Proximo Conducts Research on Pandemic Impact on Life Sciences Suppliers

At this point we've all been bombarded with anecdotes, news articles, and webinars on the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the economy and on small businesses.  We at Proximo had many casual conversations with companies, from those same small businesses to the Fortune 500, on this topic, without a lot of hard data.  Macro-economic data, such as unemployment claims and the broad stock market, are sometimes unhelpful as it may not be applicable to a micro-group.

As we work with a lot of companies in the life sciences space, Proximo decided to try to dig into one of those micro-groups.  We partnered with the Diversity Alliance for Science (DA4S; www.diversityallianceforscience.com) and five of the leading global pharma and medical device companies to research the impact of this pandemic on small businesses that service the industry.  Our thinking is that these companies may have different experiences than suppliers to the automotive or travel and hospitality industries.

We blended quantitative survey research, inviting close to 2,000 suppliers to provide quick data on what their experience has been during this time, with qualitative research on a smaller set of suppliers to get deeper insights.  The goal was to provide the industry with a good view into the actual impact - What do the suppliers actually need?  What's the biggest challenge?  What's the outlook for the next year?

While we can't go into all of the findings in this article, they were fascinating, providing a clear picture through quantitative and qualitative data.  The results may not be what you might have expected - but that's why we perform such research in the first place. Anecdotes don't substitute for real analytics. 

We can say that we're proud to announce that through this effort we were able to make a donation to Feeding America in the names of those small businesses that took the time to provide additional information that went into this study. 

For more information, please email info@proximo.com.