No one expected the #covid19 is a pandemic. Coronavirus happened suddenly like an accident and has exposed so many leaders across the world about their readiness to anticipate and contain a pandemic. Many people have died, and many businesses too. And the impact of the pandemic is not over yet. Analysts anticipate that the world may likely recover fully from this pandemic in 2022 or 23!
It is not good news. What are your plans to move from where you are now, to 2023? What if the pandemic does not relent by December 2020? How do you keep your business moving forward?
Now is the time to go to the drawing board:
- How is your business optimizing technology to win? How many of your staff are tech-savvy? How many are non-tech savvy? How much are the staff that is non-tech savvy costing your business for just sitting?
- How are you embracing remote working to align your team to a common agenda?
- How are you changing your strategy to respond to the new demands of the business? Which growth areas do you anticipate for your business a year or three from now? How will your business look like? Which products shall be in demand? Which clientele are you looking at?
- Which opportunities have arisen out of the pandemic, and what are you doing to optimize them?
- What are your immediate challenges? How are you planning to optimize? Which new skills are needed now to tap into the new emerging opportunities?
- How are you creating collaborations and team accountability while working from home remotely?
- What changes are you making to your cash flow forecasts? Have you provided for the best-case and worst-case scenarios and a pandemic case scenario to make sure your projections are not far off the target?
- What are the skill gaps present to transform your staff to meet the demands of the new world order? How much shall that cost you? Do you retrain or hire people with a fresh mind to adopt?
- Which kind of partners do you need to implement your new agenda?
Answering the above questions calls for a #covid19 response and recovery strategy.
Serious organizations have responded by developing a #covid19 response and recovery strategy, that anticipates the impact on their business in terms of lost revenue and increased costs, the resilience actions, and way forward.
Above all, a new business order has emerged: working from home and remote working. However, for effective remote working, there is a need for clear policy guidelines to create clarity of communication and staff accountability.
Going forward:
- Develop a #covid19 response and recovery strategy
- Make revenue forecasts that consider the changing business environment
- Provide for the capabilities and systems needed to support remote working by reviewing your capital expenditure budget.
- Establish a prioritized action plan for 3-9 months period, and the corresponding initiatives and a budget
- Establish clear desired targets, outcomes and responsibility centers for effective accountability
- Establish a communications strategy and specifically remote working policy. Now is the time to communicate with clarity for team cohesion and ownership. Agree on a common collaboration tool, the frequency of meetings, the set targets and who does what, and check it often for updates. Now is the time for self-drive and initiative to win.
- Check-in with the board for buy-in and ownership
Need help with the #covid19 response and recovery strategy? Comment below or inbox.
Copyright Mustapha B Mugisa, 2020. All rights reserved.
