Business Recovery Post-Covid

The COVID-19 pandemic has entirely changed the way we live and work. These behavioral changes will persist even after the pandemic subsides. Some of these changes were forced upon us, and the rest simply represent the height of innovation in a time of crisis. Businesses have had to adapt to survive this gruesome pandemic. They started moving towards digital and automation technologies, and started implementing them a lot faster than they were pre-COVID. All businesses have experienced a massive reset of the workforce, employer/employee relationship, and the entire business ecosystem.

The impact of the pandemic was negative on most businesses and positive for some. Whatever the case, we can all agree that the pandemic has left businesses with invaluable experience and insights. The pandemic has revolutionized the entire work culture, and the businesses that survived can make use of this treasure trove of knowledge to boost productivity and overall growth.

In fact, a 2020 study conducted by McKinsey Global Institute reports that companies could produce a 1 percentage point increase in annual productivity growth to 2024 if companies of all shapes and sizes keep innovating and the demand recovers and stays strong. But how? Read on to find out.

Respond, Recover, Renew

Bouncing back post-pandemic happens in three phases. The duration of these phases will vary depending on factors such as country, industry, size, etc. Use the change in the economy to your advantage by following these three steps.

1. Respond - This is where your organization focuses on temporary fixes to stop the bleeding.

2. Recover - This is a more organized effort to stabilize operations. You need to formulate a plan to restore to a scalable state by identifying the aspects of your business that are lacking and you need to strengthen.

3. Renew - Here you need to learn to adapt to the new workflows and conduct them in a scalable way. Use all the insights and emergent patterns from prior phases to lay the foundation for a new way forward. 

Build Organizational Resilience:

Such major resets in the economy often build organizational resilience. But how so? If your business has survived the pandemic so far, it means that you have weeded weaknesses from your business and operating models.

According to a survey conducted by PwC Global, out of 2,814 global business leaders who shared the impact of COVID-19 on their organizations, 20% said that the crisis had a positive impact on their business. But why? What did these organizations do differently?

The first step they took is to determine how the crisis had broken their existing models. By doing so, they realized where the opportunities and the risks lied. They broadened their approach towards risks and applied organizational resilience by:

• Exhaustively studying their response to the crisis.
• Incorporating the valuable insights obtained from the previous step into their long-term corporate strategy.
• Actively building muscle memory to strengthen response capabilities. 

By doing so, these businesses built an ironclad defense towards the ongoing pandemic. This way they easily resolved gaps and inconsistencies that the pandemic uncovered.

Reset for a Sustainable Future

The final piece in the post-pandemic business recovery puzzle is to reset your business models and operations to streamline with the new reality. Let’s look at some ways that might work out.

For some businesses, the pandemic has stretched their business models to the point of breaking. This means that they might have to reduce or retire some business activities permanently. This might mean eliminating certain business capabilities (eg., SaaS) or eliminating a product or service entirely. Whatever it takes to keep the boat afloat.

Other companies can reinvent themselves by changing their approach and refocusing their capacity. For example, if a  business relies heavily on physical centers and in-person attendance, they need to focus more on their digital capabilities. They need to welcome new ecosystems to reach the customers who can't make it to their physical locations. Businesses may have to change the way they engage with their customers to adapt to the automated and digitalized post-pandemic business world.

These are just a few examples of how your business might need to reset to fizzle out the ill effects of the treacherous pandemic. You need to ask yourself and your business one question. Do you want to be different as you recover from this pandemic? And if yes, how so? Asking this question will help you set the right targets and stabilize the business in times of crisis.