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COVID-19 response tools for business leaders

Checklists, articles, and learning sessions to help executives navigate the COVID-19 crisis and the next normal.

Returning to the Workplace | HR | Operations & Supply Chain | IT | Finance | Marketing & Sales

Featured Content

Executive Briefing

COVID-19: Implications for business

– Our latest perspectives on the coronavirus outbreak, the twin threats to lives and livelihoods, and how organizations can prepare for the next normal.
Interactive

Airflow considerations for businesses during the time of COVID-19
See what changes to heating, ventilation, and airflow systems could help limit viral spread in offices, retail stores, and manufacturing facilities.
Webinar

Demonstrating calm and optimism in a crisis
– A panel discusses how to attain an essential element of leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Returning to the Workplace

Reopening workplaces amid COVID-19: A collection of safety measures
A summary of methods that organizations are using to protect customers and employees from the coronavirus outbreak.

Returning to the workplace: Lessons from essential businesses
– As companies bring workers back to offices and plants, they can learn from organizations that have kept their facilities open during the COVID-19 crisis. This McKinsey Live webinar looks at the most important adjustments for safety in various work environments.
Interactive

Community movement during the pandemic
Shelter-in-place orders have a significant influence on where people spend their time.
Interactive

COVID-19 case tracker
Epidemiological data on the pandemic, with global, country, and local views.
Interactive

Employment impact of COVID-19 across industries and occupations
Up to 57 million jobs are vulnerable, but demand has increased for some job categories.
Interactive

Market valuation of sectors in 2020
Explore changes across global industries.

TOOLS FOR HUMAN-RESOURCES LEADERS

COVID-19 response checklists for CHROs

Three lists of practical ideas for how CHROs can keep employees safe while maintaining productivity and looking for a path to recovery.
Download the checklists

Talent Exchange

Eightfold AI, in partnership with FMI and supported by McKinsey & Company, has built an AI platform to match people to the right jobs in companies that are hiring. Employers can sign up now for Talent Exchange. Individuals can refer their organizations as well.
Sign up for Talent Exchange
Article

For smarter decisions, empower your employees
– Fully empowered employees make good decisions and resolve problems. We explore how various leadership and management styles can best support them.
Article

HR says talent is crucial for performance—and the pandemic proves it
– Five talent-management practices can help steer organizations through new ways of working and into the post-COVID-19 era.
Article

Sustaining and strengthening inclusion in our new remote environment
– Thoughtful action now can help teams build new habits, strengthen connections, and encourage the growth of inclusive cultures that will better realize the full potential of all employees.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Reimagining the postpandemic workforce
– Pandemic-style working from home may not translate easily to a “next normal” mix of on-site and remote working.
Article

COVID-19 and the employee experience: How leaders can seize the moment
– The return phase of the COVID-19 crisis is a good time for organizations to create more tailored responses to workplace challenges, expanding on the goodwill and camaraderie earned in earlier phases.
Podcast

Fostering employee productivity and morale through COVID-19
– There are several things leaders can do to help safeguard employees’ mental health in these challenging times.
Article

Reimagining the office and work life after COVID-19
– The pandemic has forced the adoption of new ways of working. Organizations must reimagine their work and the role of offices in creating safe, productive, and enjoyable jobs and lives for employees.
Article

Scaling rapid workforce conversion during COVID-19
– Amid crisis disruption or when preparing for the next normal, quickly delivering practical, flexible learning can help shape a business’s recovery profile. Here’s how.

Tools for operations and supply chain leaders

COVID-19 response checklist for supply-chain leaders

Practical solutions to guide supply-chain leaders through all five stages of the crisis-response cycle.
Download the checklist
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Ecosystem 2.0: Climbing to the next level
– After a first wave of trials, incumbents are shaking up value chains to attract new ecosystem customers—and tap potentially huge pools of value.
Article

Medtech’s call to action: Meeting the demand surge caused by COVID-19
– Five interventions have helped manufacturers ease supply constraints for medtech products during the pandemic. Important lessons have been learned along the way.
Article

Reimagining procurement for the next normal
– Procurement has led the way out of a crisis before, and can again. But success will mean rethinking every aspect of the function.
Webinar

Building more resilient value chains after the COVID-19
– It’s more important than ever that companies, as well as individual countries, boost the resilience of their value chains.
Article

Industry 4.0: Reimagining manufacturing operations after COVID-19
– Industry 4.0 technologies were already transforming manufacturers’ operations before the pandemic. Now adoption is diverging between technology haves and have-nots.
Article

Launching the journey to autonomous supply chain planning
– For many companies, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided the impetus—and a uniquely apt moment—for transitioning toward autonomous planning.
Podcast

Reckoning with supply-chain disruptions from COVID-19
– COVID-19 is taking a toll on supply chains—from suppliers to end consumers. Survival depends on knowing how to navigate disruptions.

COVID-19 response checklist for contact centers 

Ideas for leaders on adapting contact-center operations during the first three crisis-response stages.
Download the checklist
Article

Beyond contactless operations: Human-centered customer experience
– As we look forward to the next normal, consumers are already demonstrating a preference for companies that deliver great service while reducing risks all along the customer journey.
Article

Coronavirus’ impact on service organizations: Weathering the storm
– With thoughtful, judicious moves, businesses can manage coronavirus’ impact on the service sector and keep service personnel supported and effective—even during a crisis.
Webinar

Supporting service operations amid the COVID-19 outbreak
– Service-operations specialists from McKinsey discuss how businesses can ensure employees’ productivity and safety, meet customers’ needs, maintain business continuity, and promote accountability amid the outbreak.

