Report Sample on Covid-19 and the New Leadership

Introduction

Covid-19 has had detrimental effects on various fields, more so the businesses. Day by day, the negative impacts of Covid-19 continue to mount and weigh down on firms as companies struggle to remain profitable and maintain their workforce. Despite the numerous attempts to cushion the businesses from the various governments, the novel virus's impacts have continued to affect many businesses' operations. With the primary objective of keeping the employees and the customers safe and protected against the virus, businesses have had to make critical adjustments to their routine operations. During this period of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company leadership has played a crucial role in determining how easy and efficient it is for a company to navigate the pandemic. More than ever, companies have acknowledged the need to have critical thinking and innovative leaders who can make the most suitable and creative decisions that would be strategic to enable the company to remain competitive and profitable both internationally and domestically. This paper will primarily look into the clothes industry and how Covid-19 has impacted its management and leadership aspects.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Clothing Industry

The clothing industry has been one of the sectors that have been most affected by the virus since at a time when consumers are struggling financially, buying new clothing often becomes a luxury and not a necessity. Health and food have become the priority of most consumers. Larinor, an apparel, and fashion company based in Morocco, is one of the companies that have been negatively affected by the virus. Larinor company offers high-quality clothes that are stylish and gives the consumers value for their money. Its mission is to continuously seek new partnerships with major brands to supply their vast range of knowledge and experience in making high-quality women's clothes. The company has over seven hundred skilled employees who can produce over five thousand clothes in a day. However, the company's primary target market is the export market, has partnered with major brands such as Zara, Mango, and GAP, among other major brands.

Company’s Profitability

During this period of the Covid-19 pandemic, companies in various industries have made efforts to strike a balance between minding their consumer's mental health status and remaining profitable at the same time. The fashion industry is one such industry that has had to devise mechanisms that would allow them to be mindful of their customers' wellbeing and the company's financial wellbeing. Generally, although the consumers still want to hear from their favorite clothing brands during a pandemic, they often only want to listen to words of comfort and reassurance from the brand (Vakeel and Kaushik 2020). Covid-19 pandemic is no different, and consumers are only expecting words of comfort from fashion companies.

As such, clothing companies such as Larinor have adopted changing their marketing strategy and changing their messages. Because the consumers view clothing companies as their trusted partners who are supposed to take sufficient corporate responsibility, especially during pandemics, clothing companies such as Larinor have decided only to pass communications about what they are doing as a company in response to the pandemic and their overall contribution to helping their consumers and the general public to navigate their lives during the pandemic. Although the decision to stop advertising the company's actual products increases its risk of losing revenue in the short-term, promoting the products would have more detrimental effects on the company's financial wellbeing both in the short and long-term.

During a pandemic, advertising clothing items may be viewed as insensitive and selfish on the part of the company, which would then cause anxiety and massive outrage from the consumers. The anxiety and anger would make the customers feel abandoned by their trusted brands most critical times. Eventually, this would lead to brand disloyalty and hatred as consumers shift to other similar brands that show compassion and care for their consumers. Ultimately, although the advertising efforts may yield some limited profits in the short term, the company would have lost their customers' loyalty, which means a loss of profits in the long-run. However, companies that opt to shelve their typical advertising plans instead opt to reassure and comfort their customers while still informing them how to access the products to gain more both on the short-term and long term basis. They will not only retain their loyal customers but also gain more customers.

Creating Partnerships

Another method that has been used by companies in the clothing industry such as Larinor is to ensure that they effectively deal with the impacts of Covid-19 on their consumer's mental health while promoting the company’s growth and profitability is by creating partnerships with the government, non-profit organizations, and other non-governmental organizations. The partnerships would help the fashion companies mass-produce masks and other protective gear required by the medical officers, other essential service providers, and the consumers at a subsidized price. During crises and pandemics such as the Covid-19, consumers expect that the companies' primary objective would be to do what is ethically right to protect their consumers, employees, and the general public with little focus on profit generation. As such, when a clothing company such as Larinor offers to produce and other protective gears at a subsidized price, consumers can acquire the masks at a relatively subsidized price, which would lower their financial burden. Financial constraints have been among the leading causes of mental health issues among the public during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, any attempt to lighten the financial burden is highly appreciated by the consumers. Although the clothing companies may not make huge profits from partnering with the government and other non-governmental organizations, they stand a chance to make just enough profits to help them run their day-to-day operations (Vakeel and Kaushik 2020).

Offering subsidized prices for selected clothing items has also been an effective method that has been used in the clothing industry to lower the risk of mental health of their financially constrained customers while at the same time maximizing the quantity of goods sold for products. The concept of economies of scale production has been highly utilized in the clothing industry, more so during this pandemic. By lowering the prices and maximizing the scales of production, both the customers and the company tend to gain from the lower prices and the profits, respectively (Vakeel and Kaushik 2020).

Fostering Relationships

The Covid-19 pandemic has rendered face-to-face interactions in the workplaces impossible due to the risks of spreading the virus among workmates and their families and close friends. As such, companies have resorted to virtual interactions where physical interactions as minimized as possible. With virtual interactions, however, the healthy work relationships that had previously existed are likely to die, and thus, there is a need for the managers to foster the relationships. One way of promoting that relationship is by showing appreciation to the employees. Mangers ought to frequently recognize, praise, and appreciate their employees for a job well done. The employees’ sense of importance to the company is increased, which helps foster relationships between the manager and the employees. Affirmations from the manager are vital in creating an environment that encourages healthy work relationships (Neill, Men and Yue 2019).

Another way in which the manager can foster relationships with virtual employees is by providing the support that is individualized to each employee. When the manager takes time to understand each employee's specific needs and challenges rather than generalizing the challenges faced by all employees, there is a higher chance that the manager can develop a strong relationship with each employee at an individual level. Because employees come from diverse backgrounds with different social, economic, and living standards, the manager must understand what the employee requires to fulfill their duties as expected virtually. For instance, while some employees might have access to the technological equipment and know-how needed to work virtually, others might not have the resources nor the knowledge. By so doing, work-related conflicts reduce drastically, and ultimately, the manager can foster relationships with their juniors (Neill, Men and Yue 2019).

Conclusion

Resources can play a critical role in creating and maintaining the right communication climate in the workplace. During a pandemic such as the Covid-19 pandemic where face-to-face interactions are limited, technological resources can be used to send recognition, endorsement, and acknowledgment messages to the employees, which would then make them feel appreciated and ultimately help to create and maintain a positive communication climate (Neill, Men and Yue 2019).