Prof. Dr. Gunther Friedl Calls for Preparing to Do Business Again in the Post-Coronavirus Times

The time for shock and frantic crisis reactions is over. Even if the coronavirus still hasn’t been defeated, it is high time to prepare for the economic future after the pandemic, says Prof. Dr. Gunther Friedl, Dean of the TUM School of Management and Professor for Controlling. He makes an appeal to managers: “Those who set the right course now – to understand their markets and customers and develop new products and services – will be the ones who can benefit from the crisis.” 

But he still foresees dark times ahead: company insolvencies will increase and, in the aftermath, unemployment figures will rise, too. As a result, the demand for products and services will fall. At the moment, governments are doing a lot and spending billions to cushion these effects. But it is clear to everyone that these government measures are appropriate and affordable only in the state of the emergency that the economy and the world are in right now. “Companies must not rely on public money,” warns Friedl, who teaches business administration at the TUM School of Management. “Rather they should work hard on their competitiveness.” 

Friedl believes that competition and growth are the best ways to tackle the economic effects of this crisis. “Only economic growth can solve our problems,” he declares. There were still uncovered basic demands – especially in the developing countries – and the best way to fight hunger and poverty would be growth. And growth is also an inevitable component of the very successful German social market economy. That is what we have to return to – enhanced by sustainability, he stresses – and adds that moving toward a state economy would be the wrong path.

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