The same desk, sofa, the bookshelves. Back to the roots? These were my thoughts mid of March when I set up my home office in a room at our home where I started my firm 10 years ago. All gave me a nostalgic feeling. Me with my colleagues and our business partners have started to experience a new phase of personal and professional life. However, on-going projects, video conferences, calls with clients and partners gave me the feeling – yes, the same place, but I am 10 years ahead. I am and we as a firm are connected in a diverse world across continents.
I realized that we are in a situation where we cannot have a finished plan or checklist for tomorrow, as we do not know what we are expecting tomorrow. The scenario is changing regularly and we all need a huge portion of optimism and spirit of learning. A learning attitude is essential for us to observe, understand, analyse to decide how to act and even to react. We should also define the purpose of our actions, so that we assign the right people for the right task, set up teams, connecting them and developing an efficient communication platform across the organization and between geographies.
We need to plan and develop checklists that are flexible enough to get adjusted to new circumstances. Our mid-term and long-term business plans should remain as defined. We only need to think of new ways of approach, before we adjust the plans. We have to re-think every day who, how and what. All decisions we take should not only provide temporary solutions, but we should still yearn for sustainability.
How we do this? My observation and learning so far:
- Internal and External Stakeholders and Network: Manage your internal and external risks with your right stakeholders
- Review your network and widen your contacts, especially who may complement your business and vice versa
- Be creative: Develop your learning agenda; join web calls and conferences to learn and understand the situation better; increase your capability to imagine and hence increase your sensitivity to situations
- Organize brainstorming sessions with your internal & external partners
- Ask questions and encourage your team members to do the same; a good exercise to activate your creativity
- Encourage experiments
- Be adaptive: Develop strategies which will support your business, trade to adjust to the present situation – also in the next months
- Identify your opportunities: Use mind-mapping for your internal and external sessions to identify opportunities to define your new approach/ways to your business
- New sales channels
- New geographies; there will be a shift in the global economy – watch out
- Re-view investment plans; business co-operation; M&As
- Adjust your infra-structure, supply chain, and sourcing
- Re-define your company’s digital strategy
Manufacturing companies may need to focus more on:
- Alternative or new supplier networks and sourcing hubs and adjusting logistics and supply chain accordingly
- Re-view production process regularly against supply, customer demands and be prepared to tackle unfamiliar, unprecedented situations
- Digitalization of manufacturing
We all should be encouraged to develop and be part of a collaborative approach already in this and post-crisis phase. At the same time, we need to define the core purpose of all our actions. Our daily activities should have brainstorming sessions where we should focus on:
- Defining rules and action points
- Preparing our organizations for different scenarios
- Simplicity vs. complexity; be simple and be understandable
- Regular follow-ups
We also need to create a team and assign tasks and encouraging the skills and capabilities of members who can imagine and be creative and are able to be connected to reality. People who can also work without checklists, be adaptive and understands the business and above all the need of the time.
