Title: Case Study Research

Course Name: Advanced Research Methods

Course of Study: MA Marketing Management

Date: 25-12-2021

Author: Ahsan Ali Awan

Matriculation Number: 92103185
Tutor: Prof. Dr. Dorothea Biaback Anong
Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................1
Research Problem:........................................................................................................................2
Literature Review:..........................................................................................................................2
Pakistan’s e-commerce industry and Covid-19.............................................................................3
Research Methodology..................................................................................................................4
Question #1...................................................................................................................................4
Suitable case study design:.......................................................................................................5
Advantages of Exploratory case study...................................................................................5
Disadvantages of Exploratory case study..............................................................................5
Less suitable case study design:...............................................................................................5
Advantages of multiple case study method............................................................................6
Disadvantages of multiple case study method.......................................................................6
Question #2...................................................................................................................................6
Foodpanda.................................................................................................................................6
Nestle.........................................................................................................................................7
Comparison of both companies.................................................................................................7
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................8
References:...................................................................................................................................9
Appendix:.....................................................................................................................................10
List of abbreviation:
ILO (International Labor Organization)
UN (United Nations)
MOU (Memorandum of understanding)
1|Page

Introduction

The aim of this case study is to identify how the pandemic has changed human life around the
world and how it has impacted different individuals in different ways. Besides, the focus of this
case study is also on identifying how the research method of case study is best for identifying such
issues which happen in the real world. There are different types of case study research methods
which are used for different scenarios. The type of case study research that has been focused on
for this issue is “Exploratory case study method”.

In the first phase of this paper it will be explained why the exploratory method is best fit for this
topic and in the next phase the focus will shift to on how the pandemic has made drastic changes
in human life. Apart from this, two different types of organizations will be compared to see how the
employees of that respective organization have managed to pass the lockdown time period, how it
has impacted the organization as whole and what measures were taken from the organization to
help the employees.

The organizations that are selected for this comparison are, Foodpanda and Nestle and the
comparison will be made on the basis of their operations done in Pakistan during the COVID-19
lockdown period. Two in-depth structured interviews have been conducted with senior employees
of the respective organizations in order to know about the inside information about employees'
situation during the lockdown phase.

The two companies differ a lot in Pakistan in terms of its operations and daily routine work.
Foodpanda is a totally e-commerce based company, whereas, Nestle works as a traditional
company in Pakistan’s market where physical and in-person contact is necessary and compulsory
for its operations to run.

It has been found that both companies dealt with this pandemic in a similar way in terms of
introducing work from home policy; however, the sales of one company increased and broke all
time high records and on the other hand, sales of other company declined. The reason behind this
is e-commerce. Those brands which incorporated e-commerce in their business during the
pandemic saw a huge spike in their sales, whereas, traditional retailers with physical shops
suffered huge losses.

According to a (UN, 2020) report the sales of e-commerce companies increased to 26.7 trillion
dollars in 2020. The reason behind this sudden increase in sales of these companies was strict
lockdown around the world and fear of going out in crowded places due to the pandemic; also it
shows how a pandemic changed consumer buying behavior around the world.

Further in this paper, it will be analyzed how both companies came up with different strategies to
cope-up with the pandemic and to help their employees in the difficult times.
2|Page

Research Problem:
The pandemic has impacted everyone around the world, be it individuals or businesses and
everyone is trying to cope-up with this phenomenon in different ways. However, the lockdowns and
working from home policies has been a real issue for many people around the world and it has also
resulted in mental health problems as well as physical problems for the employees (Singh et al.,
2020) (Tušl, Brauchli, Kerksieck, & Bauer, 2021).

Just like every other country, Pakistan also faced unprecedented times due to the pandemic and
being a developing country the situation was much more difficult as compared to that of developed
nations in terms of economy, jobs, income and health care.

The objective of this case study is to identify how the pandemic has impacted different
organizations and more specifically the employees and their work and living patterns at large. For
this, two international organizations that are also working in Pakistan have been selected, both of
different nature in terms of its operations and day to day routine.

