Initiatives taken by NGOs and private companies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic

New research published in the International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion suggests that many companies, particularly so-called tech companies providing software for mobile devices, apps, have focused on helping people during the COVID-19 pandemic rather than measuring their success in these difficult times on the fiscal bottom line of a spreadsheet.

Sadrul Huda of the North South University, Afsana Akhtar of BRAC University, and Syeeda Raisa Maliha of Re-think, Re-search, all in Dhaka, Bangladesh, explain how the social and economic pressures that have arisen during the pandemic have led to many businesses failing. However, some businesses have thrived by providing services and software that have helped people. Indeed, has reinvigorated many companies allowing them to glean new meaning for their efforts beyond the profit margin while also retaining employees and showing a positive financial return.

A new study of app companies in Bangladesh has shown that healthy profits seem to follow a healthy outlook for many of those companies that have turned to helping people. The team focuses on various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and app-based companies such as Pathao, FoodPanda, and Uber Eats who have all taken an ethical stance towards helping. "In a world where all businesses have come to a standstill, these app-based companies have found a new life only because they thought about the people before their business. They are a living role model of how the companies should set their goals," the team writes.

To paraphrase Charles Dickens—"It is the best of times, it is the worst of times"—it would be foolish in an age of wisdom not to move toward a better world where businesses care about people instead of only running after profits."