FTI Consulting COVID-19 Response Team has assembled a list of functional-specific questions organizations should be asking themselves during this challenging crisis.

Scenario Analysis and Plan Development

  • Have you identified the alternative transactions your organization can make? Learn more
  • Are you allocating your capital to the right areas to help your organization thrive in a business climate marked by disruption? Learn more
  • The evolving global economy and macroeconomic trends will have far-reaching implications on business activity. How will they impact yours? Learn more
  • Every important business unit in your organization has a representative. How involved are they when it comes to contingency planning? Learn more
  • Is your organization able to monitor, audit, and investigate COVID-19-related relief disbursements and ensure compliance with government-imposed mandates? Learn more
  • Can your organization raise capital and liquidity in today's market? Learn more
  • How has your organization identified the new market opportunities in today's post-pandemic climate? Learn more

Communications

  • How are you communicating your response to the COVID-19 crisis? Learn more
  • Are you effectively communicating with your employees on your organization's COVID-19 response? Learn more
  • How are you communicating with investors? Learn more
  • Effective crisis communication requires more than employee and investor engagement, how are you engaging with other stakeholders? Learn more

Finance

  • Have you evaluated the implications of your accounting, financial reporting and internal controls? Learn more
  • Have you given your debt covenant thresholds a thorough stress test? Learn more
  • Are you evaluating the long-term impact of COVID-19 on your organization? Learn more
  • Are you able to collect all your accounts receivable? And are your counterparties able to make their payments? Learn more
  • What are the steps you are taking to improve your liquidity position? Learn more
  • How have you prepared a rolling cash forecast to help manage liquidity in the future? Learn more
  • How have you bolstered your balance sheet? Learn more
  • If you need to divest or carve out a portion of your business, how can you safely separate data and technology systems? Learn more
  • If you administer and approve loans through the Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program or other public funding programs, do you fully understand the risks to your financial institution? Learn more
  • Are you prepared for accounting issues around reductions in workforce and the related decreased requirements for leased facilities? Learn more
  • Accounting risk considerations stemming from COVID-19 may impact your company's financial reporting. Are you ready? Learn more

Legal & Regulatory

  • How have financial institutions built robust controls to combat new fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing trends? Learn more
  • How have you maintained legal obligations like discovery, collections and legal holds? Learn more
  • How are you preventing data loss when employees depart the company? Learn more
  • What will be the trade deals and trade policies that will spur economic recovery? Learn more
  • What industries have been most impacted by the COVID-19 fraud, and what types of fraud can we expect? Learn more
  • How will you disclose the material changes your organization has experienced because of the pandemic (and how will your stakeholders react)? Learn more
  • What are you doing to prepare for pandemic-related lawsuits? Learn more
  • How has your organization addressed the updated consumer credit reporting requirements of the CARES Act and individual state regulatory guidance? Learn more
  • What makes responding to COVID-19 so difficult from a medical, clinical perspective and an economic perspective? Learn more
  • How do you consider Pricing in a Crisis to comply with Competition Law Compliance During COVID-19? Learn more
  • What are the Block Exemption Regulations for the Healthcare sector in South Africa? Learn more
  • How do you assess excessive pricing cases during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa? Learn more
  • Is your Competition Law Compliance Policy adequate to protect your business from complaints about excessive and unfair pricing during the period of the COVID-19 national disaster? Learn more
  • Do you understand the implications of simply Invoking Force Majeure? Learn more
  • Do you need to resolve a dispute related to COVID-19 without resorting to costly and time-consuming litigation? Learn more

Operations

  • How have you reigned in non-personnel expenses? Have you put restrictions in place for travel, in-person meetings and non-essential training? Learn more
  • Your supply chain will be impacted by market disruption (if it hasn't already). Do you have short-term and long-term strategies in place now? Learn more
  • Do you have a strong Sales and Operational Planning (S&OP) scheme ready to roll for the unexpected delays and market challenges? Learn more
  • How can you shape customer demand to steer sales toward your well-supplied items and better control your inventory? Learn more
  • How have you led your business during these strange times? Learn more
  • Is your leadership going to take you into post COVID-19 age? Learn more

People

  • Do you have a full org chart plan in place for employees if any one is directly impacted by Covid-19? Learn more
  • Do your workers have important outside obligations like childcare or eldercare that limit their availability? Learn more
  • Are you communicating effectively with your employees during Covid-19? Learn more

Technology & Cybersecurity

  • How can you legally obtain data from remote employees for an investigation or legal matter? Learn more
  • A wave of Covid-19-related cyberattacks makes it imperative to tighten your organization's cybersecurity. How are you protecting your staff? Learn more
  • How well did your telecommuting capabilities stand up as your workforce moved from the office to their homes? Learn more
  • Just how safe, secure, and resilient is your tech infrastructure when the surge of remote employees logging in? Learn more
  • Do you have current incident response and business continuity plans implemented, in addition to an identified firm for immediate incident response assistance? Learn more
  • How can you ensure you are protecting data and maintaining data privacy policies while employees are remote? Learn more
  • For important cybersecurity updates issued by leading intelligence agencies, click here.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.