The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown have been wreaking havoc on the world since the last few months. Just like any other sector, business industries worldwide are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus crisis as well. The plausible financial impacts of this unprecedented situation have become the most talked-about topic across the globe today! While loads of uncertainties and risks still prevail on what the future of the world economy would possibly entail, what is evident is that the enterprise industry could be strikingly different from what it used to appear earlier.
The swiftly-spreading virus has already claimed 3,50,000 lives worldwide, as The World Health Organization survey claims! Even though the respective governments of different countries are taking multiple measures to enable organizations to restore their economic stability, legions of entrepreneurs are still clueless on how to operate their business operations, in terms of all the major compliances, which they are required to keep up with.
The unexpected twists and turns unleashed by the Covid-19 outbreak have certainly compelled almost all the companies to bring their highly ambitious goals and strategies to sudden naught! But, even amid such trying times, most of the organizations are starkly reluctant to give in. Instead of giving up, most of them are now hitting a reset button to re-invent their coping mechanisms and business strategies.
There is no denying the fact that, unless the right vaccine or medicines are invented to counter Covid-19, the need for limited movements will continue to prevail. Even if the blanket of lockdown is taken down, the world will have to maintain social distancing whatsoever. Tapping into this hard-hitting reality, organizations all across the world are now bracing up for their survival. Whether it’s to ensure an uninterrupted business operation, keep up with continuity or keep the dire impacts of Corona-pandemic at bay – organizations are shaping up their work cultures.
Are you an aspiring entrepreneur, looking to protect your business from the long-term influences of the Covid-19 pandemic?
In this below-mentioned excerpt, we have dug out some insights and strategies, via which, you can let your business navigate through a catastrophe like Covid-19.
Have a look –
Seek Refuge in Digital Cognizance –
Corona pandemic has proven to be a wake-up alarm for companies, which have always prioritized their core business operations, deferring digital investments. It is clearly evident from the fact that companies with plummeting digital cognizance are now struggling with very limited call-center assistants to back their business operations. Thankfully, the digital-savvy companies have successfully leveraged the might of mobile applications, self-service software, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, chatbots, etc. to tide themselves over this crisis moment.
Have you committed the same sin in the past? Well, don’t fret as you still have time to recover from the loss. If you wish to survive in the long run, make an investment in embedding the advanced digital strategies into your core operations without wasting any further time. Always remember that by being digitally savvy or technologically cognizant, you can expand your consumer base besides gaining a strong competitive edge.
Work-from-Home is the New Normal –
Thanks to the corona-pandemic, the top-tier organizations have already fine-tuned the way they used to work. TCS, The world’s one of the best IT hubs has proclaimed that it’s looking to consider about 70-75% of its employees to work from their homes by the year 2025. This denotes that a company just requires only 25-30% of its entire workforce to carry out its business operations.
Brace up to embrace this wind of change if you don’t want your business to get off track. To streamline the operational remote work cultures, ensure that you have adequate VPN licenses, bandwidth, and video-conferencing tools available at your disposal. To ensure that your network and VPN providers can easily cater to the unwanted or impromptu requirements on a pre-negotiated rate, you must devise a prominent tech direction at your organization.
It is expected that an incredibly huge chunk of employees will work from their homes in the near future. Before tapping into this culture, your company is required to thoroughly evaluate the current expenses of different on-premise infrastructures i.e. servers, desks, bandwidths, etc. versus the upgraded expenses related to the provisioning of the latest laptops, security demands, Internet costs, 4G/5G modems et al. Amid this scenario, companies with already enhanced IT infrastructure around WFH policies shall definitely have a greater edge.
Consider Cloudifying Your Business Operations –
Amidst this current crisis of Corona-pandemic, companies that have already made a switch to the cloud, are now enjoying an immense competitive advantage. The advanced cloud technologies can beat two major challenges – security, as well as, scalability.
By codifying your business operations, you can allow the internal IT teams of your company to scale up multiple resources right on the cloud for any particular system where there was an urgent spike-like call center, website, help desk, and the likes. This apart, you can also manage the end-point safety of your organization by the cloud, which might have left the already lagging IT departments to enhance their performance.
If reports are to be relied upon, the MACIF Group, which is the world’s one of the best mutual insurance companies, had successfully maintained its staff’s safety through G-Suite. It has reportedly deployed with about 8,500 employees even in this crisis situation. A huge chunk of employees in this organization have been reportedly switched from in-person office meetings to daily video-conferencing within an incredible span of beginning remote work.
If you wish to help your employees to transition into the work-from-home culture on a smooth and seamless note, then you should consider using G-Suite as immediately as possible. Backed by G-Suite, you can easily arrange video conference calls, have an access to your data via Google Drive, collaborate with your staff online via Google Docs, and the likes. This will ease out the process of working from home.
You are living under a rock if you have not yet shifted to the cloud. Cloud is the need of the hour, and if you are still not using it, it will be tough for you to survive and stay ahead of the curve.
Re-Build Your Business Continuity Strategy –
This unprecedented circumstance is definitely thwarting a lot of challenges at different organizations worldwide. Honestly, you cannot combat this catastrophe with an outdated business continuity plan. Rather, you need to re-structure your BCP strategies to continue to move forward. Instead of focusing on the availability or resiliency of your company’s critical applications, you should work on the entire business continuity.
It is the need of the hour that the managers should interact with their staff in real-time through telephonic conversation or video conferences to boost their confidence and help them perform to their optimum capacities. The idea is to join hands to beat the crisis or challenges together. Every IT organization should enable their factory floor workers to have an access to workforce computers, via which, they can check Emails, official notices, videos, and the likes.
It’s high time that every organization took such suggestions into a serious account, and built a comprehensive business continuity strategy to brave out any disastrous situation with ample supplies, personnel, and equipment. Always remember that the business continuity plan of your company should be developed around the opportunity and potentially provided by social media, technologies, digital media, etc.
Don’t Forget to Stay Optimistic
Running a business has never been devoid of challenges. Such challenges could be immensely aggregated by a worldwide crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic. But, amidst the catastrophe of Covid-19, probably lies tonnes of opportunities as well. As a responsible and aspiring business owner, you must be able to rise above every bit of obstacle and figure out new ways to survive in the post-Corona world.
In times of crisis, it could be extremely difficult to stay optimistic, positive, and calm. But, for every business owner, keeping calm under insurmountable pressure is just an integral aspect of their job responsibilities. Even though often, even the finest of plans or preparations are not just enough to cope with a crisis. But, what is still certain is the fact that companies, which plan to move forward with practicality, shall be in a better state for responding in the days to come. The need for putting an emphasis on technological growth is here to stay. Keeping this in mind, every organization is required to allocate a sufficient budget to stay afloat in an ocean of uncertainties or complexities.
