COVID19 Impacts to Enteprise Strategy
How are your current Transformation activities impacted by the Corona virus outbreak?
Do you foresee a slowdown of activities?
Any new activity that is instead increasing because of it?
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How are your current Transformation activities impacted by the Corona virus outbreak?
Do you foresee a slowdown of activities?
Any new activity that is instead increasing because of it?
Yes in truth, at this moment several countries ( France, Italy, Spain ,..) are stopping people movements, so this is Impacts to Enterprise activity and Strategy
There are likely to be delays to delivery timelines for consultancies due to remote working, self-isolation and increasing infections.
Industries experiencing a decline in demand, such as retail, travel and hospitality, are likely to postpone or downscale projects. Conversely, the healthcare industry is experiencing lacks in supply, so is likely to accelerate transformation projects to increase efficiency and respond better to the crisis.
Remote working itself shouldnt cause a problem unless there is insufficient kit for testing etc. Where I am consulting has followed my advice and setup a test kit in the office with a remote control power supply, we can login remotely and operate it pretty much as if we were there, even power cycling if required.
Of course some of this depends on the motivation of people and whether they are ill.
My far bigger worry is whether or not most of the companies are actually going to survive at all, most of the big bosses are still taking their millions of pound salaries while the company is totally halted, not making, shipping or selling anything.
Companies are still under shock.
Despite Risk managers have been for years doing their jobs, I am afraid not everyone listened to their advises about the need of having Emergency Management Teams and procedures in place ready to respond in case a disaster was to happen. Well, the disaster is here and lots of business leaders are still trying to understand which is their right hand and which is the left one.
Businesses have gone into “hibernation”. All new initiatives have been frozen as their business as usual has collapsed. Certain industries (heaps of them) find themselves with no revenues at all. Governments are trying to keep panic under control pumping cash into the system in order to avoid a credit crunch. However, massive lay-offs are taking place or are ready to take place and the citizenships are extremely concerned as well as afraid.
What should business leaders do now?:
a) assure business continuity through taking control of the disaster recovery phase: it’s about doing the old school stuff
- keeping the lights on for the business critical areas
- taking care of the staff;
- while keeping their key customers and the society where they operate in the center of the decision making process
b) apply surgery as quickly as possible using all the tools the governments are giving them (temporary lay-offs, credit facilities, delay tax payments, ...): this will imply the ability to push through some bureaucratic work quickly
c) prepare themselves for “the day after” so that the downturn has a V shape taking off in a rapid, efficient and effective manner: this implies
- developing a deep understanding of how the business, the customers, the suppliers, the distribution channels and the competitive environment will look like once the confidence is back;
- make the decisions on what part of the ‘legacy’ business will they focus on in terms of products, services, customers, people (ie talent) and geographies.
- put in place the plans which are to be triggered as soon as we hit the floor of the curve
- set up follow up and control mechanisms/processes that help to understand in an agile way if things are working as they should
d) excel in communication: information is key. However it is to be delivered in a way it does not turn to create miss communication or, what is even worse, fake communication. Leaders MUST turn to be TRUSTED, CALMED AND BALANCED SPOKESMEN
In a nutshell: given strategies have been flushed away and the focus is on the ‘supershort-short-short term’ (survival mode) business leaders’ duty right now is to secure the business critical functions and redesign their businesses attending to what the expected the scenario will be once confidence is back. This redesign will also imply some scenario planning.
In order to do so business leaders MUST rely on experienced (seasoned) CXX teams and advisors. Seniority is now needed more than ever in order to do the right calls as well as to bring calm and confidence back to the teams.
Attached some papers I am sharing with my customers just in case you may find them useful (sorry they’re on Spanish). Happy to have a chat if it helps.
200316_-_Covid_19_Support_Services.pdf
It is certainly the case that transformation activities have and will continue to be affected; severely. Most businesses, even in fast moving industries have been able to target KPIs that they believe should be durable; 12, 18 24 months….whatever period is appropriate for the business.
This is now no longer the case. If you are an airline, what should your KPIs be? The question of what a business can aspire to is now much less certain.
Then there are priorities which will need dealing with first
How to protect key stakeholders. For example I recently worked with a home maintenance company. What is the policy for home visits? How should the workperson protect themselve, and clients.
And now that the authorities recognise the gravity of this [I am in UK], how to benefit from any grants, loans, etc available. These may be critical to survival
Straightforwardly, working out how to service clients without excessive risk, and benefit from support is going to be a full load for the next 4-8 weeks for most businesses.