Literature Review:

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a significant loss of human life around the world, and it
poses an enormous risk to human health, economic system, and the workforce. The pandemic has
wiped out jobs and put countless lives in jeopardy. Women all over the world and men's food
security and nutrition has been compromised as heads of households lost their jobs, became sick,
and died. Besides, the under-developed nations, notably the most vulnerable populations, such as
farmers and poor people, have been badly affected (Chriscaden, 2020).

COVID-19 has had an impact on daily life, slowed the world economy, and affected exchange of
goods and services and transportation (Haleem, Javaid, & Vaishya, 2020). Furthermore, the
pandemic has had major psychological and economic impacts for the common people. Kids,
students, and employees, for example, are more likely to acquire post-traumatic stress, anxiety,
depression, and other issues, as per research of (Saladino, Algeri, & Auriemma, 2020).

Household consumption started to drop significantly at the start of the year, when the pandemic
broke out, particularly in the retail side. By the mid of the 2020, visitors to restaurants, cafés, malls,
amusement parks, museums, libraries, and cinemas had dropped by about 60%, and in some
European countries, it declined by more than 80% (Maria Cotofan, 2021).

Economic crises of this magnitude had a significant impact on the worldwide workforce; over 90%
of the world's workforce lived in nations where lockdowns for some major industries were still in
effect as of January 2021 and as a result of this, unemployment has risen in many nations around
the world.
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Global working hours decreased by 17.3 percent in the mid of 2020, as per the International Labor
Organization (ILO). This equates to the loss of 495 million full-time jobs. Total working-hour losses
by the end of the year were approximately four times higher than it was during the Global
Recession of 2009. These drastic cuts in working time have been followed by similarly drastic cuts
in salaries. In 2020, income of workers fell by 8.3%, leading to a loss of 4.4 percent of the world
GDP.

This pandemic has changed everything from how we live to how we work and how we interact with
people and this has resulted in different mental and physical health problems for people around the
world. According to a study, 30% of employees said their professional and personal routines had
deteriorated, and 31% said the situation had an adverse impact upon their daily tasks related to
work and personal life (Tušl et al., 2021).

According to report of (Erica Coe, 2021) working parents reported a variety of challenges, including
a lack of work–life balance, increased responsibilities at both work and home, issues of workplace
health and safety in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, an absence of social support due to strict
lockdowns and greater isolation, and notable changes in organizational structure impacting their
jobs.

While every person individually and business as a whole suffered losses, there were some brands
and organizations that took full advantage of the lockdown situation which eventually resulted in
higher sales and revenue in the year 2020. COVID-19 has elevated e-commerce to the center of
the retail business. Prior to the pandemic, online purchasing was rising steadily. However, the retail
sector has shifted dramatically this year, owing to a number of public health-related restrictions and
an increasing customer desire for avoiding physical outlets. Conventional stores with poor online
tactics decreased, with several famous one’s going bankrupt. Companies who were capable of
adapting to digital platforms succeeded in general, whereas traditional businesses with bad online
tactics declined (BAIJAL, 2020).

For instance, Amazon’s income for the first half of 2020 grew by 47 percent due to its e-commerce
operations (Hernandez, 2020) and in Asian countries e-commerce operations grew significantly as
well (OECD, 2020).

Pakistan’s e-commerce industry and Covid-19

After 2020, the world has shifted increasingly towards digitalization as a result of covid-19. From e-
commerce to video - conferencing and working from home, to digital documentation and contracts,
to digital exchanges, people are switching more and more to digitalization. This has facilitated the
current global digital revolution, specifically in the area of trade and e-commerce across economies
in every corner of the world, including Pakistan.
4|Page

Although several businesses of Pakistan's economy are still under significant stress as a
consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic and earlier implemented lockdowns, the country's e-
commerce sector has seen a significant increase in sales, with industry insiders predicting that an
upward trend will continue once the pandemic comes to an end. People began to use contactless
sale and purchase methods following the spread of COVID-19, driving the sector to a new pinnacle
of success. As per the latest statistics from the Government of Pakistan, the country's e-commerce
market grew by 78.9% in volume in fiscal year 2020 (Huaxia, 2021).

