Businesses and its employees are experiencing more isolation and disruption to major value chains in the midst of the global pandemic. Managing uncertainty and constant change for those businesses is taking a toll on operational costs as well as compromising the safety and security of its workers. 

OPERATIONAL SHIFT

Organizations are going back to the drawing board to be able to deal with this once-in-a lifetime event. Regulations and measures to control the spread of the disease are introducing various business demands. Highly-contagious infectious disease means we will have to change how things operate. The impact across many industries is already evident.  

Exposure to risk and navigating extreme limitations to doing business will have an impact on business strategy and will paralyze action heroes from responding to pressing customer demands, which will also affect brand image, leaving customers stranded with unmet expectations. With collaboration and technology advancement tools available today, how can we weather the storm and embed resilience in business? 

TRANSFORM, DIGITALLY

Extending capabilities to work from home is a start, but will not enable business continuity amid the COVID-19 storm. Yet digital transformation accompanied with effective planning to respond to sudden changes and collaboration between business units, can save lives and the economy from severe implications.  

Maintaining business continuity and creating resilience in this working environment, requires creating a portfolio of actions across the business, with defined triggers. With workforce protection taking precedence, supply-chain stabilization is an important business response to crisis. Creating independence in the value chain to customers will protect them from the  chaos that comes with uncertainty. Having a business continuity plan in times of crisis will enable programming and designing processes across different functions within your business to respond to crisis and manage volatility and reactions.  

INNOVATION & IDEATION

Acknowledging that COVID-19 will have a long-lasting impact on our society and economy is one step towards innovation and ideation. Business continuity plans have been put in place today, yet doesn’t cover this pandemic situation, therefore creating a proactive plan to avoid disruption of operations, mitigating the risk associated with it and detailing the steps necessary to be taken to recover after the disaster is crucial for the future.  

By using these approaches, along with a sprinkle of optimism, we can turn the crisis into an opportunity. Businesses that can shift technology capacity and investments to digital platforms will mitigate the impact of the outbreak and keep their companies running smoothly now, and over the long term (Gartner). This puts people at the centre of the solution, managing adoption and developing agility in responding to change, where timing and flexibility of decisions in crisis are crucial for weathering the storm.  

––––––––––

Thynkli’s multidisciplinary teams collaborate to build an intelligent business continuity from strategy to execution. Leveraging technology to provide rapid recommendations for recovery amid COVID-19. 


Let’s talk