I recently presented during a fireside chat iuvo Technologies put on entitled "REFOCUSING YOUR BUSINESS & WORK AMID THE 'NEW NORMAL'". We put this blog together to help people adjust to the new ways of working. I thought it might be useful to share some of the items that I addressed in this webinar. Business is different right now and correctly pivoting can set you up to survive and thrive going forward.
While many are cutting costs in a panic, what I suggest is to pause the panic and think more long term. What expenses did you have before this event related to travel or perhaps office space? Now that everyone has been Zooming and Teaming, the power of remote working cannot be denied. Customers and suppliers now understand how to meet and work with you remotely. Going forward you may be able to reduce your travel budget or forego that office space expansion. If you are the recipient of PPP loan money, how will you use that to make your business stronger going forward?
Think about the things that have been difficult for you the past few weeks and what dependencies you have on physical things that can perhaps be automated? Certainly you may be a business that makes physical goods, so there may be requirements to be on site. However, if you are not required to physically make something, have you found any parts of your business where you needed paperwork or other physical assets? Can your make updates or digitize assets to remove that dependency? Are you able to get paid and pay others electronically or do you still rely on sending and receiving physical checks? There are solutions to most of these issues and now is a great time to strengthen your business if you take the right approach.
For most businesses, in person sales calls and hosting booths at conferences has literally halted. If you have not already, it is time to shift your business to automated marketing platforms and focus on your SEO, pay per click and content marketing. The good news is that people are answering calls and meeting remotely via Teams and Zoom works pretty well.
On the receiving side, pay attention to how the vendors and partners are treating you during this time. Are companies offering real value and services or are they resorting to scare tactics or perhaps preying on your vulnerability? Keep this in mind as you go forward so you can fortify the good relationships and opt out of the ones that are not trustworthy.
What is your company culture like? Do you trust the people you work with to do the right thing? Do you know what direction to go, have the ability to take action when needed and the tools and cultural foundation to work together cohesively, regardless of where you are located? Do you and your coworkers feel empowered and OK with taking calculated risks to make things better? These things are critical to thriving during trying times. If any of these elements are missing, it is a great opportunity to pause and determine how you can make your culture better and more powerful.
We are currently experiencing a pandemic which is a type of disaster. It is not a physical disaster (i.e. flood/fire/storm), but we are now in business continuity mode. The opportunity right now is to extrapolate this situation and determine what would happen if it was a physical disaster. Do you still rely heavily on local infrastructure which would not allow you to operate as you do now? Have you utilized cloud services to allow your business to mobilize and be effective? If not, now is the time to do so.
One of the reasons we are sharing this is that our business seamlessly transitioned over to this new normal because we have built our business to be resilient and mobile. Any business can employ these processes and technologies and reach out to us if you need some help. When you go back to work and it is all clear, think about how things will be different. What will you take away from this experience? Think about how you and your work force are going to use the technology, communication processes and culture to improve your resiliency.