How can a business succeed in 2021?

Businesses across the globe will remember 2020?as a gap year?due to the pandemic.??

But?will?that be the story of 2021 as well???

LinkedIn recently published a list of the?most successful Chicago-based companies in 2021 , and I was pleased?but?absolutely?not surprised?to see that seven of those ten companies?are?PTP clients! As I read up on these success stories,?one company, in particular,?stood out from the list for the way they had handled the COVID crisis. Deloitte really exemplified?best practices in?adapting?their business to meet the vicissitudes of the pandemic.??

Deloitte understood the challenges of the pandemic very quickly and implemented innovative solutions in two key areas— financial strategy and workplace reorganization. They adopted a flexible financial planning model which allowed them to move?and?re-orient resources where needed. They also adopted remote working trends early, pivoting to address the rising need for video conferencing in their university training facilities by launching their own virtual on-demand platform, Cura. As a result, they were able to carry on conducting their training sessions without interruption through the year. At the end of the 2020 financial year, Deloitte posted growth of $47.6 billion, outstripping their competitors by miles!?????

So, what does it take for a company to be successful in 2021? By learning from companies that have overcome the challenges of COVID and found success this past year, I’ve narrowed it down to three essential insights which businesses should look to adopt if they want to make the most of this year.???

Keep your fiscal options open??

The economy took a beating last year. Consumer spending was at?rock bottom, small businesses struggled to stay afloat, and COVID-related restrictions introduced new challenges, not to mention new overhead?to operations. Finances were stretched thin and subjected to unprecedented stresses. The pandemic-induced global economic downturn has been?described by the World Bank ?as the,

“...deepest recession since the Second World War, with the largest fraction of economies experiencing declines in per capita output since 1870.”

(And when global financial houses start making world war comparisons, you know you have a major crisis on your hands)???

For companies to succeed in such a hostile business environment they need to build resilience into their budget. This may seem like a big ask. After all, how do you budget for something as unpredictable as a global health crisis? The short answer is—you don’t. You can’t plan for a pandemic. What you?can?do is make sure that you have the right budgetary policies in place that will help you weather any kind of crisis. This way, when you see a storm brewing on the horizon you have a well-thought-out financial strategy in place to deal with it.?????

Clothing retailer Nordstrom was able to come out on top largely thanks to their careful financial planning. In the face of rising expenses and dwindling sales, Nordstrom had two choices—they could follow in the footsteps of their competitors by panicking and cutting costs indiscriminately, losing more customer footfall in the process; or they could implement a carefully thought financial strategy that saved on expenses while still prioritizing customer experience. Wisely, they chose the latter.???

Nordstrom refocused the majority of its budget towards online sales and inventory management while simultaneously cutting costs in shopfloor marketing and general administration. They also bolstered their supply chain by investing in delivery services, setting up native shipping lines that could ensure two-day delivery or next-day pickup. As a result, Nordstrom was able to earn more than $100 million (EBIT) going into 2021. Thanks to the merchandise margins accrued by the online retail department and the savings from the other departments, much of Nordstrom’s savings this past year are anticipated to become permanent.?????

Be ready to pivot??

Following the many businesses that went under in 2020, and the many swift U-turns and operational tangents that companies have had to take,?experts ?are now referring to the 2021 financial year as the “year of change.” Companies that keep their eye on developing events in their field, ready to pivot and leverage new trends, will find success even under such adverse circumstances. Not just big picture trends that will take years to mature and start delivering returns but also micro-trends that appear and disappear quickly.?????

Take a look at the hospitality sector. Even before the pandemic hit, hospitality was known as a high-risk, high-overhead industry. Once lockdowns went into effect, and travel and tourism came to a standstill, hospitality businesses all around the globe inevitably began incurring major losses. Unprecedented cancellations have led to revenue losses of over 80% and the possible elimination of up to 4 million jobs (which accounts for almost 50% of all hotel jobs in the U.S).???

Despite these challenges, some companies in hospitality have been able to pivot in the moment and capitalize on developing trends to stay profitable. Like Airbnb, for example. At a time when most hotel businesses are posting huge losses,?AirBnB?is in the process of expanding its business. They upgraded their mandatory hygiene requirements and created flexible cancellation policies just three days after the WHO declared COVID a global outbreak, well before any of their competitors even began to register the enormity of the situation.??

Consequently, while other travel and accommodation businesses were faced with the prospect of travelers too uncertain to make bookings, Airbnb was still receiving a steady flow of customers around the globe. Airbnb was also able to capitalize on the video conferencing boom by hosting online experiences, where customers could get a glimpse of future travel destinations via live video conferencing events.?????

Figure out your remote working policy?

With the Delta variant and other COVID offshoots on the rise, it appears unlikely that workers will be able to return to work soon. Many organizations, including Microsoft and Amazon, have delayed reopening their offices due to uncertainty over the spread of these variants, vaccination policies, health and safety requirements, and other concerns. Under such conditions, any company that does not have its remote working framework firmly in place will suffer. The only way to cope with the evolving circumstances is to have a flexible, pre-decided operational structure in place that is capable of handling these ongoing developments.?????

I could cite a few different examples of companies that have successfully managed to deploy remote working strategies to combat the challenges of this pandemic (Google, Twitter, Shopify, come to mind) but, in this instance, I think my organization,?PTP can provide some interesting insights.???

When it comes to developing an effective remote working policy PTP has been able to successfully innovate in many areas. Thanks in part due to the inherent requirements of the recruiting industry— we depend on various online resources for a lot of our day-to-day communication—we were able to speedily formulate and implement a remote working strategy. Our?in-situ?employees went from working in the office full-time to 100% remotely within?the?space of a few days.???

The online tools we were using to communicate with our global talent pool were repurposed to suit our employees’ communication needs. We are also introducing the use of AI in our recruiting operations to further PTP’s digital transformation and reduce client dependency on in-person selection and interview processes.??

As a result, even with the exigencies of new COVID variants that may arise in the coming months, my team is adept at handling any changes to our workplace arrangements and fully capable of conducting all operations from a remote location. By having our remote working equations in place, we can ensure that whether the future of work is remote, hybrid, or something new, no client or candidate working with PTP will be impacted.???