05/04/2020
Business survival tactics in time of crisis
Covid-19 is a terrible shock to the global economy as well as the thousands of individuals and families it has affected. Surprisingly times of crisis and global recession always give birth to a new way of doing business and serious business interruptions . This time we will see more of machine work in place of the humans. This is in terms of demand for Self driven cars, drone deliveries and in general high level robotics. All Companies in the immediate term need to develop new ways through which they would remain afloat, such includes the following :
1. Building trust
Be transparent about the business environment. Communicate to your customers in ultimate sincerity. If it's a change in working/contact hours, slight increase in the Turnaround time (TAT) that they are accustomed to etc, let the customers feel you. After all, every one is in crisis. So build confidence and let them believe that even in this, you are best in solving their problem.
2. Innovation
No doubt, with the government requirement of social distancing and subsequent lock downs, businesses will have to re-engineer their business models in various ways :
A) Adopt a remote work environment policy.
Your staff are the driving force behind the success of your business. Their safety therefore comes first. A work force that feels valued will deliver more. So allow them to work in the environment that they feel safe in. One thing though, the challenges of working remotely are many, ranging from laxity, indiscipline etc. Therefore develop a working framework and a strict policy to be adhered to. Such as:
Proper Time management (set reporting time, meetings time, when all people out to be online for conferencing etc. )
set deadlines for different tasks as well as targets to be met.
B) Invest in online marketing.
Working remotely highly compromises the staff-customers contact and therefore old school sales and marketing methods become untenable. The next sure bet therefore becomes online sales & marketing. In Wuhan the cosmetics company Lin Qingxuan closed 40% of their stores but their staff took to online sales. The company experienced 200% growth.