Riding the Waves
With the furlough scheme extended until March in the UK, there are hints at more lockdown restrictions coming into force after December and well into Spring 2021. The promising news of an effective vaccine suggests we may see some return to normalcy next year, but in truth, who really knows what’s coming down the line? The world of work changed for good in 2020, and the notion of ‘business as usual’ will be kicked further to the horizon as the likes of COVID-19, Brexit and a global recession begin to tangibly overlap.
Basically we are all going to be hit by wave after wave of challenge and change next year. So how can organisations best prepare to ride these successfully and not get sucked under?
1. Anticipate change itself
The unfortunate reality is that there are some businesses – possibly entire industries – that are going to be left behind in the tumultuous events occurring right now. Primarily we are talking about COVID-19, but the pandemic needs to be viewed alongside an increasingly volatile political environment, economic instability and the impact of climate change: all areas that are particularly heightened at this moment in time. If businesses can design their strategies with an anticipation and preparedness for change as a central aspect, they‘ll be able to provide far more assurance of continued reliability, rather than forever being on the back foot and scrambling to respond to events as they occur.
2. Shift mindsets to focus on delivery
Reliability is not about 'how we do things' but more about 'whether we deliver'. Today, continuity of delivery should be the focus of companies in terms of both their marketing and also how they approach their operations. Being innovative and agile, proactive and open to the potential of enabling technologies, whilst keeping an eye on 'delivery' (that’s quality, responsiveness and meeting or exceeding customer expectations) will be key.
I genuinely believe that smaller companies do this so much better than the behemoths. So whilst Amazon, Microsoft and Google are undoubtedly going to seize even more of the commercial space as people are confined to their homes and look to the obvious candidates to carry them through, there is an opportunity for smaller, innovative businesses with a firm grip on how to manage a customer relationship to establish themselves too. Empathy, good advice, targeted services and personal relationships are vital to generate trust in an impersonal sea of digital noise and colossal multinationals
3. Do what you can to minimise cybersecurity risk
The blurring of the home and workspaces during the age of remote working brings its own challenges. And it will be critical to find balance and define boundaries to ensure adequate productivity, good communication, resilient mental health and data security. In terms of technology, it will be important to maintain a clear separation of personal vs. business space. Companies must ensure they protect their networks, services and data end-to-end, preferably minimising the number of logins people need to use and locations where data is stored – since each of these becomes another potentially vulnerable point of failure. Centralise operations, build in resiliency on multiple levels, ensure closely managed access control and multi-factor security for EVERYTHING without hindering that all-important quality of service delivery.