New Delhi: Non-financial services sector may witness up to 25 per cent fall in revenue and business disruptions of up to 12 months on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, says a survey.
More than 200 leading senior representatives from organisations operating in the non-financial services domain in the country participated in the Protiviti India’s Business Resilience Barometer survey.
The survey, however, noted strong revival initiatives amidst fall in revenue and business disruptions.
“Investments have to be clearly prioritised and planned out in augmenting the revival,” said Nirmalya Gupta, Managing Director, Protiviti Member Firm for India.
Gupta further said “industries would go for cost optimisation around their current/conventional ways of operating in some of the key business areas and certainly in the non-key areas and use the resources and cash available in more intelligent and efficient initiatives under the “new normal environment”.
As per the survey report, human capital, support functions and infrastructure costs are likely to witness major cost reduction.
The survey reveals there have been “strong revival initiatives amidst fall in revenue of up to 25 per cent and business disruptions of up to 6 months for financial services organisations”.
Around 55 per cent of organisations expect layoffs after the lockdown ends and do not expect hiring to revive before at least 60 days, the survey said adding that real estate and construction industry is expected to see the most layoffs.
While, a separate survey of over 100 leading senior representatives from the financial services space in the country noted that organisations in this space are expected to witness revenue decline of up to 25 per cent and business disruptions of up to six months.
“The financial services sector is resilient enough and will come back strongly. Organisations are already revisiting their products and distribution strategies with an objective of minimizing the impact and ensuring that customers are able access and purchase financial service products and services,” said Dnyanesh Pandit, Managing Director, Financial Services, Protiviti Member Firm for India.
Pandit further said that “organisations are looking at curtailing costs, especially infrastructure and rental costs. Digitisation will play a critical role in the revised strategy as organizations look to invest in remote collaboration tools, host their critical applications on cloud and build a robust security and privacy framework around them”.
