Handling a Pandemic- Quick Business Tips

Hello all,

This is not a article for health related concerns, if you're concerned about your health in relation to the virus visit https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ as soon as you can.

If you're still reading this, then you're rightly concerned about how your business will be affected by the virus. Widespread fear is cautioning everyones spending. Below is a rundown of key information from Gartner & my own approach, all links are at the end of the article if you need more detail.

1. Avoid unnecessary expenditure - Restoration of normal workflow & consumer habits will take some time, from weeks to months. Thus your cashflow will take a 'turbulent' ride; keep an eye out and if you don't need something, don't spend.
2. Stick to your strategies - Avoid disrupting any key strategic decisons for your business if you can. Stick to your guns when you can, but perhaps shift the timeline if you want to maximise the impact.
3. Panicking Leaders - This virus is officially a pandemic, but that isn't a sign to panic. Ensure your leadership team are making rational decisions during this time, it's stressful for everyone but rationality is your strongest weapon (And hand sanitizer).
4. Plan for normality - Sooner than you realise, normality will arise. Ensure you have a plan of action to phase back into normal conditions.
5. Your customers - Think about your customers & how they'll be handling the outbreak. For example, we're planning campaigns to best manage the situation for our clients. We need to band together during this.
6. The supply chain - Your suppliers maybe bigger or smaller than you are. Ensure invoices are cleared if you can, you don't want to start business as usual but discover one of your suppliers has gone under because of cashflow.
7. Remote work preparation - Stress test your remote work systems before implementing this tactic. It's better to know prior what your systems can handle if your entire employment moved to remote working.
8. Plan for worst case & best case - The classic saying is "Expect the worst, hope for the best". We're going for a "plan for the worst, definitely plan for the best". It's important to stay agile & keep ahead of the game. You don't want to be slow to catch up when normality resumes.
9. Review - One thing I'll certainly be doing is reviewing how my business handled the pandemic, learning how to do better. This will happen again and we always need to be prepared.

There's a lot of insight for further reading. Hopefully above provided a more holistic view of the situation and things to be keeping in mind. Let's band together and weather the storm.

If you need specific information, I've linked everything I've read below.

• Remote Working - https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/with-coronavirus-in-mind-are-you-ready-for-remote-work/
• Stress Test - https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/stress-test-your-business-continuity-management/
• Supply Chain - https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/coronavirus-how-to-secure-your-supply-chain/
• Pandemic Prep - https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/10-pillars-of-pandemic-preparation/
• Remote working programs - https://emtemp.gcom.cloud/ngw/globalassets/en/insights/coronavirus/how-to-cultivate-effective-remote-work-programs.pdf