supply through their transportation systems, but smaller players faced additional challenges. In addition, production processes saw major impediments in terms of worker availability. Local Covid-19 outbreaks led to entire enterprises being temporarily closed, thus paralyzing the process. Nevertheless, the detrimental impact of the pandemic became particularly evident at the distribution stage. Usual sales outlets either were closed or had strict regulations enforced on them. The number of customers decreased, as well as their purchasing power, and companies were unable to maintain the previous number of sales. As a result, the entire supply chain was negatively affected or even disrupted.
The Covid-19 pandemic introduced major changes in the business environment. It is difficult to predict if industries will be able to resume their previous manners of operation shortly. Therefore, organizations must adapt to the new reality by demonstrating a certain level of corporate agility. New sales plans and business strategies must take into account unfortunate scenarios, similar to Covid-19, during which the company was no longer able to maintain its supply chain. It may be viable to decrease the industries’ dependence on international supplies. While it may contradict modern globalization tendencies, localizing supplies and production will promote local economies and keep organizations prepared for global crises.