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By Cherie Gopie

Last week’s wave of pub­lic anx­i­ety over the ru­mour of re­gion­al con­flict may have sub­sided for now, but it re­vealed how swift­ly per­cep­tion can shift to pan­ic. In a mat­ter of hours, so­cial me­dia spec­u­la­tion led to long queues and bulk buy­ing at some su­per­mar­kets, not be­cause sup­plies were tru­ly threat­ened, but be­cause peo­ple feared they might be.

For busi­ness­es, the in­ci­dent was a use­ful re­minder that dis­rup­tion does not have to be re­al to be desta­bil­is­ing. Ru­mours, mis­in­for­ma­tion, and fear can trig­ger be­hav­iours that strain sup­ply chains, stress-test con­tracts, and ex­pose weak­ness­es in busi­ness con­ti­nu­ity plan­ning. Even a tem­po­rary scare can prompt dif­fi­cult ques­tions: what hap­pens to con­trac­tu­al oblig­a­tions if trade routes are blocked, op­er­a­tions sus­pend­ed, or staff un­able to re­port for work?