Message from the top: Ismail Al Hammadi, CEO, Al Ruwad Real Estate

Nobody was prepared for a worldwide pandemic crisis that would shift the whole world and change the entire system.

Now both corporations and small businesses have to mitigate the risk to companies and employees posed by the Covid-19 economic challenges with bold initiatives and agility to be proactive and not reactive to what it is foremost a human tragedy.

The first thing a company should do in this situation is to address the immediate challenges that Covid-19 presents to its employees, customers and business partners.

Second, companies should address near-term cash management challenges and a broader resiliency plan, taking into consideration salary-cuts, job-cuts or complete shutdowns, depending on the economic factors.

Third, and maybe one of the most important steps, is to come up with a return plan to get the business back to scale as soon as the Covid-19 situation becomes clear and evolves towards a better outcome.

Every company needs an exit strategy.

It has now become clear that the world will never be the same again and that we all need to reimagine the new normal.

We should reinvent our companies to be relevant and be clear about how the regulatory and competitive environments in each industry may shift. As far as Al Ruwad Real Estate and Biznet Consulting are concerned, I have adopted people-centric solutions, where people are my priority.

A remote work policy has been established from the get-go with virtual activities with in-person-meetings now replaced with video conferences. We were one of the first private companies to adopt early measures in line with the Dubai government guidelines and conducted a thorough disinfection of our offices shortly after imposing a work from home strategy.