21 days to reinvent your business!

We are snowed under an epidemic, facing conditions that are extraordinary and unnerving. No individual or business can remain static in these times of a global war with this epidemic and hence, remaining relevant and contemporary, is important more than ever. The glaring reality is that we need to change – not just change for the sake of change but, in fact, reinventing the core. By its nature, the reinvention of a business requires courage and daring. If such reinvention is managed in a thoughtful manner, the chances of it succeeding are high. What can you do?

• Competition: Were you a pioneer or a leader in your space? Will you be able to maintain this leadership going ahead? Will competition grow or will it be eliminated? Were you happy with a steady growth rate? The rules of business will be upended. Your leadership could become stronger because of elimination of small players who are unable to weather the storm with limited cashflow and you are also likely to get more competition as more young people gravitate to startups. These upstarts will start with a zero base and a frugal structure and a feisty model of scaling up rapidly. If you are living in your past glory, you will need to be vary of competition emerging from companies unknown to you, not existing on the map, yet!
• Performance orientation: In the James Bond movie, Skyfall, as Bond is fighting a terrorist on top of a train, M (head of MI6) barks at Naomi Harris (MI6 agent), “Take the bloody shot!”. The same way, you will need to take some tough decisions. Cash is back as the King. You will need to follow the 3C rule: conserve cash, curtail expense and collect receivables. Like the good old family small business which followed cash method of accounting, you will need to mobilise your entire team to track each rupee. More workers will follow the gig economy working at their time and pace and compensation to all of them will be sharply focused on performance. In fact, can you mutate your business to have zero fixed salary? If not, you will need to re-orient the compensation structure to make it precipitously performance-oriented.
• Emotional Intelligence: Derided at times as being “mushy”, empathy will become more important than IQ. The manner of work will change permanently – travel and commuting will reduce; online tools of communication and collaboration will become mainstream and working remote will become very common. In this situation, issues connected to isolation and social well-being of employees will come to the forefront. To get the highest level of performance, you will need to lead the team with a human touch and a high level of EQ.

Remember, you have 21 days to reinvent your business -- the time bomb is ticking!

(Published online: https://www.businessworld.in/article/21-Days-To-Reinvent-Your-Business/27-03-2020-187463 )