Crisis management: How are CEOs responding to the pandemic?

The Covid-19 pandemic that spread quickly around the world after emerging in the city of Wuhan in December 2019 has been hard for many and extremely tragic for some. There are currently over 26.5m cases worldwide and almost 900,000 people have succumbed to the virus. Unofficially both figures are expected to be much higher, with the lack of testing and diagnosis in some parts of the world preventing a fully accurate picture from emerging. What is clear, however, is that the many social and economic challenges brought about by the pandemic have had profound effects on how we are living and conducting business around the world.

Local businesses across the GCC, as well as those across the globe, have had to react quickly in order to survive.  The swift response by the authorities witnessed across the GCC, enabled by effective coordination between different authorities and underpinned by stimulus packages have helped bolster the local economy. Indeed OBG’s GCC Covid-19 CEO Survey found that 61% of respondents said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their government’s economic response to the pandemic.