Case study: Covid-19 and the transformational shift in resilience

Nita Kohli

The world was abruptly thrust into an unprecedented crisis with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Originating as a localised outbreak in China at the end of 2019, it swiftly evolved into a global health emergency within a matter of months. Leading a crisis management function within a financial organisation, I vividly remember closely monitoring the escalating situation in December 2019 as it extended beyond China, country by country. At that time, working for a US-based company with a domestic footprint, there was a tendency to believe in some degree of isolation from the pandemic’s global reach. Little did we anticipate the profound and far-reaching impact it would have.

Despite having pandemic response plans in place, the reality surpassed anything accounted for in those plans – globally, nationally, regionally, or at the industry level. What ensued was a cascading effect that reverberated across the globe and various sectors. Lives were lost or disrupted, healthcare services strained, the supply chain of protective equipment contracted, workers incapacitated, and a lack of understanding about virus transmission prevailed. It took months before transmission of the virus was