Having more than a decade of experience in Business Development and Consulting, Yogita has worked in leadership positions at top tier organizations across the globe.
The coronavirus outbreak has serious implications not only on people’s health but also on businesses. It has impacted the way businesses function and teams work. The COVID-19 is continuing to grow as the number of daily cases are going high. In many countries, the coronavirus led lockdown has put the economic activities on hold, leading to extreme cases of unemployment. However, to keep the market running, the government uplifted lockdown that resulted in 24 percent down in the unemployment rate.
The ongoing pandemic has adversely affected different business sectors. While the market is reopening and businesses are returning to their routine, it is important to assess a few important areas that need transformation post-COVID-19 led lockdown.
With the ease in lockdown restrictions, it’s time for every business to amend and activate their contingency plans. There are five influential areas that every business must assess and remodel to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.
Resilient Cost Structures
The coronavirus pandemic has substantially affected business performance. In this situation, it is imperative to completely transform their main areas, reduce debts, and readjust the cost structures. They need to be agile to improve the flow of strategic activities.
"Switching to a remote-working concept to comply with a stay at home orders, HR managers need to rethink talent management strategies"
Restructuring the cost management model includes removing a high level of inefficiencies and decreasing the allocation of cost for non- strategic activities. To start with, companies need to focus on creating a resilient cost structure. It must include transparency, scalability, and flexibility along with cost-saving initiatives and performance monitoring.
Reshaping Business Operations
Due to the outbreak, there is a sheer change in the demand for products and services across various business sectors. At this time, companies need to be highly adaptive to create new radicals of serving end- customers. Considering the dramatic shifts in customers’ expectations and spending behavior, the companies need to reshape their business operations based on competitive advantage.
To be thriving after the end of the pandemic, businesses must look into reinventing their role of operations. They need to recreate more customer-centric responsive channels other than improved customer experience. To set new standards, they could consider the speed and build long-term strategies for business.
Embracing New Digital Trends
Due to staying at home orders, customers have already mitigated to digital channels. With the integration of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things, companies can refocus on their operations and offerings in an efficacious manner. By using big data and analytics, businesses can respond to evolving customer needs and sustain them for a longer period.
The adoption of such new technologies will result in ramping up the efforts to come out of the crisis. There will be a clear enhancement of product or service performance, supply chain, talent management, and innovative customer experience. It is a huge opportunity for conventional enterprises to drive a lot in terms of national and global reach.
Restructuring the Supply Chain
The markets are reopening gradually, thus, businesses must look into restructuring their supply chain management. To recover from the crisis, businesses need to include safe channels, complied with social distancing norms. Businesses must consider their customers and suppliers as the key areas, to begin with remodeling the supply chain.
Considering the scale of the pandemic, it is imperative to have safety plans for people in place. They need to create an efficient balance between costs and adhering to safety standards for employees’ benefits. On the other hand, the flow of the supply chain to the end customer needs to be mapped. Robust efforts should be the need of the hour to respond wisely to the customers.
Re-Managing the Talent
Switching to a remote-working concept to comply with a stay at home orders, HR managers need to rethink talent management strategies. The outbreak of coronavirus has come up with a certain level of insecurities at both ends. The employees need to be heard and financially secured to cope with such a difficult situation. However, companies need to focus on building trust and employees’ resilience post-pandemic.
Moreover, businesses need to build a better understanding of their employees working remotely. This will help in developing a strong relationship and communication channel between employers and employees, company and employees, and talent managers and employees. The main area that businesses need to assess is re-communicating the unified goals and objectives to employees to boost their confidence, engagement, and productivity level.
In the coming months, businesses must prepare themselves for the challenges that will come post the pandemic. Even after the reopening of markets, businesses will be tested on the terms of adaptation and dynamics. This may include constantly evolving customer or client’s needs, and marketplaces. By reassessing the key areas of the business, companies can control the way to respond to the global pandemic and benefit their people and customers in the long-run.