TOOLS FOR IT LEADERS

Article

Leadership’s role in fixing the analytics models that COVID-19 broke

– COVID-19 has upended life as we knew it, and our new behaviors are wreaking similar havoc on some analytics models that rely on historical data. How can leaders enable teams to get analytics back on track?

COVID-19 response checklist for CIOs and IT leaders

Immediate actions that can help CIOs stabilize core business operations and technology and prepare for recovery.
Download the checklists
Video

How six companies are using technology and data to transform themselves
– In the first of a five-part multimedia series airing on CNBC, we look at how the acceleration of digital during the COVID-19 pandemic is shaping the next normal.
Webinar

Accelerating digital capabilities to recover from the COVID-19 crisis
– The rapid migration to digital technologies driven by the pandemic is likely to continue. This McKinsey Live webinar covers the four elements of a digital agenda for recovery.
Article

The COVID-19 recovery will be digital: A plan for the first 90 days
– The rapid migration to digital technologies driven by the pandemic will continue into the recovery. Here’s how to accelerate your organization’s digital capabilities to keep pace.
Webcast

The CIO moment: Leadership through the second wave of the coronavirus crisis
In this webinar, McKinsey experts discuss how CIOs can support companies’ digitization efforts now that the initial effort to stabilize the core business has largely concluded.
Article

COVID-19 crisis shifts cybersecurity priorities and budgets
– Cybersecurity technology and service providers are shifting priorities to support current needs: business continuity, remote work, and planning for transition to the next normal.
Article

A dual cybersecurity mindset for the next normal
– As companies extend commitments to remote workforces, cybersecurity teams need to address new risks while helping create business value in the next normal.
Podcast

Cybersecurity strategies for the digital workplace
– The COVID-19 pandemic is pushing companies to do more online than ever before. This McKinsey podcast explores what executives should know about cybersecurity in an accelerated digital environment.

Tools for finance leaders

COVID-19 response checklist for CFOs

Checklist of actions that CFOs can take to lead through all five phases of the crisis-response cycle.
Download the checklist
Article

Memo to the CFO: A new approach to 2021 budgeting starts now
– The financial-planning process for 2021 presents an opportunity to turn hard-earned lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic into an enduring exercise in linking strategy to value.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Why you’ve got to put your portfolio on the move
– We analyzed hundreds of companies, worldwide, across a decade-long business cycle. The conclusion? Winners change their business mix, year after year. Laggards sit still.
Article

No longer on autopilot: Lessons for CFOs from COVID-19
– The CFO must ensure that the financial-management approaches and tools being used to guide their companies through the pandemic stick in the next normal.
Podcast

Financial stress testing: A COVID-19 survival technique for business
– The massive economic shock from COVID-19 has made planning for the next normal increasingly complex. Financial stress testing can bring much-needed clarity.
Podcast

CFO leadership in the COVID-19 crisis
– How finance leaders are prioritizing their activities to maximize their roles on the executive team.
Article

Rev up your growth engine: Lessons from through-cycle outperformers
– Your decisions now will determine how strongly you come out of the COVID-19 crisis—and how well you perform in the next normal.
Podcast

Cash preservation in response to COVID-19
– How to establish a cash culture that balances urgent short-term needs with longer-term competitive considerations

Tools for marketing and sales leaders

Article

Meet the next-normal consumer
– Consumer behavior has changed radically in response to the COVID-19 lockdown. Understanding which changes are likely to stick will help companies plan for the recovery.
Webinar

Five priorities for rapid revenue recovery during COVID-19
– The muscles that companies can build to bring back revenues amid the COVID-19 crisis can also help accelerate growth. This McKinsey Live webinar covers the fundamentals of achieving new levels of speed and agility.
Webinar

How incumbents can build new businesses in response to the COVID-19 crisis
– A crisis tends to produce a wave of innovative companies. This McKinsey webinar looks at the six archetypes that incumbents can use to create new businesses of their own.

COVID-19 Return checklist for B2B marketing leaders

Practical moves for B2B marketing leaders as they initiate the third phase, Return, in the crisis-response cycle.
Download the checklist

COVID-19 response checklist for B2B marketing leaders

Key actions to help B2B marketing leaders navigate through the first two of five stages in the crisis-response cycle, Resolve and Resilience.
Download the checklist
Survey

Survey: Global B2B decision-maker response to COVID-19 crisis
– The next normal of sales: What has changed and how to win

COVID-19 response checklist for B2C marketing leaders

Critical steps through the first two of five stages in the crisis-response cycle, Resolve and Resilience, to help guide B2C marketing leaders.
Download the checklist
Article

Consumer sentiment and behavior continue to reflect the uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis
– Even in countries that have partially reopened, consumer optimism remains muted and spending intent is still below pre-crisis levels.
Webinar

Customer experience in the next normal after COVID-19
– Companies that adapt to the changing needs of customers will recover more rapidly and be better positioned than competitors. McKinsey experts review three areas for leaders to focus on.

About McKinsey Live

Join our experts for the latest on navigating beyond the crisis and shaping the next normal that lies ahead.
Register for upcoming live webinars

More Response Tools

For governments
Resources to help government officials navigate the COVID-19 crisis.

For small businesses
Programs supporting small-business owners during the COVID-19 crisis, plus guidelines on reopening.
Learn more

For healthcare providers
Information on sourcing critical goods and materials for responding to COVID-19.

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The contents of this site, including any statements, articles, graphics, charts, checklists, and other materials (“Content”) are for informational purposes only. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice or constitute medical advice.