Time to re-think business continuity?

The outbreak of the novel Coronavirus is holding the world in its grip. Within just a few weeks it has grown from a story about a localised outbreak in Wuhan, China to a global epidemic. National and international agencies have started issuing guidance on how to stay safe as individuals and on how to operate your business. It's clear that this epidemic has, and will continue to have a big impact on our personal lives for some time to come.

"... any disruption of the economic equilibrium can quickly destroy years, if not decades, of value ..."

Besides its impact on the lives of people, the repercussions of the epidemic are now also felt in the global economy, as global stock exchanges lost almost USD 6 trillion of value in less than a week when it became known that the virus was spreading faster and wider than expected. While stock exchange reactions are often highly volatile and based more on worst-case scenarios rather than likely outcomes, the severity of this reaction does make it clear that also economies and companies worldwide are expected to be severely impacted by the virus.

Without doubt we will agree that the protection of human life deserves our absolute highest priority. But let's also not forget that a failure of the economic system can have equally devastating effects on our societies. And this is what is extra scary about this situation.