A crisis brings values to the fore. Though executives were talking urgently about the purpose of business before COVID-19, the topic is even more important now. Organizations across all sectors have a part to play in the shared goal of flattening the disease’s growth curve. At healthcare organizations, of course, employees are aware of their critical role. But the same mentality extends to enterprises of all types. Scholastic is creating new at-home teaching materials. Clorox is expanding production capacity of and consumer access to germ-killing products. And just about every food retailer is staying open, despite the danger, to ensure…

Equity and credit markets can go back to their recent lows, and probably slip even further if the infections caused by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic do not peak out by April-end, wrote Christopher Wood, global head of equity strategy at Jefferies in GREED & fear, his weekly note to investors. “In the unlikely case where infection rates do not peak out by the end of April, stock markets and credit markets will re-test recent lows and worse. At that point, there will be growing pressure for people to return to work because at a certain point…

April 8, 2020 5 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The following excerpt is from Robert W. Bly’s The Content Marketing Handbook. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble  Webinars have long been an effective content marketing tactic. Your prospects can hear you talk and see your slides right on their com­puter screens. A typical sales funnel for a content marketing campaign incorporating a free webinar is:Put up a webinar registration page. Drive traffic to the registration page with an email invitation. Hold the webinar. Make a special offer at the close of…

With the coronavirus-related lockdown hitting cash flows, many companies have announced salary cuts and even layoffs. This has had a knock-on effect on systematic investment plans (SIPs) of mutual funds, with many investors looking to pause or stop them. If you wish to pause your SIP, check with your fund house whether it offers this facility. Only a limited number of fund houses do so at present. Many that don’t have the pause facility at all are scrambling to offer it at the earliest, as it works in their favour if their customers pause, and not…

Horticulturists are incurring huge losses, with the lockdown forcing the closure of several mandis and disrupting transport to functioning markets. According to a research report by Credit Suisse, “With the rabi harvest season now in full swing, market arrivals should have be picking up for crops such as wheat, pulses, and summer fruits like mangoes. However, despite anecdotal evidence of a bumper harvest, market arrivals are down 50-95 per cent compared to year-ago levels.” Neelkanth Mishra, Research Analyst, Credit Suisse said, “Only a fraction of the nearly 7,000 wholesale markets in India are reportedly functioning. For…

You’ve got to stay focused on a single market until you prove loyalty and expertise. April 8, 2020 5 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Digital marketing agencies are some of the top businesses in the entrepreneurship sphere. It’s estimated that the digital marketing software industry will grow by 15.2 percent by 2025, and it was already estimated at $35.24 billion in 2017. For newcomers to the digital marketing scene, it can be challenging to establish authority right off the bat with so much competition in the space unless there’s something about your product or service…

As governments around the world take special measures to confront the COVID-19 global health crisis, people are grateful for their actions. In the end, every leader is responsible for his or her own choices, and leaders, at all levels, will have to make tough decisions that have consequences. What leaders need is courage, including the courage to prioritize. As soldiers say: Those who defend everything in effect defend nothing. If everything is a priority, then nothing becomes a priority. So I urge our leaders in both government and business to be brave. At times of crisis, it is not always…

Prices of most agricultural commodities have slipped below their minimum support prices (MSP) due to issues such as chronic labour shortage and stoppage of transport following the 21-day nationwide lockdown brought into force on March 25 to contain the coronavirus (Covid-19). The situationhas created supply pressure at mandis close to the farms, as cultivators are not able to get their produce to the much larger Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) located quite some distance away. Worse, with very few hands working on the fields, a large part of the crop has not been harvested and risks…