The Covid-19 pandemic has hit everyone hard, but then it has also forced us to rethink our priorities. The lockdown and complete pause on business as we knew it, has given us an opportunity to focus on what is important for us, our teams, and our business.
Some things that seemed unimaginable earlier are now the new normal.
Learnings: While handling crisis and wading through something unprecedented, we have probably learnt:
- Remote teams can work and deliver, in most scenarios.
- Gig – economy is not just for front liners. It can work across the roles.
- Productivity and performance do not really get hit with a distributed workforce, if processes and metrics are in place.
- Innovation and new business can take shape and new products can be launched even under a complete lockdown, with distributed teams, and all this can happen in extremely tight time frames. (Look at how companies stood up to the times and created new product lines to support the need of the hour as well as unlock the potential of their facility / infra.)
- You always need to have the business continuity angle in mind. Business Continuity Planning is for everyone, irrespective of size and maturity.
- The concept of work, workplaces, employees and teams has evolved further, overnight.
At times, the best of plans, strategy can head to dumps. It helps to be able to appreciate the present, come to terms with the reality and learn to stand-up.
Way forward: Some priorities that businesses may need to look at while moving ahead:
While the need of the hour for most businesses is to try and stand up on their feet, take a stock of the situation, conserve cash, etc. The following are some things that parallelly need to be looked at on priority:
- Communication: In times of crisis, and while emerging out from a crisis how managers and leaders can effectively engage their teams, send right messages.
- Need to rethink organization design: Right business structure, organization structure – for agile, efficient and effective organization that is adaptable while also being scalable.
- Overall cost structure with a focus on manpower costs: Is your business carrying lots of extra baggage and needs to trim down?
- Talent strategy and talent mix: Achieving a good balance with full time on rolls employees, contractual staffers and interim staffers like consultants, freelancers, part time advisors, etc.
- Processes: Need for effective processes that lead to speed of execution. Process that can adapt to the changing workways, and are flexible without compromising on delivery.
- The concept of work, workplaces, employees, teams needs to evolve further, and business leaders need to be more open while trying to find their way through this maze.
The above is just one way of thinking and is not really exhaustive. I might have missed out on some priorities and would have added extra weight to some. I have tried to identify and collate some thoughts, as we see the story unfold – the various businesses bracing for impact, as they take their decisions on addressing the impact and preparing for the future.
I am sure there would be many realities, and many related learnings and priorities for everyone and for every business. If you can identify with some of the above learnings and priorities or related ones I would love to hear from you. Drop in a lion the post.
Note: Originally posted on Linkedin on 9th May 2020
Praveen is the Founder & Principal Consultant of KHEdge, a boutique HR & Business Process Advisory firm. Over last 15 years he has advised & worked with promoters, founders, business leaders, HR leaders in areas of - Business Strategy, HR Strategy, Organisation Design etc.