#now obviously i still have hygiene standards but in terms of a little dust

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Get Your Business Ready for the Post-Pandemic World

As we write this (January 2021), the coronavirus pandemic is still in full swing; the 2nd (or is it the 3rd) wave is sweeping the UK. The world has also been through lock-down, hundreds of thousands of people have sadly died and the economy is grinding to a debilitating stop in many countries. It is still, well over a year from the first case being reported, looking pretty grim all round.

If you’re a business owner, you’re probably feeling a little worried about the future, despite all the promises of funding and assistance from governments. Businesses large and small are feeling the brunt of this pandemic and many are struggling to keep their heads above water. We totally understand that, we’re feeling it too.

The thing is, this isn’t going to last forever. It might feel like it, but there will be a time when we come out of the other side and we all may have to adapt to a new way of working, trading and doing business. If you’re waiting until then to get your business ready, you’re probably going be too late.

Many things are going to be different when we come out the other side; customer demands, regulations, supply chains, economic recession, the list goes on. With that in mind, we wanted to tackle it head-on to help you get your organisation ready for the post-pandemic world we’re heading towards. We hope it helps you weather the storm, when the winds of change have died down.

1. Understand Your Position

Before we look to the future, it’s crucial you understand where you are right now. Obviously we don’t know anything about your business, what it does or the sector in which you operate, but hopefully you do!

To be able to make sound strategic decisions about your future, it’s vital you ackowledge the postion you find yourself. What kind of business are you? What is the current state of the business? Where are you in the ecosystem in which you work ? Who are your main competitors and what are they doing? Is it possible to shutdown during this crisis and come back afterwards? If not, do you have the resources to regain any ground you’ve lost? Are you focussed too much on the negatives and forgetting about what you can do in the meantime? How is the COVID-19 pandemic realistically affecting you? Ask yourself questions like this, but answer them truthfully, even if you don’t like the answer.

There are so many industries, in the post-pandemic world, still wondering how they’ll function, or unclear what the future holds. We’re thinking about hospitality, travel and event planning, to name but three. If you work in any of those industies, will your business be viable at the same scale as before, or is it time to think about pivoting?

If your business is in areas of internet communication, office furniture or delivery services, you might be rubbing your hands together at the thought of growth potential. Whatever business you’re in, taking stock of your current position is a vital first step and mapping the next steps available is a great place to start.

2. Plan Ahead

As we’ve already said, this pandemic isn’t going to last forever. ,At some point in the (hopefully) not too distant future, your business is going to bounce back. When that time comes, what’s your plan? You do have one, right?

I doubt the plan, whatever it is, is to return in exactly the same way as before. The world will have changed, so that strategy probably isn’t going to work. Going forward you need to think about what your business is going to look like in the short-, medium- and long-term. Whatever the future vision looks like, the plan to get there needs to start today.

Set yourself some objectives. These can include where you see your business when the dust has settled, but be realistic. Start with what do you need to do to get through this crisis. The things you come up with need to be broad, rather than very specific, because no-one really knows, so be adaptable, think about the bigger picture and the longer term.

To help you visualise this, grab a piece of paper, and create a table that’s 4 columns wide x 6 rows deep. In the first column, add the 5 Ps down the left-hand side:

Position (i.e. where you’re going),

Plan (i.e. what you want to do)

Perspective (i.e. what we see)

Projects (i.e. what to prioritise)

Preparedness (i.e. how to get ready to implement - see Step 4)

Along the top of the grid, ignoring the first column which is now taken with the above, divide the list in the remaining three columns so they read ‘During Crisis’, ‘Post-Crisis’ and ‘The New Normal’; feel free to rename them, but fundamentally we’re trying to understand the current situation as it is today, what happens immediately after restrictions are lifted and when things go back to some-sort of normal.

Doing it like this will allow you to analyse your strategy going forward. It should look something like this (feel free to download and use).

3. From Planning To Action

With your plan done, you should have a nice list of projects to tackle. Maybe it’s a range of new products you can launch, innovative marketing campaigns, streamlined production processes or new services to offer, whatever it is, you need to prioritise them.

We’re sure they all sound great, but they will all need some of your resources which are finite. Starting them all at the same time can be problematic. You need to consider personnel available and obviously costs, but also things like IT, workload, etc.

Phase the projects based on what resources are going to be available to ensure that you can achieve them in the most efficient manner. If you don’t, chances are they’ll never happen.

4. Are You Prepared Enough?

It’s easy to carried away once all the ideas are flowing, the brain is storming and you’re the one ‘in the zone’ eager to make changes. It’s great to feel energised, but you need to think about it in terms of the organisation as a whole. For example, are your staff going to be used to remote working and want to stay that way? If so, what implications might that have on your ideas?

If you’re part of a larger nationwide or international organisation, then consider whether is this going to help or hinder your thoughts.

5. What Changes Can You Expect?

As we said in an earlier point, no-one really knows for sure when it comes to what societal or cultural changes we can expect to see, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth thinking about. Depending on what kind of business sector you operate in, any changes are going to impact you differently.

It would be nice to think that, once this is all over, that what we’ve collectively been through will bring us as a society closer together, but what if the opposite is true? What if people start to socially distance themselves as standard? How will that impact on your staff or customers? If people are pushed apart, either through distrust or hygiene, what might that mean to you?

Also think about this; how did your business react to the crisis? Were you, for example, slow to adopt procedures or did you raise prices trying to capitalise on the chaos. There will be PR fallout from all of this for sure. If you didn’t react well, will that mean employees and customers will see you differently? The answers you come up with will help to inform the changes you expect to see.

It remains to be seen how the impact of the coronavirus pandemic will affect the world, but we hope this gives you some ideas on how you can plan for it in terms of your business. If you’ve got any ideas or suggestions of your own, please drop us a comment below so others can share from your experience.

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Blog photo courtesy of Isaac Smith on Unsplash

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