Of course that doesn’t mean that transformation in other areas cannot then be done. But businesses need to examine culture carefully. If your staff is working from home will they be able to absorb change. This, for most people is a big change in itself. What is the baseload of technology that is needed just to keep things going normally….lots of questions before you assess whether change can be absorbed remotely.
I fully buy into the points on communication made by Adolfo btw. But I think businesses need to really reflect on what is urgent now, and what the new situation means for organisational capability
Hope this helps, happy to chat more
The world economy is greatly affected by the impact of COVID-19. Some countries’ borders have been shut. Operations in plants have been suspended. Football matches that generate funds now suspended. Supplies are now on decline.
The key focus should be now on maintaining where possible critical services for those organisations whose very existence will impact on us all to survive, so health services, transportation (food supply and medicines) and we should not forget technology for those that have access, and please think about those customers for whom the only technology they use is a phone to speak to others, so no text or email.
I am sure the incident of COVID-19 will change us for ever and I don’t believe it will just disappear from our lives. So when we think about transformation we need to revisit what we think the outcomes are that we are seeking to achieve and will those outcomes still have value in the ‘living with COVID-19 world’. If the answer is no or not sure then it might be worth revisiting.
The one thing you can continue with are any mentoring/coaching initiatives you had planned or are considering for your people. All deliverable by virtual arrangements. Now more than ever your teams need support, they will want to stay strong for their families, but will need space to think about their lives and their own development path, finding inner resilience and ways of minimising the stress/managing the mental health impact.
Once we’ve worked out how to navigate this crisis we’ll need our people alongside us to continue the journey.
Happy to discuss.
Today, I was informed that my client will shut down all business activities until end of April. It is a major apparel merchant with shops in Germany, Austria, eastern Europe. So I am out of business temporarily, and cannot even do a holiday trip (which I appreciate is a necessary limitation at present)
Yup, common, my major client is on a 2 day week and is the only one still functional. There will be practically no economy in europe or america if this lasts more than another week or two, but it appears to be months left from the graphs… Austria has extended the school closure
Agree with all of the above. I am already seeing the impact in terms of jobs delayed or on hold indefinitely whether public or private sector. Regulators and lawyers struggling to understand that this is not a time for ‘black letter’ application of law on milestones etc that may well be force majeure events anyway. we will see more ‘forbearance’, but for consultants going to be plenty of pro bono or cut rate work but appropriate fees will be a long way off… as happened in 2008 etc…
Covit-19 has changed the world and how we do business and work. Any company has been forced to implement some transformation activities:
- Remote work (not only from employees home but also with external consultants and suppliers);
- Focus: Core business to survive. This is my current advice. Except if you can launch a new anti-Covit-19 drug, cleaning gel or protective gear, keep the focus on the Core Business;
My best recommendation to any Client is to take a deep look into the Production Cycle and implement the needed changes and transformation activities ASAP. Time in business is the essence… Keep the business running, with the needed changes.
Do you foresee a slowdown of activities? Yes: Especially in new business and offices. The new investments in incertain times are risky and for many companies, the concept of office has to be re-think (in size, location and usability);
Some activities are also “slower” due to historic resilience. HR and recruiting 100% online is still something companies are not willing to accept…
In the other hand, some activities are “faster”, so use this advantage. Online meetings tend to be shorter, better prepared and decisions made faster.
Keep an open mind to the business! Feel free to reach out
I recommend that CXO not only think survival but also think opportunities. Yes it is time to be a bit bold.
First part of the CXO attention should go towards keeping the core business services running. In case of a Telco the core communication services voice and data have spiked due to confinement and remote work, while some of their customers ability to pay has been disrupted. So there is a need to launch customer analytics initiative aimed at visualizing and quantifying the new trends and taking appropriate actions to mitigate the risks.
Second part is for CXO to look for opportunities among the chaos. Covid-19 may be a catalyst for transformation projects whose business case wasn’t clearly established before. Or legislative or other hurdles may be now relaxed. Take for example mobile wallet/payment platforms. With customers less willing to touch potentially contaminated cash, and governments trying to reach the un-banked for Covid-19 assistance, there is an opportunity to finally get that project moving faster.
For the consulting industry we also have an opportunity to shine as think tanks and as a source of flexible agile talent. We need to support our clients in planning and putting into action the above strategies.
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