Starting Your Rebuild, Now.
The debate between a U or V-shaped economic recovery rages on.
The threat of a second wave remains real. In the Far East, namely, China, Japan and South Korea, the signs of a second wave are imminent. Closer to home, the Victorian State Government has just enforced a full lockdown. The only certainty is businesses can expect stronger headwinds ahead. But as they say, the show must go on.
No one could have imagined the magnitude of the crisis COVID-19 has thrown the world into. Unlike the 2008 GFC, 9/11 or 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, this pandemic hits at the core of life and living. It brought to a standstill a significant amount of people's physical mobility. A short walk to the local cafe, a train ride to work and business trips can't be taken for granted any longer. While the former two have been restored in many parts of the world, the latter is still on the negotiation tables of leaders around the world. Billions have been promised, some delivered to businesses. The priority is to keep the economy chugging along like a locomotive that has seen better days.
With images of the Great Depression emerging in the backdrop, the sky has never looked darker. There isn't a playbook to turn to. Many in the retail, hospitality and airline sectors have fallen victim to the pandemic.
COVID is an Opportunity to Pause & Re-Assess
In COVID-19, businesses have the perfect storm to initiate long-awaited change or search for new dry land. Resisting or denying the need for change may negatively impact the long-term sustainability of your business. Over the past decade, the call for change has grown more audible. Ostensibly one can see COVID-19 as the final push. After all, its impact will be felt far and wide as well as over a long period of time.
Rather than allow the prevailing circumstances to completely dictate the pace and intensity of change, businesses can take steps to take charge. The aim is to make it evolutionary rather than revolutionary. From people to machines, it is gradually embracing the new normal to co-exist productively with the macro forces at work. The process will be guided and directed explicitly within the organisation with external help to keep the leadership in focus.
In this article, we share the process CEO Strategic uses to help organisations change course amidst the sea of change it finds itself in. The goal is to successfully be reshaping of the organisation to help sail towards safe and dry land. The methodical approach reduces the anxieties of change as well as attempts to mitigate the risk of sailing in unchartered waters. Let's take a close look at the steps.
Step 1: Situational Analysis
Here, the goals are:
Identify and clarify the issues of concern
Ensure the business's financial standing is sound
Identify the resources needed to achieve the objectives
Sometimes, the issues at hand aren't as obvious as they may seem to be. To realise a good outcome, however, is highly contingent on a clear and deep appreciation of the current issues and their impact on the business. How can we make money, what resources do we need to make money, what is stopping us from making money.
And as they are being addressed, it is critical the business secures the funds and resources to effect change.
2. Develop Your Action Plan
Why do we need a strategy to effect change?
The strategy is a disciplined framework to arrive at the destination in good shape. In addition, it articulates the organisation's commitment to accomplish the mission. To this end, the strategy needs the buy-in of stakeholders, internal and external. They must own it. An important part of this stage is sharing the strategy with stakeholders.
A well-developed strategy needs to be financially sound. After all, the ultimate aim is to ensure it will achieve the business' financial goals. Thus, we embed financial models and forecasts in the strategy. It helps stakeholders digest the strategy better and faster.
3. Activation
A delicate balance must be maintained when activating or implementing the action plans. In this phase, we organise the tasks at hand to immediate remedial steps to be taken and stabilising steps to put the business in good stead for further actions to be taken.
It's a classic emergency room protocol - stop the bleed and stabilise the vital statistics.
Unless these are achieved, further changes to be taken may pose a greater risk or achieve minimal impact.
4. Restructuring, Re Build, Re Imagined Business
Its where the hard work begins. Restructuring isn't confined to just strengthening the status quo. It can entail fundamental shifts in the way you do business.
For example, supply chains that have been disrupted may require some activities to be kept in-house in the long run. Or, new markets will need to be identified and nurtured. This may call for investment in sales and marketing capabilities to reach out to new regions, be it national or international.
5. Track, Measure & Validate
This is the accountability phase of the process. The process of change isn't complete unless it is tracked, measured and validated. Making improvements to the action plans to achieve the strategy is a given.
Circumstances may change in various ways. Hence, the outcome of this phase is to ensure leaders can make informed decisions. Ideally, the review is done monthly to nip problems in the bud or build on an emerging strength quickly.
Now, in the event the strategy falls short of expectations, other scenarios can be considered. They may include selling the business or part of its assets, maximise returns or in a worst-case scenario consider putting it under administration or receivership.
The business landscape has changed dramatically in a short period of time. It's grown more uncertain too. Now is a good time to act. Speak to us today to discuss your strategy.
- Daniel Fah