COVID-19 has led consumers to shop online from the comfort of their own homes. Purchasers rely
extensively on social media and website of different brands for everything from food and personal
items to clothing and accessories, from gadgets and indoor fitness equipment to electronics and
digital devices.

In Pakistan, two brands, Foodpanda and Airlift, are competing for market dominance. Both
organizations have implemented dark store formats in various prominent areas of the big cities of
the country, which allows them to ensure delivery in less than 30 minutes. Munchies, another small
brand, has raised $2.5 million by implementing dark store strategy and has successfully
established itself in the biggest city of Pakistan (DAWN, 2021).

Research Methodology
The type of case study that has been selected for this research problem is exploratory research
method. The research is qualitative based and for this two in-depth structured interviews have
been conducted with the company officials to know about the situation of employees during the
pandemic and what strategies the company came up with to reduce the impact of the lockdown
and pandemic on its revenue and sales. Besides, the sample is based on a non-probability
convenience sampling method.

Question #1
When an in-depth understanding of a topic, incident, or area of interest in its natural real-life setting
is required, the case study style is extremely effective. A case study could be described in a
number of ways, but the main principle is that it must investigate an event or phenomena in detail
and in its naturalistic way. Case studies, according to (RK, 2009), could also be used to describe,
analyze, or investigate events that occur in their naturalistic environments.

The case study approach is a type of qualitative analysis in which a phenomenon or an event is
studied thoroughly and comprehensively; attempts are made to investigate each and almost every
component of the event in depth; and then conclusions are derived from the data acquired.

Here in this case, the covid-19 is a global phenomenon which impacts every person around the
world individually and collectively. So as a case study is a perfect qualitative tool to study a real life
5|Page

phenomenon and that too in a real life setting and a naturalistic way it is the best tool to study the
impacts of the pandemic on human life.

Suitable case study design:

Exploratory case studies are extremely significant for naturalistic study or research since their
primarily focus is on real-life circumstances and surroundings. Besides, it is also used where a
deep knowledge of a particular phenomenon is needed and is also used for topics where thorough
investigation or research has not been done previously.

So in this case, where covid-19 has impacted every human and business around the world,
exploratory case study research method is best suited as it useful to study real life phenomenon;
besides, not much researches has been done on comparison of companies that have been
impacted by the pandemic.

Advantages of Exploratory case study

 Exploratory case study is known for its flexibility, it allows to add new things in the research
even when the research is half way through. This advantage helped a lot in this research,
as I added a few more questions in my research when it was already half way through.
 It does not incur huge costs as the research methods are, focus groups, interviews and
prior literature studies. For this research, simple structured interviews were conducted
which did not incur any cost at all.
 It also works as a building block for more advanced research. An advanced quantitative
study can be done based on this research.
 It also allows to conduct the research remotely without going out and meeting people in
person, which is most useful under current circumstances as the new variant of covid-19 is
spreading quickly.
 It helps in understanding the deep insights of the research topic.

Disadvantages of Exploratory case study

 Exploratory case study uses qualitative research methods which, in comparison to
quantitative research, are less conclusive and authentic.
 This case study method uses a small number of audience for research and in result it
cannot be considered as a representative for whole audience.
 In qualitative research, interviewer understanding and interpretation of the data collected
through focus groups or interviews impacts the final results.

Less suitable case study design:

A multiple case study method requires studying different cases and finding similarities and
differences among them to find a solution for the problem. To study a single subject, different
cases must have to be read in order to reach a conclusion; however, in this case of covid-19, there
is no need of studying different case studies to reach a solution. Besides, not many studies have
6|Page

been done on its effect on particular organizations or comparison of two organizations. So, this
multiple case study method is a less suitable method for this research topic.

Advantages of multiple case study method

 By reading multiple cases of related issues gives a more concrete and in-depth
understanding of the problem.
 It is less expensive if the case studies that are to be read are found free.
 Solutions of different researchers can be kept in mind.

