Formerly known as the coronavirus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a global public health emergency, with China being the most affected followed by Japan (174), Singapore (58), South Korea (28), Thailand (25), Malaysia (16) and Vietnam (15), at the time this article was written.

Beyond affecting our daily life, this outbreak also affected a large chunk of businesses. A multitude of short and long term effects have been anticipated, from the postponement of events to missed launch target due to office closures.

Even Elon Musk’s Tesla was not immune to the consequence, as its stock crashed to 19 per cent after news of delay in Model 3 deliveries in China.

e27 has compiled a list of comments from startup founders from Southeast Asia on how they plan to cope with the impact of the outbreak.

The offline side of the business

The impact of the outbreak is more significant for tech startups with a strong offline element in their business.

Take the example of People Matters, who had had postpone its People Matters TechHR Singapore event. In a statement to e27, CEO Ester Martinez explains how the company has been monitoring the issue closely and had to make the difficult decision.

“I hope the situation comes to normalcy soon,” she says, expressing gratitude to the event’s partners and sponsors.

A different story happens to CoderSchool, a Vietnam-based coding school who had recently launched an online-only programme. While the launch seemed to coincide the outbreak, CoderSchool co-founder Charles Lee said that the school had not seen anyone signing up “just because of the virus fear.”

“We are prepared to do more online, study-from-home type of stuff, but so far it has not seemed necessary. One big test for us will be next week when we have a large event, a demo day for one of our classes. The hope is that attendance won’t suffer,” Lee says.

However, the approach that the startups are taking varied from markets to markets. In Indonesia, where there is zero number of confirmed case by the time this article was written, startups are taking a more relaxed approach.

While ride-hailing giant such as gojek is taking precaution by encouraging drivers to monitor body temperature and disinfect their vehicles, other companies such as DailySocial are not doing beyond what is commonly implemented.

“Of course there are precautions when meeting someone who recently travelled abroad, but that just means more people wearing masks,” Rama Mamuaya said.

Part of the company’s offerings include the running of startup events such as #SelasaStartup (“Startup Tuesdays”), and CEO Mamuaya noted how customers in the market behaved as usual.

“There has not been much impact in Jakarta aside from cancelled conferences abroad. Everyone still works, goes to meetings, etcetera,” he writes in a message to e27.

Business (un)usual

For companies with a heavier online presence, adjustments are made in their internal operations.

As a cybersecurity firm, Singapore-based Group IB has always put emphasis on its employees’ health and wellbeing early on, and this attitude benefits the company during the crisis.

“Funnily enough, I had brought masks for my employees from Moscow, but no one has touched it until now. We may be a little laid back about it, but we feel like the virus only affects if one is not cautious about everyday personal health and hygiene,” says founder Ilya Sachkov.

Also Read: Coronavirus is driving the world into an economic slump. How to cope up?

Circles.Life –which had operations in Singapore, Taiwan, and Australia– are taking precautions by limiting gatherings and encouraging unwell employees and those who had recently travelled to China to work from home, as prescribed by the authority.

“I think it is important to keep things in perspective and not overreact,” says Circles.Life co-founder Abhishek Gupta.

The importance of staying calm is also stressed by Philipp Kristian Diekhöner, founder of Tencha, author, and Singapore keynote and TEDx speaker.
“It has created uncertainty and stalled new business a little bit as event organisers are reconsidering whether or not to run their events, and enquirers for keynote has currently slowed. Equally, the panic appears to have taken the focus off some strategic conversations which underpin our advisory work,” he expresses.

“This taught me once again that fear of a threat is a much greater threat than facing reality and whatever it has in store,” the author further elaborates.

Lessons in life and business

Interestingly, this outbreak provides many lessons for these startup founders.

“These are key takeaways that we could learn from and emulate in our business: ensuring clear communication, transparency, and taking concrete and immediate actions,” explains Nikhilesh Goel, Co-founder of Validus Capital, a Singapore-based fintech company.

“This will see us through any crisis and provide the assurance and stability required to our business and external stakeholders,” he stresses.

For Circles.Life’s Gupta, the biggest lesson lies in the importance of having a “strong” Business Continuity Planning (BCP) in place.

“We were lucky that we often had to make such plans, given the heavily regulated nature of our business, but I can imagine many others not being as lucky,” he says.

Also Read: What healthcare transformation in Asia will look like in 2020

“As with most things, just acknowledge everything openly and be ready to listen,” says CoderSchool’s Lee.

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Anisa Menur Maulani contributed to the writing of this article.

Image Credit: All founders in the article, edited by e27

The post Keep calm and remain communicative: Startup founders share how they cope with coronavirus crisis appeared first on e27.