Five Things Businesses Must Learn From Corona Scare!

Five Things Businesses Must Learn From Corona Scare!

1. Be ever-ready for surprises!

1.1 Why to be ever-ready for surprises?

• The world is well-connected than ever it was in the entire human history!
• This connection comes with dis-advantage i.e. things happening globally can impact locally and vice-versa
• No business is invincible from such global challenges
• Effects multiply drastically overnight and very less time is available to react
• Further, seemingly small challenges can go out of hand in no-time

1.2 What can be a likely solution for surprises?

• Corona won’t be the last challenges businesses would face!
• Challenges do not necessarily mean a virus outbreak, it could be an invention of substitute products, AI/ML, RPA, Blockchain, etc
• There is no ready vaccine for such problems, instead, regular business health check-ups are required to ‘predict’ and build ‘immunity’ against them

1.3 How to predict challenges!

• Businesses need to sit back and brainstorm likely challenges that could emerge in future
• After brainstorming, a step plan should be developed for various likely scenarios
• All teams must be involved and step-plan should be ideally vetted by all departments within an organization
• Further, the step plan should be supplemented with realtime tracking of changes

1.4 Implement and test the solutions!

• Ideas are just a piece of paper unless implemented and hence, it is critical to test run such ideas just like regular mock drills (such as performed by Army, firefighters, disaster management teams, etc)
• A simple drill for businesses can be to make it compulsory for every employee to ‘work from home’ at least 2 days a month (subject to certain exceptions)!
• It will ensure review of infrastructure as well as the preparedness of employees and in case of any emergencies (like the current Corona outbreak), solutions can be implemented in a blink of an eye

1.5 Twin ways to address surprises!

• ‘Predict’ better→ Increase organizational ‘immunity’

2. Challenges can be an unending maze!

2.1 Challenges can be like a maze!

• Coronavirus has brought everything to a halt and it along with the economic slowdown is like a heart attack for businesses!
• Businesses are discovering that whilst opportunities can be short-lived, challenges can be an unending maze!
• Thus, real challenge is to predict when life and business will be back to normal!

2.2 Recalibrate the response!

• With no end in sight, businesses will have to devise a strategy on a near ‘real-time’ basis!
• Real-time strategy and innovative solutions will determine whether an organization survives the threat!
• Such a real-time strategy will have to be timely revisited and improvised as multiple factors are evolving!

2.3 Corona is not the challenge, but our response is!

• Instead of Corona, how an organization responds will determine the survival of the organization!

3. Know that this too shall pass!

3.1 Know that this too shall pass!

• In the fast-moving world, terms quarantine, isolation, lockdown, shutdown, curfew were mostly unknown!
• Corona proved how unprepared our organizations and their systems are!
• However, the silver lining is we can learn from it and revolutionize how we survive and grow!

3.2 Know that this too shall pass!

• Organizations which will be able to overcome these challenges and plan to mitigate the future challenges will get a competitive edge over others
• It should be taken as an opportunity to take a pause and see where we are lacking and how to strengthen the processes
• The future will only belong to Organizations that capture and implement these learnings!

4. Address the clarion call!

4.1 Address the clarion call!

There will always be two choices to make such as

• To take short term advantage (say increase prices or hoard goods) vs reduce prices in the larger interest
• Continue business vs temporarily shutdown business to save human lives
• Duty towards organization vs Duty towards the Country

Each such choice will establish the organization’s moral values as well as determine which organization will survive in the long term!

5. Know what to do when everything stalls!

5.1 Know what to do when nothing to do?

• Many may lose customer, business and even jobs
• Everyone will come to terms with the possibility of a stalled world!
• ‘Surviving’ in Corona times itself will be seen as an achievement!
• Thus, as an organization as well as Individual, fragility should also remind us to continuously learn and be better than yesterday!

5.2 Thus, now is the time to:

• ‘Face the book’ instead of Facebook
• ‘Link within’ instead of Linkedin!

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