Disadvantages of multiple case study method

 It takes a lot of time as the researcher has to go through multiple cases.
 It is difficult to find cases which are relatable to the current topic.
 The cases should provide updated information of the problem.

Question #2
Foodpanda
Foodpanda is an e-commerce based company which operates in Pakistan and has a number of
offices and employees in different cities of the country and for this case study, Foodpanda’s
Karachi office has been taken as a sample. According to the interview, the office is divided into
different floors and each floor has been allocated to different departments. A senior employee of
the commercials department was interviewed, the floor on which the commercial department
operates has 40 to 45 employees and everyone’s duties differ as per their job description.

Some employees are required to work from the office while some are required to roam around the
city to meet different clients and identify potential clients as well. As per the interview, the
commercial department does require more physical communication than online meetings. During
the pandemic, lockdown was implemented in the country and operations of Foodpanda switched to
work from home policy and all the physical meetings and communication were forced to be done
online. The pandemic did affect the company in terms of its operations, however, the sales during
the pandemic of every vertical, i.e. restaurants, kitchens, shops and home chefs, increased more
than it was forecasted due the lockdowns and closure of restaurants around the country. Besides,
the company also came up with a strategy to increase its sales and facilitate the customers by
introducing dark store concept around the city. Foodpanda introduced a new service called “Panda
Mart” during the end of 2020 to cover all the daily needs of the customers, the strategy worked
really well and got a positive response from the customers.

Besides, in terms of employees, most of them contracted the virus and tested positive for it and for
this company signed a memorandum of association (MOU) with a leading medical laboratory of the
country to provide free testing of employees. Besides, as most of the employees were suffering
from mental and physical health problems, Foodpanda introduced online sessions of a therapist
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and yoga classes for the employees. Moreover, the job duties changed drastically due to the
lockdown and work from home policy and it increased the productivity of some employees while for
some it did not work really well.

Nestle
Nestle is a traditional company which sells different products in Pakistan through a number of
distributors. For this case study, the sales team of Nestle was interviewed and it was found that a
number of employees are working in the Hyderabad region under the sales department of Nestle.
Naturally, sales require more physical contact than remote communication and the same goes for
the sales team of Nestle. It was found that it is utmost important for the sales team to meet the
retailers in person to build trust among them and the company’s products.

The pandemic impacted the company in terms of its distributions, sales and revenue. Nestle came
up with an alternate strategy and it increased the visibility of its products in pharmacies, as
pharmacies were allowed to operate 24/7, and also the demand for nutritional products increased
during the pandemic.

Besides, Nestle also deployed all necessary tools for online communication and meetings, but due
to lockdowns and closure of markets it was difficult to work from home and sometimes the sales
team visited different distributors in the early morning to avoid the crowd.

Apart from this, employees also faced some difficulties in terms of mental health issues and
physical issues. Besides, employees who tested positive also faced a number of health issues and
to tackle this company introduced covid-19 fund for the employees which covered all expenses of
tests and regular masks and sanitizers were also provided to teams who visited markets.

Comparison of both companies

As Foodpanda is an e-commerce based company it performed better in terms of sales and
revenue as compared to Nestle, even though Nestle placed its products on all online platforms it
still suffered some losses as compared to normal years. Moreover, employees of both companies
suffered mental and physical issues due to lockdowns and work from home policy. Both companies
did well in terms of taking care of its employees during the pandemic as Foodpanda signed an
MOU with a medical laboratory and Nestle provided free checkups and testing for the employees.

Apart from this, both companies deployed new strategies to tackle the effects of the pandemic, but
Foodpanda again topped in terms of its sales and revenue due to its Panda Mart introduction in the
market. Nestle also placed its products at leading pharmacies around the city to attract customers,
but due to less visits of customers in the market and pharmacies the sales declined during the
lockdown period.

Employees of both companies have to do regular market visits and meet with clients, but due to
the lockdown and pandemic everything shifted to online meetings which caused problems for
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employees of both companies as it was not possible to have online meetings with all vendors
around the city. This issue caused stress and depression in few employees and apart from this,
work life balance also caused issues for many employees which ultimately impacted the
productivity and performance of employees of Nestle as well as Foodpanda.

