How Companies Are Adapting Their Business Strategy To Sustain Themselves During The Covid-19 Crisis?

Many countries across Europe and other continents are cautiously lifting their lockdowns to revive their dwindling economies. Agile companies are being proactive and adapting their business strategy to recover from the massive losses incurred during this pandemic. Most companies are continuing with remote work environments and securing their supply chains in this post lockdown period. It will probably be a while before most of us get back to our office spaces and start operating as we used to in the past. 

Organizations are focusing on restructuring their infrastructure, augmenting digital & AI (artificial intelligence) resources, rebuilding operations and prioritising revenue-making opportunities to sustain themselves. For survival, companies need to recognise and embrace the cultural, behavioural and economic shift brought on by this pandemic and adapt their business strategy accordingly.

Accelerating these changes into their respective business model is crucial for organizations to survive and thrive in this crisis.

Here are some business strategies that would enable companies to sustain themselves through Covid-19

Digitization of physical products
With the closure of bricks and mortar stores, businesses need to utilise digital channels to offer their services to customers. Leveraging online platforms like social media and e-commerce websites, businesses can continue to increase the scale of their operations and sales. Companies like Nike have been able to accelerate their growth at an impressive rate of 30% between Dec 2019 and Feb 2020 in China, even with more than 5000 of its stores closed. That’s because Nike continued to connect with their customer digitally, via their online platform. This is a vital lesson for businesses without a digital reach. Creating a digital platform to offer your products & services should be a priority for all businesses to overcome the economic impact of this crisis. If your business is going through a digital transformation, please talk to us.

Augmentation of technology and AI
Companies will need to make major changes in their IT operations to improve productivity and to lower costs, as well as incorporate AI to deliver exceptional customer service and gain cognitive insight. Companies need to comprehensively use data analytics to create new models and validate these new models. Enhanced data and models help companies to forecast post Covid-19 demand, and therefore re-assess their asset management. Companies can enhance their risk management systems by making them agile enough to make real-time decisions.

Product diversification
Covid has made multiple organizational infrastructures (such as hotels, bars and restaurants), underutilised, or altogether obsolete. While the demand for these services has fallen dramatically, demand for others has risen significantly. Adapting business strategy, in order to be agile in the deployment of current infrastructure, to manufacture alternative goods and products, is key. Businesses must take advantage of their infrastructure and diversify their product offerings. An example of this is GM and Ford utilising their manufacturing hubs to build ventilators. Multiple breweries and distilleries have reallocated their machinery to produce hand sanitizers instead of alcohol.

Augmenting infrastructure
Another opportunity for businesses is to augment their existing infrastructure to meet any increased demand. While establishing new infrastructure may not be a plausible feat for all, businesses across the globe are collaborating with other organizations to bridge the demand-supply gap. As most of the airlines stay grounded or are operating in a limited capacity, airlines employees of Scandinavian Airlines and Virgin Atlantic have been trained and offered jobs with the respective country’s national healthcare systems to ease the load of frontline health care workers. The same has been done by Amazon by collaborating with Lyft drivers to meet its surging delivery demands.

Prioritizing revenue opportunities
For companies to thrive under these conditions, identifying and prioritizing revenue drivers, & allowing this identification to drive modified business strategy is key. Businesses need to configure their recovery plan with targeted campaigns, to win back loyal customers, adjusting pricing and advertising budgets, revamping delivery systems, digitizing sales and payment options and automating processes to enhance user engagement. As consumer behaviour changes, businesses need to re-calibrate their business strategy and models, to be more agile, to better meet these changing demands, and make fast decisions to remain competitive.

Rebuilding operations
The lessons learned from this crisis will become the bedrock for the establishment of more resilient operating systems. The loopholes in the global sourcing methodology have shed light on the importance of regionalisation of supply chains. This would prevent the breakdown of the global supply chain network that we are witnessing today. There has to be a reinvigorated investment in the digital transformation of manual processes. Organizations need to accelerate their innovation, production, mass customisation and delivery systems to create a more sustainable management ecosystem. 

Final Thoughts

Businesses would need to make substantial changes to their infrastructure, supply chains and operations to recover from the economic losses incurred during this pandemic. These changes to business strategy are necessary to build an agile, resilient business growth plan for the future. At Alkye, we strive to assist our clients with digital solutions that help them gain a competitive advantage and foster business growth.