Sofia Correia Barros, the Lisbon MBA Alumna and Managing Director of Diaverum in Portugal, shares insights from April’s Barometer

Sofia Correia Barros, the Lisbon MBA Alumna and Managing Director of Diaverum, in Portugal, offered her commentary on this quarter’s Barometer, a partnership between the Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova and the Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Negócios.
In this quarter’s opinion poll, the Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova alumni consider this to be a structural crisis that will bring significant economic changes. In addition, they believe the intensification of remote work, will imply reducing the size of companies’ physical facilities.
Sofia Correia Barros explains that “there seems to be a consensus that we are experiencing a structural crisis with significant impacts on the economy”, making it “essential for government support to businesses to go far beyond fiscal forgiveness and the extension of moratoriums. This support should also involve companies’ capitalization and reindustrialization”.
The respondents agree. To the question “What are the most relevant support measures for companies?”, 41% pointed out “the companies’ recapitalization” and 33% “the support to reindustrialization”.
Regarding the effects of the pandemic on the labor market, 70% answered that the biggest difference is going to be seen in the size of the companies’ physical facilities and 23% point out the creation of new methods of recruiting and evaluating employees.
Sofia Correia Barros believes that “the Portuguese pattern of consumption was forced to change, at first, because of the closing of a series of business structures and, subsequently, by the unemployment that these generated and will continue to generate. Additionally, remote work has had an impact that may go far beyond what is most expected and visible, which is the reduction of the physical size of the offices.”
Sofia Correia Barros, also points out that “from the companies’ perspective, the change in consumption habits and places was complemented by the instability of political decisions, causing many sectors to see their revenues being significantly reduced, while maintaining a relevant part of the costs, leaving them in a very complicated financial situation.”
70% of the participants consider that the delay in vaccination is having a “very high” impact on the economy, 29% “high but manageable” and 3% “light”. Sofia Correia Barros defends that it is crucial that the Government speeds up the vaccination process. “It is quite clear that constant advances and setbacks in terms of opening up the economy increasingly accentuate the effects of the crisis. Without a lasting opening of the economy, it will not be possible to attract consumption, but mainly foreign investment, which is necessary for the development of the Portuguese economy and for the much-needed reinventing and refocusing of our businesses.”
The Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova / Business Barometer is the result of a partnership between Jornal de Negócios and the Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova, and consists of a quarterly survey sent to our Alumni Community, inquiring about current economic and corporate trends.
Every edition is commented by an invited guest of our community. For this edition we had the privilege of having Sofia Correia Barros comment the results.
Read the full article in Portuguese here.
Source: Jornal de Negócios