coping with Covid: the hare and the tortoise
This is a cautionary tale of the hare and the tortoise. The hare is straight out of the blocks, cutting this cost, cutting that one, issuing mandatory instructions from above, pushing his views forward in a panic that the business will dissolve without immediate action. The tortoise stops. She assesses the situation. She listens to her customers and her employees. She creates space to breathe by reprioritising, by finding new working solutions. She gathers opinion and expert advice from the right sources in and outside the business to help her to think, to cut costs sustainably, to look at the operating model with fresh eyes, to pivot. She understands the problem to solve is not just short term, it’s the way things are now. She brings people with her and, together they help her to move faster. In short, she stops, she breathes, she thinks.
It’s been very tempting to act like the hare. We know. It takes courage and calmness to stop in the eye of a storm. Don’t misunderstand us: never has moving fast been more pertinent but moving fast with focus is better than rushing to do what you can as fast as you can.
This isn’t over. The evidence points to a resurgence in the autumn. We are likely to be facing more waves, more lockdowns over the next 18 months – redefining the future of business. That means that we have to pace ourselves and we have to face into some major operational changes. Most likely, you will need to cut more cost. Just cutting out cost is relatively easy. The hare could do that no problem. Then there’s understanding how to cut cost to make the changes workable and sustainable. This is the terrain of the tortoise (albeit a tortoise with a little more oomph than its fairy tale cousin).
You will also need to relook at your business proposition, your operating model, at your working practices, at your core processes. All of them will have changed in the course of this pandemic. What have you learned? What can stay? What needs rethinking? What opportunities has it given you?
We thought it would be helpful to share some of our learnings from working virtually with our clients over the last few months. It’s not an exhaustive list, but hopefully will prompt new thought.
Stop
Stop. Listen. Assess.
You need to move fast in the right direction, and you can’t be sure of the direction unless you are clear on the challenge. The ‘what’ you need to do is no different to pre-Covid days, but the ‘how’ may change. We worked with one client to help them identify how to better drive efficiency and effectiveness through mobile workforce operations and the whole project was successfully delivered virtually. Face to face workshops were replaced with virtual online meetings using interactive whiteboards. We placed even greater emphasis on radical simplicity: presenting the story of what needs to change and why with short, sharp, clear messaging. We gathered feedback via online polls, voting live in the moment and adapted online working sessions as we went, responding to live feedback. The key here? Engagement and feedback before action can, and should, still happen when you’re not face to face.
Breathe
Breathe. Focus. Prioritise.
As individuals and organisations, we are often busy. Too busy. It can be hard to focus. As the world changed around us at a speed that none of us were really prepared for, it became hard to breathe. With childcare to manage, toilet roll to source and a plethora of work activities to somehow find a way to deliver, the pandemic has forced us to re-evaluate priorities. And there have been some revelations: it is possible to tighten costs when we really question our priorities. Those pet projects that were using up valuable resource all of a sudden aren’t really necessary. The things that mattered have still been delivered, and (with the possible exception of one fast fashion retailer) they have been delivered in a legally compliant way. In other words, the right corners have been cut. And now a plea: don’t let complexity creep back in. You still need to breathe.
Think
Think differently. Rethink. Think ahead.
You cannot think if you are in endless online meetings so take your cue from the previous section and make some personal breathing room. What opportunities has this pandemic given you, or could it give you? We worked with one client to set up a brand new customer fulfilment operation in just one week, repurposing stores and turning a challenging problem into a new opportunity (see https://egremontgroup.com/insights/dark-stores). Consider the art of the possible. If this has been a really tough time for you, what can you rebuild from the ashes? Or perhaps you’ve seen the door open on some new opportunities: what’s stopping you from seizing them? Don’t let a good crisis go to waste. Then don’t underestimate the effort it will take to activate and re-engage your workforce and your customer base as you build and re-build. Circle back to Stop, Listen, Assess.
And one more thing: remember to connect and engage. So you can’t chat in the corridor, or go out on company social events, but you can pick up the phone, you can organise fun ways to maintain that social connection. It is important, not just to the smooth running of an organisation, but also to our mental health. At Egremont, we’ve had the Egremont Arms online ‘pub’ social, the creative writing club and the TED club. Working from home is no excuse to overlook the human connection. Look out for each other.
You have a choice: tortoise or hare?
To find out more please get in touch / +44 (0) 20 7298 7878
