Entrepreneurs witnessed personal earnings plummet by around 62% , according to a global survey.

The survey was conducted by 720 Transform - a Business and Capability Consulting firm based out of Dubai, Prophecy FZLLC, Middle East, an insights and research firm and India based Insights3D,a Research Analytics company survey covering 400 senior professionals and entrepreneurs.

Two-thirds (66%) of the respondents surveyed were Indian entrepreneurs and business professionals. About a quarter of the respondents fear that India would go into a recession and are making major lifestyle changes to adjust to the sharp downturn unleashed by the global COVID 19 health pandemic.

The findings revealed that one in every five high earning professionals saw 20% cut in their salaries over the past three months.

One in every seven companies are in deep fiscal turmoil with 75% drop in revenues. 30% of companies surveyed will need to undertake drastic measures such as higher levels of rationalisation, sale or merger as they reported over 50% fall in revenues over the last three months. While change is the only constant, an accelerated pace of change is furthered by the need to adapt to the ‘new normal’. The respondents represents a cross section of companies including multinationals, domestic market leaders, medium enterprises and small businesses.

The survey was conducted amongst top tier executives, which focussed on their response actions displayed.  A majority of organisations looked at business re-engineering through new revenue lines or by tapping into new geographies. A large number of companies surveyed are either working on new product offerings or are expanding into allied businesses to keep operations afloat.

Commenting on the report, Mr Raja Marur of Prophecy FZLLC, "The surveys were undertaken to understand what short term impact the covid - 19 crisis has had on consumers and how business leaders were planning to take rear guard actions for immediate term. Further, how the organizations are preparing for the post crisis recovery phase. Our belief that a new normal is being envisaged has been validated by the surveys. Further, the impact to organizations varies by scale and level of global integration of their supply chains.”

Besides cost optimisation through manpower reduction, most of these companies are looking out for partnerships and collaborations more than ever before. There is an increasing emphasis, especially among larger enterprises, to adopt technology for managing commerce, fulfilment and process automation.

Deeper reserves and borrowing leverage somewhat insulate large organisations in times of crisis. The key issue is related to the supply chain as more often than not, most are dependent on global supply chains.

The survey has also found that most of the business leaders use their extended networks as sounding boards to navigate challenges rather than seeking guidance from professional forums and consultancies.

Additionally, most leaders foresee a new normal in terms of remote working and decentralization, coupled with process automations and an increased reliance on AI/Analytics. However, these changes are likely to pose challenges in governance structures as also in communication lines and objective performance management.

While an overwhelming number of organizations have seen a drop in their business fortunes, close to 10% reported an upside despite the Covid-19 crisis. Businesses see challenges with regards to demand, liquidity and availability of finance with MSMEs being the hardest hit amongst all.