Harvard Business Publishing case study documents Cyberabad’s Covid crisis response
HYDERABAD: A case study on Cyberabad’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been published by Harvard Business Publishing in collaboration with the Indian School of Business (ISB), documenting how police, government, industry and healthcare bodies worked together to maintain business continuity.
Titled “Operational Excellence in Crisis: Transforming Business Continuity in Cyberabad’s IT Corridor”, the 11-page case was authored by ISB’s Vijaya Sunder M, V.C. Sajjanar, IPS, and Diti Joshi. Harvard Business Publishing lists the case under the ISB551 series and gives its publication date as May 12, 2026.
Cyberabad moved 8 lakh employees to remote work
The case documents how Cyberabad Police, under Sajjanar’s leadership as commissioner, coordinated with the Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC), government agencies, industry and healthcare institutions to facilitate the transition of nearly 8 lakh IT and IT-enabled services employees to work from home within days of the pandemic’s onset.
The move helped businesses maintain operations across sectors including IT, IT-enabled services, pharmaceuticals, banking, financial services and insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and telecom.
SCSC, coordinated by its then secretary general Krishna Yedula, operated a Covid response and business continuity framework. It included movement permissions for essential staff, engagement with chief executives, dissemination of government advisories and workplace safety support.
SCSC combined business continuity with humanitarian support
The response also extended beyond business continuity. SCSC operated a Covid control room, an oxygen bank and an oxygen care centre, besides organising plasma donation drives.
It also coordinated a single-day vaccination camp at HITEX that covered around 38,000 citizens. Food, personal protective equipment, medicines and equipment were distributed, while support was extended to frontline police and healthcare workers, migrant workers and affected families.
To mark the publication of the case, Sajjanar and Dr Krishna Yedula, senior vice-president at Virtusa and former secretary general of SCSC, met the core SCSC Covid team on August 8 to recognise members and volunteers involved in the response.
The case presents the Cyberabad experience as a model of public-private partnership in crisis management. It is expected to serve as a reference for governments, business schools and crisis management professionals.
Harvard Business Publishing’s case listing describes the study as examining SCSC’s response to the disruption caused by the first wave of Covid-19 in Hyderabad’s Cyberabad IT corridor.
