Financial and environmental resilience in times of crisis: A study of covid-19’s effects on Moroccan environmental companies

Abstract

The analysis of Moroccan companies’ resilience is of extreme importance, especially in times of crisis. Covid-19 is an example that revealed the shortcomings and weaknesses of most Moroccan companies when it comes to crisis anticipation and management. In this paper, we have chosen to study the case of companies from two important industries in Morocco: agriculture and tourism. The aim is to investigate the level of preparation of these companies for the crisis, their reaction during the pandemic, and the lessons learned to be more resilient. The two case studies show a lack of preparation due to the sudden occurrence of the crisis, however, the impact was different between the two, due to the nature of the activity and the business size; one is a small local company (agriculture) and the other is the branch of a multinational one (hospitality). The study case results show that most of the companies’ functions were impacted (procurement, production, sales, etc.). These companies’ reaction was different as well, from acting on the inventories and managing the production (Agriculture Company) to optimizing human and financial resources and exploring swinging activities (Hospitality Company). Both got government support. The two companies agreed that the most important aspect of resilience is finance resilience which considers the wider definition of “generating value” that includes in addition to the turnover, the environment, the social and governance aspects (commonly known as ESG). According to the case study, for better resilience in the future, a greater awareness of the importance of financial & environmental resilience is key, and the use of performance metrics and indicators (KPIs) is the way, to allow close monitoring of the activity to be alarmed in advance and strategically anticipate big crises.