Conclusion
It was found that the exploratory case study method was the best fit for studying the impact of
COVID-19 on human life and for research purposes structured interviews were conducted with
company officials in order to get in-depth knowledge of the companies. Thirteen different questions
were asked which were related to the employees’ daily routine, to the number of employees work
in the office. Apart from this, the company's concern for the employees was also kept under
consideration and different strategies that were implemented during the pandemic.

Just like all other countries, Pakistan also suffered major losses during the pandemic and most of
its businesses remained closed and faced huge losses. For this research, two international
companies that are operating in Pakistan have been selected and their employees were
interviewed for a deep understanding of the problem.

Moreover, through literature reviews it has been found that the pandemic has impacted every part
of human life. From personal to professional everything has been impacted, nonetheless, many
people also faced mental health issues due the strict lockdowns and health concerns.

From the interviews, it has been found that the pandemic has impacted both companies in terms of
its operations and its employees, besides, employees of both companies suffered mental and
physical health issues due to the lockdowns.

Apart from this, both companies came up with different strategies to tackle the impact of the
pandemic, but Foodpanda’s sales and revenue increased a lot during the lockdown period
because of its e-commerce advantage. On the other hand, Nestle also deployed some strategies,
but still it suffered some losses in terms of its sales because of closure of shops and markets.
Lastly, both companies did really well to tackle the impact of the pandemic, however, Foodpanda
did well in terms of its sales just because of its e-commerce property.
9|Page

References:
BAIJAL, E. T. a. H. (2020). How a pandemic-induced boom in e-commerce can reshape
financial services.
Chriscaden, K. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 on people's livelihoods, their health and our
food systems.
DAWN. (2021). Trends in e-commerce in Pakistan.
Erica Coe, K. E., Brad Herbig, Ashish Kothari and Jeris Stueland. (2021). COVID-19 and
burnout are straining the mental health of employed parents.
Haleem, A., Javaid, M., & Vaishya, R. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 pandemic in daily life.
Current medicine research and practice, 10(2), 78-79. doi:
10.1016/j.cmrp.2020.03.011
Hernandez, M. T. (2020). Amazon e-commerce sales soar amid COVID-19.
Huaxia. (2021). Pandemic-promoted online shopping becoming new normal in Pakistan.
Maria Cotofan, J.-E. D. N., Marta Golin, Micah Kaats and George Ward. (2021). Work and
Well-being during COVID-19: Impact, Inequalities, Resilience, and the Future of
Work.
OECD. (2020). E-commerce in the time of COVID-19.
RK, Y. (2009). Case study research, design and method. . London: Sage Publications
Ltd., 4.
Saladino, V., Algeri, D., & Auriemma, V. (2020). The Psychological and Social Impact of
Covid-19: New Perspectives of Well-Being. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(2550). doi:
10.3389/fpsyg.2020.577684
Singh, S., Roy, D., Sinha, K., Parveen, S., Sharma, G., & Joshi, G. (2020). Impact of
COVID-19 and lockdown on mental health of children and adolescents: A narrative
review with recommendations. Psychiatry research, 293, 113429-113429. doi:
10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113429
Tušl, M., Brauchli, R., Kerksieck, P., & Bauer, G. F. (2021). Impact of the COVID-19 crisis
on work and private life, mental well-being and self-rated health in German and
Swiss employees: a cross-sectional online survey. BMC Public Health, 21(1), 741.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-10788-8
UN. (2020). ESTIMATES OF GLOBAL E-COMMERCE 2019 AND PRELIMINARY
ASSESSMENT OF COVID-19 IMPACT ON ONLINE RETAIL 2020.
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Appendix:
FOODPANDA

Interview Questions:

1. What are your major job responsibilities in your organization?

My job responsibilities include updating the daily database of orders of the previous day, updating
ratings and checking customer complaints. Apart from that, my duties also include meeting with
different vendors around the city to discuss the issues that customers are facing and new
opportunities for vendors as well to increase profitability for both parties. Additionally, I have to
report 5 days a week in the office to my boss to keep him up to date regarding all the details of
vendors and orders.

