It’s not hard for any business to give up these days. After all, you have arguably the most destructive enemy in modern times facing you: a scourge of humanity that has taken over a million lives worldwide. You can easily sit idly and let everything fall apart. Nobody will blame you for doing so. In fact, many small businesses have called it quits, finding their viability running at an all-time low.
But then again, you know what they say about a crisis. The word crisis comes from the Greeks, which means “to sift, to separate.” In China, that word signifying both “change” and “opportunity.” Indeed, you can fold, but in doing so, you could be missing the greatest opportunity to rise above the competition.
Think about it. When everyone else is quitting, then you have greater chances of leading your market than before. You have to tighten your belt some more and wait for better days to thrive. Check out three key areas you can look into to be best prepared once the virus leaves town.
Speed Matters
Once the business is back to normal and the streets are filled with people once again, the best-prepared enterprise will get the lion’s share of the market. It’s but logical. In this regard, you need to move fast.
When that happens, recovering revenues gradually is not the way to go; you need to recover revenue with haste.
For starters, think like a start-up. This is the time to do action and not research. You need to speed things up. Meet up with your team on a more regular basis, perhaps even daily. Weekly CEO reviews should bid you well.
As once again, this is where your leadership matters the most. While the usual top-down leadership style may sound attractive to you, a more collaborative type of leadership should work best for you. That means you need to work with the team and not just come up with deadlines and issue directives without discussion. In such a collaborative workplace, your job is to empower each team member to work together.
By seeking ideas among teammates, you arrive at better solutions faster. In short, you empower your team. Your focus shifts now to being team-centric, Harvard Business Review details.
While team-centered leadership may be new to you, it could be the deciding factor to separate your enterprise from being so-so in performance to becoming stellar.
Shaping Up
Once the opportunity to do business as usual opens, it’s going to be a wild race to stay on top. And who gets to win big time is anyone’s guess.
Then, there’s the case for digital. You might find it cliche, but digital will prove to be another contentious ground. It’s true COVID-19 has highlighted the use of digital now more than ever. But you can’t rest on just having a website; you have to go further than most.
The best companies expanded their digital channels and enhanced them. To do this, they’ve relied on advanced analytics to lead the way. They’ve scoured new data sources to come up with more incisive insights into the market being served. If that kind of preparation scares you, it tells you how much you need to look into digital to get ahead.
Of course, it’s all about the customers. By the time COVID-19 is no longer a threat, you will have to reestablish your customer playbook. You need to know what your customers will need by that time. And in response, shape up a purpose-driven customer playbook with tailored experiences and new use cases.
You need to get ahead before everyone is back on their feet. Identify your main sources of revenue. And act decisively with haste.
People Resources
Speedy execution is the name of the game. And ultimately, you will have to cater to your human capital to make this happen. You need to rethink a workable operating model based on how your people will bring out productivity best.
For example, in the initial stages of the pandemic in April, 60% of enterprises surveyed by McKinsey shared that their new remote sales and marketing models worked better than traditional models. Thus, you will need to decide how you’re to approach a market that’s rid of the virus.
Then there’s your supply chain. As disruptions happened during the pandemic, you need to adapt your strategy. Indeed, adaptability is essential. You may have to change the ecosystem and seek nontraditional collaborations.
There’s a lot of adjustments to be made. But if you’ve prepared your enterprise once the virus leaves town, you should be in the best position to benefit from it all. And profit handsomely.
