The Emirates Institute for Banking and Financial Studies has been initiating and conducting various live virtual instructor-led trainings and webinar sessions to support the community amidst the COVID-19 situation.

As part of this, the EIBFS recently conducted its first webinar session titled, “Don’t Waste a Good Crisis!” which discussed how the disruption due to COVID-19 is leading organisations to re-imagine the success parameters and encouraging them to explore new realities.

“To further enhance the reach of the trainings and provide support to the community with minimum interruption, the webinar series is aimed at addressing various current issues, discussing solutions and providing a shared platform for the people to come together and supporting each other through learnings and discussions,” EIBFS said in a statement.

The panelists in the webinar included Dr. Noel Tagoe, Professor of Accounting and Management practice at the University of Nottingham Business School, former executive vice president at CIMA – AICPA and an advisor to Forbes-listed organisations; Ms. Deepti Ahluwalia, FCIPD, Head of Learning & Development, FAB; Ms. Geetu Ahuja, Strategy Partner Management Accounting, CIMA-AICPA; and Ms. Radhika Jain, CFA, Head of Wealth Products at Emirates Islamic Bank.

The webinar shed light on how organisations and the banking industry can use this time to reinvent themselves. It also discussed how the crisis can be used as an opportunity to build connections, teach others, understand the business needs, make changes and believe that the disruption is the perfect time to reimagine everything that is being done.

The experts discussed the various hurdles including financial crisis, supply chain disruptions that are causing businesses to panic and talked about how this pandemic is setting an unprecedented path for the future. The banking and financial industry has been thrust into adapting digitisation at a fast pace as a result of this situation and technology is playing a major role in helping banks and institutions maintain customer service and satisfaction.

The experts further discussed as to how the pandemic is unlike anything before. They said it has made the world stop and take notice of things one was too busy to look at earlier, it has made people rethink their actions, have clarity on how their decisions affect others and how organisations are not immune to such changes and shifts. The response to the pandemic has been varied, but some businesses have taken the right steps to ensure business continuity and laid clear plans that will provide not only a sense of relief to their external stakeholders but also to employees and dependents, they opined.

Jamal Al Jassmi, General Manager at EIBFS, said, “It is an honour to have such a distinguished set of panelists in our first webinar. We are delighted to begin this series and hope to continue it. We are currently in the midst of a global situation that continues to escalate. COVID-19 has been a disruptor like no other, in the recent times. We have seen business models changing, people shifting their mindsets and economic shifts.”

He added, “Our webinar today was to discuss how businesses and individuals can make the most of this time. The crisis is causing panic and disruption, but businesses can take this time to reset and reinvent themselves. The banking and finance industry has been the early adopters of technology and in the current situation banks have benefitted from their early digitisation efforts to keep the business going and serving customers.”

“In a crisis, we need to learn to be relevant, agile and adopt measures that will not only benefit the business but also the community. We need to think outside-the-box and create our own success story out of this crisis,” he concluded.