2. How many people work in your office and what are their job roles?

There are 3 floors in our office and different departments work on different floors. The floor on
which I work, there are around 40 to 45 other employees who work alongside me. Their job
responsibilities differ as per their job description. Some of the workers are required to move around
in the city and meet with different clients every day, while others are required to sit in the office only
and perform their duties.

3. Does your job require more physical communication than online?

My job does require more physical communication, however, because Foodpanda is an e-

commerce company so it is easy for us to work from anywhere. But there are things which we have
to discuss in person sometimes like group meetings and plans and strategies which cannot be
properly done online.

4. How do you think COVID-19 impacted your organization as a whole and in what
ways?

COVID-19 was a very difficult situation for everyone around the world and it has impacted every
person and organization be it from a small to multi-national. However, things were totally different
for e-commerce companies and their sales increased everywhere and same happened with
Foodpanda. Our orders skyrocketed during COVID-19 lockdown period as the restaurants were
closed for dine-in and no one was allowed to leave their homes except for any necessity.

So this COVID-19 situation worked as a blessing in disguise for our company in terms of sales and
revenue, however, employees were affected by the virus individually as many of my colleagues
tested positive for the virus. It was a very difficult situation for us to make everything work from
home sometimes and without meeting with vendors.
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5. Did your organization come up with any new strategy in the face of COVID-19?

Yes, in November 2020 Foodpanda started its Pandamart services in big cities of Pakistan to help
customers get groceries in fifteen minutes at their door steps. This Pandamart helped customers
get their daily items like: bread, milk, vegetables etc quickly and without leaving their homes during
the lockdown.

6. Did your organization switch to work from home policy during COVID-19?

Yes, foodpanda switched to work from home policy during COVID-19 period as the government of
Pakistan closed all offices and business around the country.

7. How did the work from home policy change your routine job and role?

During work from home policy, most of my duties changed and I had to manage everything from
home. All the meetings with vendors, team members and head of departments were moved to
online video calls. However, there were some challenges in these video calls as it was not easy for
everyone to have a nice working environment at home; besides, not all vendors are educated
enough to carry out online meetings so it was tough for me as well as my team to carry out all the
meetings on phone calls without showing them any data. Apart from it, everything that was
supposed to be discussed in the office with the team and colleagues was moved to online video
calls and it was really troublesome sometimes to manage working from home.

8. Did the covid-19 situation and WFH policy affect your mental health?

Well, in some ways it did because it was not easy to sit around a laptop all day and carry out
meetings one after another on online video calls, besides, not having any online meeting with
certain vendors created a lot of issues for us. Besides, sitting at home all day and meeting no one
physically was in itself very depressing for everyone around the world and it did happen with me as
well. We as humans have different needs, and one of them is having friends and meeting them in
person. So when this thing ended for a time being and the workload also increased in terms of
every single thing that was supposed to be discussed in office, shifted to zoom meetings which
became very problematic and mentally stressful.

9. How do you think covid affected your physical health?

Sitting at home all day and doing nothing except sitting in front of a laptop is in itself a big problem
for physical health. Besides, I used to go to gym every day before COVID lockdown and after the
lockdown was implemented everything was closed indefinitely and it was a big blow for me and for
everyone in my opinion. People who used to go out to purchase things from shops or who used to
go out shopping in shopping malls did a kind of physical activity and that too ended because of it.
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In my opinion, this lockdown situation deteriorated everyone’s mental health as well as physical
health.

10. Did your organization support you or other employees in dealing with the pandemic,
in any way? Financial help, advance salaries or free treatment for covid.

Yes, foodpanda offered free medical testing to its employees after signing an MOU with a local
laboratory. It offered us different medical tests which included, blood sugar level, complete blood
count, and covid-19 test. Apart from it, the company also started having an online session with a
therapist for employees to discuss their mental health problems and started having online yoga
classes as well.

