India’s Covid Surge has a Fat Tail for Australian Companies
As Covid19 variants continue to emerge, the cause of which can be fairly placed at a lack of social distancing and slow vaccine rates that allow ‘mixing’ of viral strains in social settings, India is on the brink of a healthcare collapse and the implications for Australian companies, especially in the tech sector, are huge.
Technology companies in Australia are going to be impacted by the disastrous human cost now ripping through India. With a new India Covid19 variant emerging and a healthcare sector on the brink of collapse, Australian technology companies that have outsourced software development and call centre operations into the subcontinent are about to discover the organisational cost.
The manufacturing sector discovered and is still impacted by supply chain collapse as China went into shut down. Having outsourced significant component aspects for almost a two decades, the shut-off caused by China’s near full shut down of key supply chain cities has been a massive wake up call for many manufaturers here in Australia. The lack of domestic supply, of in particular, key health consumables has also been a whack over the side of the head for Governments.
For the tech centre, India’s massive spikes in infections means that key personnel, subcontracted employees and Indian base suppliers may be lost to the pandemic, or at least sidelined. Projects in development will be delayed or lost. Plans for actions no longer valid. Cintingencies plans for such an outcome (not the ‘event’ of a pandemic but for an outcome of ‘denail of access to’) should have ALREADY been drawn up.
In my work with companies over the past two decades I know that many will be in panic mode and playing catch-up to strategic plans too thin on thinking and too limited in scope. Wildcard events would barely have drawn energy at the Board table or senior management room.
If you have operations in India you have no choice. You need to get ahead of where this is going and whilst there’s still a small window for options, go through that window. The Indian Government’s denial of the pandemic, it’s recalcitrance in taking action and following medical advice to minimise the spread, is a decision that now impacts your business. The question for many Board rooms right now is ‘what are we going to do about it?’
Here’s a great bit of coverage from Foreign Policy that I recommend
One of the current affairs TV programs did a story recently on the efforts by NSW police to crack down on ‘hoon’ drivers through a specific squad targeting them. The Victorian Police recently announced a similar project with the squad headed up by one of Victoria Police’s most effective senior officers, Inspector Bernie Rankin. Unusually…
Read More >Lewis Hamilton, the former automotive Formula One ‘number one’ had his car impounded on Friday night for alleged ‘hoon’ driving, having been spotted by police spinning his wheels at a busy intersection in St Kilda. Whilst many character witnesses have already jumped to his defence, with one interesting observation from Mark Webber suggesting we have…
Read More >Following on from the highly rated ‘Skimming the Cream’ forum in Brisbane on the 9th of February, members of the Young Dairy Network and SubTropical Dairy groups reconvened to consider the impacts of Climate Change on the dairy sector in Australia using the high-impact ‘Accelerated Scenarios process’. The ‘2030 Dairy Scenarios’ brought together the members…
Read More >Queensland is one state that leverages its weather to the hilt – and the fact is the ‘Sunshine State’ earns its reputation. The odd thing is that in the past week I’ve spent in the Gold Coast experiencing the warm, humid and often wet weather it has occured to me that Queensland might be missing…
Read More >In a recent article in The Age, Clive Williams of Macquarie University’s Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism suggested that athletes booked in to attend the Commonwealth games in India need to consider a terrorist attack as a potential wildcard. Whilst an interesting perspective, I’d like to suggest that a potential terrorist attack at…
Read More >If my information is correct, the 14th of February is the start of the New Year and instead of the usual flowers and chocolates, you might be wise to invest in another gift for your heart’s desire Because Feb 14 is the start of the Chinese New Year – the year of the Tiger. So…
Read More >Had any thoughts yet? I have – plenty and judging from the number of media inquiries it appears lots of other people are also curious to know what might lie ahead in the next year or next decade. I’m putting my thinking hat on so that we can consider what 2010-2019 might hold, the second…
Read More >I’m tipping that Consensus will be reached at Copenhagen this week. Alas it will be a consensus for more talking, thinking and commitments to agree to a proposal to set a time for a discussion around more concrete targets. In otherwords, a commitment to not commit. The politicians waver whilst our planet is being poisoned.…
Read More >The cycle of consumption rears its head as it has done for quite some time. Consumption is neither good, nor bad, it ‘just is’ and right now the majority of media exposed potential consumers are being lured, enticed and occasionally conned into parting with their hard earned money to satisfy needs and whims. Some consumers…
Read More >Our son has just celebrated his fifth birthday and although we don’t make a huge fuss about milestones (the kids get a party every second year), there’s no doubt that he is learning about desired future outcomes and goals. I doubt he is different from most kids in his ability to spot something and declare…
Read More >