Question

Consider a social force, which can be threat for your garments business. Discuss in detail how will you avoid this threat to save your business by using your strength(s)

Answer 1

A social force, which can be threat for the garments business is lack of demand for garments due to obsolescence or changing external environment as with the recent Covid-19. There has been an economic fallout with the recent covid-19 pandemic. People have realised that their needs are less & they are not demanding new purchase of garments because people are restricted to their homes. At home a pair of clothes are enough to go through the day & new clothes are not really needed. Also since job market is affected , people are not using up their savings for unnecessary expenses. They rather save their money for emergency medical treatment .

Asia has been severly hit being the largest exporter of garments. Many factories in garment-producing countries including Bangladesh, Vietnam,Cambodia are already closing due to a shortage of raw materials from China and declining orders from western clothing brands

So in this situation the garments industry faced the risk of changing market situation & has been facing losses.There has been over supply of stocks & stocks are piling up.In garmnents business fixed operating expenses are very high, so even with zero revenue losses are very high. Retailers are cancelling orders as they fear that they might not be able to sell them.

This has affected the salaries & the jobs of a lot of workers.This affects the entire textile industry starting from fabric supply industry to the labelling industry. supply chain has been affected due to the sharp collapse in demand. Not only are new orders being halted, but buyers are also asking suppliers not to ship clothing that has already been made and & holding back payments. now we must note here that , manufacturers have already incurred costs to produce that garment and may be in debt to their raw material suppliers.

Sellers have to better their situation & minimise their losses by using their strengths as far as possible. Innovation can help them to some extent. Since people are not looking for garments to be worn outside home the sellers can focus on garments that can be worn at home, selling PPE (although this cannot be feasible for all sellers).Seeking a financial package from the government for the garment industry like wage subsidies ,reduction in bank interest rate, extension of soft loan,could help ease the situation.Maintaining highest level of cleanliness & sanitisation procedures and reassuring the buyers about hygiene.Finding newer suppliers and amicably ending contracts with previous suppliers can be a responsible way to adapt to the situation.

There needs to be a collective resolve to combat this situation. With the pandemic anyway people have started to introspect their ways of life.As a garments business we have to accept the challenging situation, know that it will stay like this for sometime now. However we can use our strengths of innovation & adapt to the changing times, seek government assisstance and have patience till the situation is bettered.