How can businesses survive the Lockdown Impact? #coronavirus
Remember....only those who will brave through these tough times will be the shining stars of the future!
No business was prepared for this massive macro economic impact. Almost all industries, be it Recruitment, Travel, Education, Hospitality, Retail, Stock market and many more have broken down to their knees. This is true for 100% of the countries across the globe. This hasn't happened before right? So, trust me you are not alone in these storms. We all are in the same Titanic, but this time - "We shall not let it sink".
Business leaders are in dilemma. When will the demand be back to normal? Will it be too late by then? Will my customers behave the same, how can I figure this out? Wish I did not have so much fixed costs, should I liquidate? What are other avenues of revenue I can exercise? How do I keep my team motivated; will they be with me in testing times?
Sounds familiar right! Leaders who will be able to take "Hard" decisions "Fast" will survive; others might hibernate
Lets look at 5 ways you can survive this storm:
- Prepare for the new consumer - "Frugality" will be the new contemporary. This is true for consumers as well as for businesses. For the next one year, don't expect your customers to frequent and spend as much as they did before. Does not mean that they have changed; Times have changed! Similarly, Hygiene is no more a desire, it's the "New Normal". Anything practised for 21 days becomes a habit, and this will be a new one. Getting new customers will get tougher & more expensive and hence, retaining customers will be paramount. Driving customer relevance with laser focus is the need of the hour. But the question is, do you understand your customers well?
- Differentiate between "Good to Have" and "Must Have" - You will have to take hard decisions with "Good to have" and focus only on "Must have" for next 6 months. Severity of your decision will depend on your capital conditions. What are your "must haves"?
- Be transparent and seek ideas from employees: Transparency emanates trust and confidence. Employees will be more than happy to help once they understand the actual gravity of situation. Your team is the only one who will stand by you in testing times. Take them into confidence and seek business/ product ideas to keep the business afloat. You will be pleasantly surprised by their business intuition! Your front line employees will play a key role here, as they are the ones dealing with the situation first hand. Have you solicited ideas yet?
- Innovate in the next 21 days - Most business operations are shut. Not again will you get a chance to focus on what you always wanted to build but it got lost in the daily rush. Ironically, most companies have seen highest employee productivity in the lockdown period. Harness this energy to develop new products, streamline processes and prepare for the new consumer
- Learn from others' failures: In case of corona, the first mover is at a disadvantage. India was at the ringside when China and Europe were fighting the pandemic. China has already got back to work now. Can we quickly borrow some learnings from them? What's working for them? Remember that we are a glocalized society and customer behaviours are more similar than poler. Figure out your counterpart in other nations and learn from their solutions. Time is short and so is capital.
Hope this helps. Please leave your thoughts in the comments section.
Retail & CPG | Technology | Digital | Advisory Board | NED | 100watts.tech
4 年Brilliant Arpit
Brand Strategist, Travel Journalist, and founder of Travel See Write
4 年Interesting and valid points. As a communication person, I would just like to add one point. While we have been locked down in our homes Coronavirus has hijacked every space - be it news, social media or personal texting. We are inundated with messages about Coronavirus and at times it gets too much to handle. A lot of brands are trying to ride the pandemic wave by launching products overnight or forcefully embedding the COVID-19 messaging into their communication, which antagonises the customers more than convincing them to buy their product. On the contrary, I really liked what Google did. They understood the consumer problem - parents working from home having a hard time to keep their child engaged during office hours - and thus came out with a fun and creative solution allowing netizens to put 3D holograms of wild animals in their environment. Besides, adults like me too had fun taking our minds off the toxic atmosphere we are in. I really loved this initiative. This how brands should think - solve a consumer problem first instead of mindlessly selling your product.
FinTech | Data Engineering
4 年Reading worth!! ... Thanks for sharing good content.
CMO/CBO | ex Airtel, Snapdeal, PayU, Zoomcar| IIT Bombay
4 年Sir Arpit Agarwal roadies salute for this post!
Analytics @ Meta
4 年Nicely put. Looks like this is the new normal. What are your thoughts about business which are into essential services? