SWOT Analysis of COVID-19

Swot analysis of covid-19 (coronavirus). Covid-19 is one of the world’s deadliest viruses of our modern time ever since the Spanish flue of 1918. It has caused a worldwide pandemic due to its contagious nature. Covid-19 falls under the category of “coronaviridae” family and “orthocoronavirinae” subfamily.

The virus started from Wuhan, China, in 2019, that’s why scientist called it covid-19. It can cause vascular disease and acute and severe respiratory tract infection among birds and humans.

Fever, cold, memory loss, fatigue, coughing, difficult breathing, and loss of sense of smell and taste are some of the common symptoms of covid-19. The recovery period comprises 14 days to a month in some cases. According to research conducted by WHO and other organizations worldwide, it has shown that it’s a contagious virus. It can easily spread before they start showing any symptoms.

Most importantly, the researchers haven’t been able to develop any vaccine yet that could work against the virus. That’s why covid-19 has been so fatal. Social distancing, paracetamol tabs, isolation, dexamethasone, and other precautionary measures people use to take care of the patients.

According to an estimate, there are approximately 1.33 million people died from the covid-19 worldwide by the end of 2020. It has infected roundabout 55 million across the world and out of which 35.2 million people recovered from it.

 Today, we’ll discuss the swot analysis of the covid-19 pandemic from our perspective as human beings. That what we should utilize our strengths and opportunities to avoid weaknesses and threats. If you want to learn about external factors that how covid-19 impacted the world, checkout pestle analysis of covid-19. Here’s the swot analysis of the covid-19 pandemic;

Our Strengths during covid-19 Pandemic 

Some of the strong suits of businesses and companies that appeared during the pandemic are as follows;

E-Commerce

Covid-19 pandemic has pushed businesses and companies to focus on the e-commerce site. On the other hand, e-commerce companies like Amazon and others have had an exponential growth during the pandemic. Other world’s leading businesses and companies are now realizing the significance of the e-commerce industry.

Moved toward Digital Age

All the precautionary measures either the government or the healthcare professionals are suggesting. Like social distancing, e-commerce, wearing masks, remote working, and e-commerce are some of the major examples. The purpose of all these steps is to avoid the spread of the virus on the surface of the mainstream media’s storyline. But in reality, we’re moving towards a digital economy.

Change of Business Strategies

The pandemic of covid-19 has also made business smarter to prioritize things. They’re now realizing what is important to their business and what is not. They’re cutting down the non-critical projects and putting them on the pending list so that they could focus on the urgent and critical tasks at hand.

For instance, Zara, a fashion retail store, has shut down most of its stores in the UK. The company is reallocated the same capital into the e-commerce side.

Flexible

The pandemic of covid-19 has changed the workplace environment. Some businesses and companies are very strict and rigid about their workplace routine. The lockdown has brought the employers to their knees. Now they’ve agreed on the flexible routine of their workforce. They’ve realized that a little work is better than no work at all. The pandemic has made the lives of employees bearable because companies can no longer enforce their timing regulation on them.

Less Travelling

According to a report published in the Wall Street Journal, the US citizens have saved approximately 60 million hours from traveling from March to September. It means that people have saved 22 million extra work hours every day across the country. The pandemic has made people realized to focus on their work, even from home, and minimized traveling.

Our Weaknesses during covid-19 Pandemic

The pandemic has changed everything and the normal way of doing things. Some of the weaknesses due to pandemic are as follows;

Remote Working

According to a survey conducted by Forbes, work from home and remote isn’t working well for many people. It’s because not everyone is an introvert and work alone, some people perform well in the team. Businesses and companies have no other choice. They should either shut down their operations or make people work from home to keep things going.

Safety Issues

Things weren’t clear in the beginning and it made people panic. They didn’t know how to protect themselves and others, and how to follow the safety standards. The worldwide pandemic happened after a very long time. People never expected this to happen, but it did happen. Most importantly, businesses didn’t have enough capital to spend on safety standards.

Shutdown

The worldwide lockdown and shutdown have caused a lot of problems for businesses. People are stuck in their houses and businesses have to shut down. Especially businesses like the hotel, restaurant, transportation, and the hospitality industry are the major victim of the shutdown. They have to pay the bills, rent, and other maintenance costs without earning anything.

Mental health & Isolation

Worldwide pandemic made people panic combined with complete isolation aggravated the whole scenario. There was also an environment of fear and people were afraid to go out to buy basic supplies. The whole situation raised serious questions about the mental health of people. They had anxiety, depression, and social isolation.

Unemployment

Businesses and companies weren’t earning anything, retaining the employees was getting very expensive for them. Therefore, they started cutting down their workforce to keep the expenses down. Some of the new businesses were shut down permanently because they couldn’t bear the financial burden.

Capitalizing Opportunities during covid-19 Pandemic

It’s not easy to develop a viable business model that could work during the pandemic. It’s all about courage and resilience to experiment with different ideas, whatever sticks becomes the new business model. Here are some of the opportunities that come to light during the pandemic that you should consider;

Easy Access to the Professionals

According to a study conducted by Harvard Business Review, it’s no doubt that pandemic has hurt and shut down many businesses. It also caused layoff, a cut down of salary, and furlough. As a result, many skilled professionals came into the open market after a long time. That’s why the recruitment process of the major talent hunting companies have increased roundabout 9-15% during the past few months.

Government Policies

According to an estimate, the growth rate of Amazon has increased by approximately 37% in the last quarter of 2020. It’s because of government policies like social distancing, wearing the mask, and taking precautionary measures. All of these policies have pushed people to move from physical indoor to online shopping.

Government Relief Package

According to an estimate, the US government has provided a relief package of 4 trillion dollars to take precautionary measures. The government has also increased the worker’s and family’s protection paycheck from 667 B to 884 billion dollars. Other governments are also putting a lot of financial resources into the economy to revive the growth.

Work Remotely

It became clear to the business when WHO declares the covid-19 a worldwide pandemic that things aren’t going back to normal soon. That’s how they started using cloud-based platforms and work from home options to keep things going.

According to an estimate, the annual growth of zoom has risen approximately 355% in the 2nd quarter of 2020. It shows that many businesses have accepted the trend of remote working and work from home options. It was the best option under the circumstances. Those who accepted would prevail in the years to come.

Skill Development Program

According to an estimate, Amazon has allocated 60 million US dollars for the skill development program. Approximately more than 30,000 people have already joined the program. Its purpose is to inspire people to learn and develop new tech skills. This program has also attracted the attention of those people who lost their employment due to the pandemic.

Possible Threats due to covid-19 Pandemic

Scientists haven’t invented the vaccine yet. It’s the end of the 2020 pandemic year and the 2nd phase of covid-19 has started by the winter of 2020-2021. Economists are predicting the worst part of the pandemic is yet to come when it’s all over. Only then we’ll get to know how financial devastation it has caused across the world.

Less Buying Power

According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, approximately 44% of the people have been consuming their savings to pay up their bills. Approximately 35% of the people get their food and other edible supplies from the donor food camps. It shows the struggle of ordinary working-class people that are on their knees to make both ends meet. Small businesses are barely surviving and earning from middle to low income.

Isolation

It’s not only the people isolated from each other. Almost all the countries of the world are looking out for themselves only and their people as well. The concept of globalization and the whole world relying is fading under the current circumstance. Now countries are realizing the significance of being independent and self-producing.

Development of Vaccine

As long as we don’t have the vaccine, things won’t go back to normal. According to an estimate, scientists are predicting that they would be able to develop the vaccine by the end of 2021. Things would start to normalize in the 1st and 2nd quarter of 2022, it’s because of the development of the vaccine, mass-scale production, and its distribution takes a lot of time.

Government Policies

Some government policies have benefitted a lot of businesses, like online shopping and e-commerce. The other government policies like traveling ban, social distancing, and wearing masks have shut down the whole transportation and hospitality industry.

Impact of Lockdown

According to an estimate, the first phase of lockdown has lowered the British GDP up to 25%. The 2nd phase of the lockdown would have a more dangerous impact. Approximately 17% of the small business owners said that they won’t be able to survive the 2nd phase of lockdown. The condition is the same everywhere.

Conclusion: Covid-19 SWOT Analysis Example Company

After a careful study of the swot analysis of the covid-19 pandemic, we have realized that the world order is shifted from physical to the online and digital world. The best policy under the circumstances is to adapt to the new trends and capitalize on your strengths. However, the macro-environment like the government policies would always be a threat. You should learn to adapt to the changes and always look for newer ways.