Answer to Question #190327 in Economics for Gunu

Question

A particular government department of Maharashtra wanted to survey “challenges faced by Companies during the Covid-19 pandemic”. A team of three belongs to that government Department, has downloaded data of all listed companies from OGD platform. Now, they strongly believe that their target group of the current study is;

‘Active companies’. As a part of writing a basic introduction, they wanted to summarize the data they have received from OGD platform by keeping only ‘Active Companies’.

a. Simply Identify the measurement type of each column that exists in the data file and mention it along with the variable name.

Summarize the data (prepare frequency table) only for the “PRINCIPAL_BUSINESS_ACTIVITY_AS_PER_CIN “variable and write basic interpretation along with an appropriate graph.

Answer 1

Financial instability

A financial safety net is certainly important in a crisis. Business owners who had savings for a rainy day felt safer. They also had time to think about the next steps, develop a new product, or learn new features. And those who by the beginning of the pandemic had resource problems, experienced difficulties with the financial stability of their business, felt the crisis with a double force.

Even if there are financial savings, it is important to remember the rational use of funds and not invest them in non-performing assets, for example. In this case, it is better to abandon the asset in favor of something new.

Resilience in a crisis is largely determined by the stage of development of the company. Startups, regardless of the state of the economy, are in most cases unstable. This keeps the team in good shape and encourages them to revise the business plan, create a new product or work format. On the one hand, startups are more mobile and easier to rebuild compared to large companies. On the other hand, startups rarely boast financial stability and long-term reserves of funds. Therefore, even a few days of downtime can be a real challenge for them.

Morale of managers, employees, and clients

Many executives recognize that the first challenge they faced at the onset of a pandemic was the inevitability of change. With the introduction of restrictions, the usual coordinate system collapsed: the transfer of events, the rejection of rental space, the cancellation of projects in which a lot of effort, energy, and money had been invested. In this case, it helped to understand that the expectation of returning to the usual way of life is a psychological mistake.

Leaders feel a responsibility not only for themselves, but also for their team, so it is difficult for them to tell employees that they may lose their jobs. In the context of the pandemic and the lack of understanding of how long it would last, business leaders were forced to cut wage funds to a minimum and could not guarantee people to keep their jobs and wages. Many leaders have had to deal with panic and fear in the team. The mood of the employees varied from a feeling of complete confusion to accepting the current situation and being actively involved in work.

All companies, without exception, tried to save jobs and salaries. However, not everyone was able to avoid this: there were salary cuts, layoffs, and vacations without pay. Some executives said these decisions were the worst moments of the pandemic for them. But the desire to take care of the team and retain valuable personnel motivated the leaders not to give up and continue working. Another positive inverse effect of the employee sentiment problem is increased team cohesion and productivity.

With the onset of the pandemic, consumers began to cut costs and pay attention to even a slight increase in prices for certain goods. Therefore, it was important to monitor people's moods.

The current situation required a change in the approach to the published content on the website and in the company's social networks. The distribution of news took place through different channels, which made it possible to satisfy the needs of different groups of consumers. And work in the online environment came to the fore.

Negotiations with landlords

Renting premises is, as a rule, one of the main expenses of an offline business. Sometimes landlords refused to give rent deferrals.

Dialogue with the state

In each of the areas, working in a pandemic is accompanied by certain difficulties.