How to position firm for post-Covid life

As a business owner or leader, you may be wondering what the future holds, and how you can prepare your entity to thrive post-Covid-19. As lockdown orders begin to lift, it may be time to shift from disaster response —making it through the immediate needs of the Covid-19 crisis and related shutdown — to plans for long-term business operations in the new normal.

This could be a great time for you to re-evaluate your operations and practices and ensure the business goes into the post-pandemic era in as efficient and robust a shape as possible. While it may be uncertain what the market environment might look like, or even when “normality” will be restored, you can take a range of measures in the meantime.

Here are some measures you can take to strategically position your company for the future:

1. Seek out the opportunities

History tells us that times of great disruption and change yield opportunities. To take advantage of them, you need to think outside traditional boundaries. It is important to ask yourself what opportunities there are to generate cash flow more quickly.

This period of disruption also offers a significant opportunity to digitalize end-to-end processes and create new business models and revenue streams. For example, many institutions of higher learning have fully embraced the concept of online learning, which has been seen to be very effective when well managed. Some universities offering postgraduate programs are reporting higher attendance rates when classes are conducted online, mainly due to the convenience this mode offers.

Organisations have also realised that they can significantly reduce employee training costs by use of technology. If you are planning to train your staff especially on soft skills, you might want to consider either a fully online approach, or a blend of both online and face to face. On top of reducing your training costs, this approach also ensures flexibility during the training and minimal operational interruptions.

2. Keep staff engaged

Engaged employees are a vital asset in ensuring your business thrives in the foreseeable future, so finding ways to maintain engagement in a remote workforce is another important step you can take.

To achieve a higher level of engagement, you could choose to among others provide suggestions and resources for professional development or broader personal growth. For example, if someone has always had an aspiration to learn a new skill such as presentation or report writing, why not see if there are ways you can support them to do that? This will not only add value to the business but also increase levels of staff engagement.

3.Learn in-demand skills

Whilst having always been sought-after, some skills have significantly gained importance in the recent past as companies seek to embrace change and build more resilient, adaptable, and agile workforces. Given lockdown and social distancing restrictions are starting to lift, you could be beginning to navigate your pathway back to normality – or, at least a “new normal”.

To thrive in this environment and secure a promising future for your business, it is important to develop some key skills that will be vital to business success post-Covid-19. Some of the skills that both you and your team will need to enhance include leadership, flexibility and adaptability, critical thinking, digital skills, communication and emotional intelligence. Creativity and innovation skills will also be very key as your company navigates the post Covid-19 period.

4. Improve communication and relationship building

Whatever the “new normal” looks like, communication and relationship-building skills will remain an essential part of your armory. To succeed in the new environment, you will need to promote collaboration and teamwork to get everyone playing to their strengths and focused on what really matters.

Your formal and informal networks will probably more important in the coming days and years than they’ve ever been. In the customer-supplier context, you’ll quickly find out who you’ve got a relationship with, and who you’ve just got a transaction with.

In conclusion, whatever direction this pandemic takes, you have an opportunity to create a firm foundation today for the future of your business. If you take deliberate action to analyse your business and take advantage of the opportunities presented by this pandemic, you will be on your way to building a thriving business in the post- Covid-19 period.