11. Did Work from home policy increase or decrease your productivity? Do you prefer
this policy or working from the office?

Well in some ways work from home policy was really advantageous because I work in Karachi and
the traffic of this city is really too much and it takes me one hour to reach the office and one hour to
go back to my home. Besides, visiting different vendors also requires driving in different parts of
the city. Apart from this, it felt really good in the beginning to work from my room and on my own
timings, but eventually it got frustrating and the productivity started to decline after a few weeks.

12. How do you think COVID-19 and WFH policy affect your colleagues?

It affected them in the same way it affected me, but those who tested positive for the virus faced
more difficulties. Social isolation and worsening health conditions did damage to everyone around
me including my co-workers. It also affected their mental and physical health because we team
members used to go to the gym together before COVID-19 lockdown and used to meet daily in the
office or outside at the restaurants to get together. Later, because of the lockdown it all changed
drastically and we got disconnected from each other physically and it was really difficult for
everyone to go with the flow.

13. Were you able to separate work and family time during work from home policy?

Well, it was difficult for me to sit in the room the whole day because of online video meetings and
cannot go and talk with the family members in these difficult times. At the beginning, it was all fine,
but eventually it got really difficult for me to manage the time and divide it between office and family
members due to excessive zoom meetings.
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Nestle

Interview Questions:

1. What are your major job responsibilities in your organization?

Ensuring primary and secondary sales volumes for the company through company appointed
distributors in the market, managing KPIs, developing sales teams for target achievement,
monitoring and evaluating sales strategies for growth.

2. How many people work in your office and what are their job roles?

I look after a particular territory where I work with a Business development executive and 6
Distributor Sales Force (DSFs) who collect and develop orders from retailers and wholesalers. And
BDE works as a supervisor for ensuring supplies.

3. Does your job require more physical communication than online?

My job requires more physical communication due to ensuring availability, visibility and
accessibility in the market and requires building trust of retailers in the company's products.

4. How do you think COVID-19 impacted your organization as a whole and in what
ways?

Covid impacted the channel reach and more dependability on pharmacy channels for product
availability. However it increased demand for nutrition products due to more home based work.
The categories shown are great including beverages, bottled water and nutrition. It impacted
negatively in terms of revenue, targets, sales, cooperation and coordination in teams.

5. Did your organization come up with any new strategy in the face of COVID-19?

Company came up with online tools for increased connectivity and increased presence on famous
online stores.

6. Did your organization switch to work from home policy during COVID-19?

Yes the team was divided into two with similar roles and introduced work from home alternatively.

7. How did the work from home policy change your routine job and role?
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It completely put me on the back foot in ensuring the market presence and I have to carefully look
after my team by making sure they reach safely to the required channel. We sometimes work in
very early morning to ensure the things are completed on time due to lockdowns

8. Did the covid-19 situation and WFH policy affect your mental health?

Yes it was mentally challenging because the work we do requires more physical contact and the
least possible contact could also present risks of being affected. However, the company supported
all kinds of tools to ensure that we could work safely.

9. How do you think covid affected your physical health?

The idle hours at home made our physical health uneven and forced us to try out different activities
including sitting for long hours watching different seasons and movies. So yes it has impacted on
physical health.

10. Did your organization support you or other employees in dealing with the pandemic,
in any way? Financial help, advance salaries ori free treatment for covid.

The company introduced separate covid affectee policy with all the medical expenses claimed
through company and required paid leaves as long as the full recovery is ensured. Regular masks
and sanitizers were given for dealing with the pandemic.

11. Did Work from home policy increase or decrease your productivity? Do you prefer
this policy or working from the office?

Working from home was the necessity of the time and it should be considered in future as well. So
it provided the flexibility to work long hours at home. In my case it decreased productivity and
outdoor activity gave a boost to productivity.

12. How do you think COVID-19 and WFH policy affect your colleagues?

My colleagues were affected in the same manner. Few of them were also the victims of it and
recovered as well and the company supported them financially as well morally.

13. Were you able to separate work and family time during work from home policy?

It was difficult all around, however I managed to keep a certain distance from my work.