GSMA reveals COVID-19's effect on the organization

Due to the emerging coronavirus pandemic, the GSMA was forced to cancel MWC 2020 and left a massive hole in its finances.

GSMA reveals COVID-19's effect on the organization

GSMA's vast majority of total revenue comes from its commercial activities (as opposed to member contributions) and almost all of that comes from its conferences, the largest of which is by far the Mobile World Congress Barcelona. So they estimate that its cancelation will have erased most of the organization 's revenue for the year immediately.

Although the GSMA finally suggested a deal with exhibitors and attendees that would strike a reasonable balance between self-preserving and doing the right thing, its first half of the year's P&L still needs to make ugly reading. There has been a steady stream of reports for the past couple of months that the GSMA was forced to let go of a lot of its employees, to adapt to the new circumstances, and they seem to be snowballing. Following their announcement on MWC Barcelona, they have taken urgent measures to resolve the financial consequences, "a spokesperson for GSMA told Telecoms.com after their inquiry. "It involved adjusting various strategies, reducing or delaying spending and working with customers and suppliers in a way that fulfilled expectations and secured MWC 's future.

"Sadly they learned early that this was not going to be an isolated event. Like other companies, understanding the economic climate will continue to change without any clear assumption regarding short- and long-term consequences for event organizers. Their discussions with industry insiders revealed that due to revenue loss and long-term instability, the GSMA was being forced to let 30-40% of its workforce go. They also heard that the most closely associated job roles with the events, many of which are based in the U.S., had the brunt of the redundancies. They asked if this was correct, and to explain that side of things further.

Reducing workers is often difficult but it seems especially unjust when decisions are forced outside of our control by market conditions, "the spokesperson for GSMA said. "We are proud of our squad, and grateful for all our staff 's work. They led the work which shapes the future of mobile communications. They are deeply disturbed that these reductions will affect about 20% of their current work force. They are providing wellbeing support during this challenging time to employees.