Top CFO tells not to revert to pre-COVID setup in post-COVID era

• Says continuing with certain practices adopted during COVID-19 could help firms manage costs better 

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the Group Finance Director at Brandix Lanka Limited, Hasitha Premaratne asked people and corporates to re-think before fully returning to the pre-pandemic era corporate practices. 

Referring to practices such as working-from-home, virtual meetings and seminars, which were forced upon by the pandemic, Premaratne said with the right balance being found, they could still stay even after the pandemic is gone, as the benefits far outweigh the costs, both from a bottom line perspective and sustainable future growth perspective for a corporate.  

“One advice from me is, don’t go back to pre-COVID because we have had lot of good things learnt during this 18 months and it has been forced on us because, if not, we wouldn’t have done lot of things as we have been kicking the can (down the road) as normally human beings resist change,” he said. 

Speaking at the CMA Sri Lanka National Management Accounting Conference last week, Premaratne suggested to look at some of those crucial changes brought about by the pandemic not just from the point of view of providing convenience to your workforce but also from the point of view of managing the company’s costs better.  He further said if some of these pandemic era practices were going to be permanent, companies would have to make changes to their corporate policies too.  While the country re-opened for business on October 1 after nearly six weeks of lockdown, office-based work is expected to largely stay hybrid where people are offered the choice of working between home and office given the workplace demands and in cases when close collaboration is required. “Find the right balance. You can’t have 100 percent working from home environment but you don’t necessarily go back 100 percent to pre-COVID environment. You can find that right balance - say 2 to 3 days of a week or in specific meetings - and look at how you can better allocate your resources and benefit out of those environment so you don’t lose the people touch, you don’t lose the importance of having face-to-face meetings and seminars etc.,” Premaratne said. 

However, as the companies and their staff have been working remotely for 18 months now, Premaratne cautioned the possibility of falling victim to cyber security and privacy risks such a fraud and information theft.  Therefore, he advised companies to strengthen the information system controls to minimise such risks as remote working is going to stay.  As the finance chief of a country’s leading apparel exporter, Premaratne said it was of paramount importance to manage stakeholder expectations in line with the pandemic induced business conditions to prevent undue stress in the system, while planning for the revival in business in the post-pandemic period.

Therefore, he stressed the importance of having two sets of teams in a company where one team would deal with the virus and its mitigation tactics while the other would focus on driving future growth in a bid to prevent everyone being too much caught up in the pandemic at the expense of the business growth.