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According to a recent Grant Thornton United Kingdom (UK) report on e-learning, around a quarter of all corporate training in the UK was conducted online. While this has been increasing steadily every year, a large proportion of training has remained face-to-face.

As often associated with the comic book superhero Spiderman is the statement: “With great power comes great responsibility.” In addition to my leadership role as a Partner for Advisory Services and the head of the Knowledge Management Group at P&A Grant Thornton, I am taking on new professional roles with the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) – as chair of the Metro Manila Region (MMR) Council and as national vice president for public practice.

Businesses that can effectively anticipate threats and opportunities are likely to be more resilient. They outperform their rivals and especially so during times of extreme turbulence.

Quoting a famous movie line walang personalan, trabaho lang, the new work-from-home reality proved these two concepts as inseparable — that we can cook, play with our kids, or book a Grab meal while working. This shift has strengthened our resiliency as a people and our culture of being a communal society. In our household, we assign tasks among household members: one takes care of marketing within the budget and chores are rotated among family members. In my case, I have never missed our 8:00 dinner — the same time at which our barangay siren sounds to indicate the start of curfew.

As we approach the start of the school year on August 24, most schools and higher education institutions (HEIs) and teachers, students and parents are still confused about what education will look like in the new normal.

The economic and market environment today is characterized by the unprecedented levels of uncertainty brought by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. Stock markets around the world are experiencing dramatic declines and extreme volatility as investors sell off their equity investments and flee to assets considered safe havens (e.g., gold and government debt). The full extent of the economic and business disruptions, duration of the crisis, time to recover, shape of recovery and possibility of a second wave of Covid-19 infections are still unknown. All these factors have made valuations challenging.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has had a disruptive effect on our lives and the economy. It is all over the headlines: missed sales targets, lost earnings, foreclosures and job losses. At times like these, organizations often consider downsizing or reducing the number of employees. However, downsizing as a management directive must be implemented as a last resort. Rather than take such drastic and irreversible measures, companies may want to reconsider other options and opportunities such as strategic organizational rightsizing.

I have seen the human resources (HR) profession and its related functions progress in the past two decades from managing administrative personnel to being a stakeholder that mirrors changes in the business. Over the past two months, however, HR’s leadership and influence have been put to the test in response to the disruption caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).