5 Ways to Lead Your Business through the Coronavirus Crisis

Coronavirus has spread across the globe. The number of positive cases and deaths are rising exponentially. To save the onslaught, governments across the globe have enforced complete lock down. This has helped bring down the rate of spread of the virus but it has negatively affected the global economy. Every industry has come to a standstill.

The following article throws light on how companies can keep themselves afloat in times of global crises such as these.

1. Focus on the big picture

Companies don’t update their knowledge about the crisis on a daily basis. And when they do, they believe too much on hyped news. This leads to analysis paralysis that doesn’t allow them to respond effectively to the challenges at hand. It’s important for companies to gather information periodically from relevant sources, not miss weak signals, and not become over flushed with ‘Breaking News’. They should keep their eyes on the big picture and how conditions are evolving with time.

Also Read: 5 Ways Digital Transformation Can Help You Adapt to Changing Enterprise Landscape

2. Listen to multiple experts

Each epidemic is unique. It comes with its own set of problems. The same goes for COVID-19. As of writing this article, there is no vaccine to shield us from it. Epidemiologists, virologists, public health experts and institutions such as the World Health Organization (WHO) are fighting against this disease. To curb the spread of the virus, they release health measures from time-to-time, though with a little variation. Companies should keep their ears open to various expert opinions and adopt an empirical approach before taking any decision.

3. If need be, don’t hesitate to change your decisions

Relying on previous data to make decisions is a good thing. But it can often become the source of inertia. This happens because managers don’t want to look indecisive by taking decisions contrary to their initial assumptions. But in a constantly changing scenario, such as the Corona Virus pandemic, such situations arise endlessly.

Opinions by experts change at a rapid pace. This is where managers need to adopt flexibility. They need to learn how to phase out redundant decisions and make commitments based on current information.

4. Become resilient

The world has gone through many ups and downs and each one of them has taught us something new. The recent addition to the list is the Corona Virus. Following are the 4 ways that companies can adopt to become resilient by learning how to thrive and beat the odds:

• Have multiple sources for fulfilling your material needs
• Have additional manufacturing facilities to deal with production shortage
• Build ad-hoc systems where separate units can be combined in different ways instead of building integrated systems that fail due to knock-on effects
• Build systems that can upgrade at a moment’s notice with regards to new developments and evolving conditions

5. Distill learnings from the pandemic

Out of all the points mentioned above, this is the most important. It is for sure that sooner or later, the pandemic is going to end. And once it does, companies should perform root-cause analysis to distill the learnings. This will bring to the fore many challenges that organizations have been going through. It will throw light on the inability of the senior management to make hard decisions or their more than required affinity to please the consensus. It’s very important to learn the lessons and prepare for a post-corona world.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has caused much bad to the world at large – be it public health or economy. But like other pandemics in the past such as SARS and MERS, we will sooner or later find a cure. Businesses need to be resilient in times of change and prepare themselves for a post-Corona world. This is where we can help you. At Sage, we are home to industry-leading CRM systems and ERP platforms that enable you to communicate with your clients proactively and help your business stay agile. To know more about them, SMS SAGE to 56767. You can also write to us at sales@sagesoftware.co.in.

Disclaimer: All the information, views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and their respective web sources and in no way reflect the principles, views or objectives of Sage Software Solutions (P) Ltd.