Edwin Bosso, founder and chief executive officer of Myrtle Consulting, discusses the changes that businesses will have to make after the coronavirus pandemic subsides.

The changes that must be enacted don’t represent a “one-time hit.” They will reverberate through the supply chain. First to feel the impact are healthcare systems, followed by the financial sector and energy prices.

While it’s crucial to focus on the future, the crisis also affords businesses the chance to look back at some of the issues they were dealing with prior to the pandemic. By revealing the inherent weaknesses in their supply chains, they can more successfully implement changes that will make them more resilient against all kinds of future disruptions.

As they emerge from crisis mode, companies need to focus on a few major concerns. The first is people — both employees and customers. Workers, especially, must be reassured of their roles in order to achieve future stability. Second is cash, and how it might be conserved. Pre-COVID-19, many companies took on large amounts of debt, taking advantage of low interest rates in order to fill their coffers and pump up the volume of their stock through share buybacks. That era could be coming to an end.

The third concern is determining how infrastructure has been impacted by the virus and consequent economic downturn. Companies might have to engage in a wholesale revision of where they produce goods, and how they move them to market. Finally, they need to understand how customers have adapted to the crisis, and how their needs have changed.

The goal, says Bosso, is to create a structured process for emerging from the pandemic in a stronger and more resilient form than before.