As I stepped into my new position as the CEO of Creative Zone earlier this year, little did I know that in just a few months the face of companies and its leadership would transform enormously. And yet here we are with the better part of the year behind us, that brought extraordinary challenges and taught us a million crucial lessons.
Every day, I see companies hustle to keep the lights on while there are also those for whom the situation has presented a ‘Perfect Storm’. It is incredible to see how some companies successfully sailed through the tough phase, but also upsetting to know that some really promising players had to exit the market.
Since the situation is unlike any we’ve seen before there’s no rulebook to follow. It’s at times like these when we really need to rely on our five principles - quality, responsibility, efficiency, mutuality, and freedom because they ground our decision making in empathy and create stability and hope in tumultuous times.
Here are my insights for navigating a company in the time of crisis-
1) Stay Close to your Clients
Rather than giving in to fear and anxiety, stay close to your clients and make the communication transparent. It’s okay to say “I don’t know” but let them hear it from you, no news is worse than bad news. This attitude will build trust which is crucial in times of crisis. Emerging from lockdown, clients will be more vigilant about health and safety precautions that are in place. To make them feel comfortable, define measures you are taking for their safe experience with your company. Proactively communicate about measures being implemented especially in the back offices, production, or storage facilities that may not be directly visible to customers. These could be end-to-end processes, minimising human handling, testing procedures and strict application of the highest sanitary standards in offices.
2) Optimise Product Offering
Evaluate if you can enhance the product offering according to the situation; ask yourself “do we have the product the world needs right now?” Or can we quickly adapt our product portfolio to provide goods that are urgently needed? In pursuing this approach companies can use their strengths and facilities to provide essential products even if those goods are outside of their current product portfolio. One should also make sure that they remain reachable when clients need them and maintain a level of caution when interacting face-to-face.
3) Create a Comprehensive Relaunch Map
The crisis has shattered many of the tools and haunches that we rely on for making decisions, however to restart, we need to define a solid framework for action that is workable in a highly volatile environment. The best approach is to develop a detailed relaunch map—site by site, segment by segment, customer by customer, and product by product—in order to recover as swiftly as possible. This map will guide production, supply chain, marketing, sales efforts, and help determine a recovery timeline.
4) Reviving Customer Base
Almost everyone is in distress because of demand constraints that have happened due to the economic impact of the virus. Companies in order to revive their businesses will need to stimulate demand while carefully guarding against any risk of distorting price models.
It will be important to:
Identify and capture pockets of profitable growth
Companies will have to be ready to modify exploration and marketing expenses quickly. New promotions and prices must be weighed against the risk of triggering a price conflict that could aggravate an already slump situation. To achieve this marinating a delicate balance is crucial, companies must also think about the unilateral communication with all players in their sector, in order to prevent competitive approaches that can destroy value.
Adopt strategic pricing
The goal is to enable material and psychological conditions that enable customers to make purchases and businesses to bounce back, while avoiding a dangerous situation in which simultaneous pressure on prices from suppliers and customers put companies in a difficult position across the value chain. Depending on these requirements, companies will have to acutely measure the promotional or discount models they intend to use.
Do more for the core clients
To secure sales, try to provide pragmatic assistance to customers and suppliers by extending payment facilities and /or extending deadlines. Again, the choice between usual practices and exceptions must be made strategically so as not to hurt the fiscal balance of the whole company.
Optimise marketing
Brand loyalties will be tested and marketing should work on their strategy to keep the customers engaged through digital channels and regular check-ins. ‘Test and Learn’ brand-building initiatives will be the companies’ best bet and need to be launched with great agility. Remain attentive to the signs that your clients are sending along their entire omnichannel journey, this will help companies determine solutions that can quickly enrich the customer experience.
5) Restart with Care
For an effective restart, many interdependent issues will have to be addressed simultaneously and swiftly. Ensure you have listed down the key areas that need attention such as- protection of employees, stabilisation of operations, customer engagement, and conducting a financial stress test to name a few. Maintain flexibility, ensure speed of execution, and simplify decision and reporting lines to have a relatively smooth restart.
6) Focus on Creating Value
More often than not, crises have proved to be an opportunity to strengthen relationships and solidify trust with customers. To navigate this mutual ordeal, companies should focus on strengthening their relations with the stakeholders. As a matter of fact, many businesses have attained enormous productivity and agility during this time and have changed their operating models permanently to achieve greater outputs with maximum efficiency. It is now important for business leaders to determine which developments imposed by the circumstances may have generated value - financially, operationally, and for their people. Some of these should then be absorbed into the future for building a stronger foundation for the entity.
Lorenzo Jooris
The views/opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Al Bawaba Business or its affiliates.
