How the Covid-19 pandemic has affected auto industry leaders
By Felix J. Mabilog Jr., President and COO, Columbian Autocar Corp
“In my life, I have witnessed or personally experienced several disasters, man-made or otherwise, but nothing compared to this Covid-19 pandemic. The effect to the whole world is devastating, to say the least. It has brought down the economies of all countries, big and small, the Philippines included.
With this pandemic, everybody has learned and is forced to do many things to minimize the detrimental effect on their lives, their families and their work. For me, the most valuable business and personal lessons I learned from this Covid situation are:
o The value of good employee-management relations. Due to business slowdown, a lot of companies, including in the automotive sector, have closed down, retrenched workers and/or implemented extreme measures to stay afloat and avoid huge financial losses. CAC was also greatly affected, no less. But so far, with the close cooperation of labor and management, we have maintained work efficiency and avoided going into longer forced leaves and worse, retrenchments. Employees/workers understand and accept the company’s situation and willingly cooperate in implementing cost reduction programs, including reduced working hours when necessary.
o The value of good communication. Complementary to the value of good employee-management relations is a good communication system/network. With the ‘no face-to-face contact’ policy and work-from-home (WFH) arrangements, office work could be greatly affected with poor and indirect communication. Thanks to Viber, Zoom, Google and all, we are able to hold the usual executive and inter-divisional/department meetings, on time and fast. It is observed that urgent and important matters are relayed faster and more efficiently during this pandemic than before: One of the few good things brought about by Covid-19 which we intend to maintain even after the pandemic.
o The value of good inventory management. Similar to what happened during the two big events that badly hit the automotive industry earlier—the 1983 Aquino assassination and 1997 Asian economic crisis, many companies were greatly affected and almost went bankrupt because they were caught with huge inventories in their stockyard. With sales down by (up to) 80 percent, many industry players resorted to extreme measures to sell off their stocks, offering prices below cost, some even went into the buy-one-take-one schemes. Having learned our lessons of the past, we have thereafter kept our inventory of vehicles and parts within manageable levels. Thus, our company was spared this critical problem during the pandemic.
o The value of perseverance and hope. For me, no other crisis or adversity that happened before had made so much effect on people than this current pandemic. I have seen, personally, how former ordinary and mediocre employees worked much harder and more efficiently now than in previous years. The pandemic has made them realize that they have to do everything possible and endure hardships whenever necessary to help the company survive the crisis and secure their jobs. With this comes the natural human instinct of hoping that things will soon get back to normal, not only for the company but more for his or her family. Hope is what drives people to strive, persevere and do things better. This is what I see in our people now.
o The value of family and friends. Again, one of the few good things that was brought about by the pandemic is making people realize the value of family and friends. Nobody can probably disagree that Covid-19 has made most families much closer to one another. The need for love, unity and caring for each other were never more appreciated than now. It enabled most family members to maintain their health and hopes during these trying times.
The same can be said of friends. As they said, this is one of those times when you will know who your real friends are. During the pandemic, close friends, casual friends and even forgotten friends made contact and tried to outdo each other in delivering, good or bad news, sad or happy news, jokes and religious matters. Aside from Netflix, they are good sources of entertainment that neutralize boredom and keep one’s sanity.
o Lastly, I believe that normal times will come back, sooner than later. As the saying goes, bad times or good times do not last forever. As sure as the sun will rise again tomorrow, this pandemic will soon be gone and become history. With that, the automotive industry will surely recover fast and attain unprecedented growth in the years to come. Compared to our Asean neighbors, it has a long way to go.”
