How I am managing COVID-19
By Babu I. Razack CMA, ACMA, D.Litt.
Being a member of IMA , it is a great privilege and if you are a certified member, it adds you several hats on you. Again if you are doing volunteering activities with IMA, you would learn lot and guide our members a lot. My membership journey started in 2005 . Since then IMA has given me several hats like mentor, question writer, pilot tester,chapter leader, ethics committee member, leadership academy faculty committee member and so on. It made me to travel globally to attend annual conferences, regional conferences, in person meetings in several corners of the globe and helped me to interact with global IMA community . The only thing I learned from IMA are perseverance, innovations and creativity , we can say three mantras of IMA. Last meeting was at Austin, Texas in early Feb, 2020, I went for COE in person meeting and leaving my wife at my daughter's place in New Jersey. I had to return immediately after the meeting to Kuwait where is my work place due to short leave. When I started landing the threat started here for COVID-19 ; at that time in USA I don't even hear about that . Then it spread the most parts of the USA rapidly, then I realized the mistake why I asked my wife to stay with my daughter for another two weeks. She is still there as she could not travel from there as the flights are cancelled to Kuwait since mid of March'20. In Kuwait also COVID-19 cases started increasing, Govt. enforced partial curfew to full curfew; for the past 20 days full curfew was implemented which would prolong up to May '30 .
What was my experience during this COVID-19
- Banks were remotely operating with limited inside staff and we had to adapt accordingly without backlog of our job which would require additional skills.
- Offices screens staff with thermal monitors
- We started wearing masks. Our office provided masks and keep social distancing.
- As there was curfew in the evening hours, we had to rush from the office to our houses.
- There was a long queue for shopping allowing to enter with proper screening
- During full curfew hours,we have to get appointment for shopping in advance.
- Yet here they care the people for walking few hours in the evening.
Apart from this how I spent my time, I work from home even though it is bit of new experience managing people, messages , ERP systems, contacting other institutions like banks and audit firms only remotely. Yet we could achieve as many things.
I attended lot of webinars, got certificates on e courses which are totally free offered by IMA and other educational institutions. I can say for example , Block Chain 101, Data Analytics and Visualization Fundamentals Certificate, Beyond the basics: Data Analytics and visualization for Accounting Professionals, Research Methodology etc.
Thus we prove our ability as management accountants that we can do better even during these hard times. That is the pride of IMA.
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Babu I.Razack, MBA,CMA,ACMA
General Manager - Finance
Ali Alghanim & Sons Co.
Kuwait
Tel. +965 23970171
Fax +965 23970180
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-15-2020 02:55 PM
From: Jeffrey Thomson
Subject: Share your story!
Hi All,
While we continue to practice social distancing, IMA remains optimistic and we look forward to the safe reopening of business, and life, here in the U.S. and globally. During times like these when so many of us are working remotely, it's easy to feel isolated. The IMA community is in this together.
Together, connected, we are #strongertogether.
We want to hear from you. Join the conversation and share how you're dealing with COVID-19. Tell us how you're doing or share a photo of your workstation, your "coworkers" or even a recent virtual meeting.
Clay, my "coworker", seems to have perfect attendance at meetings - see the attachment!
Thanks!
Jeff
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Jeff Thomson, CMA, CSCA, CAE
President and CEO
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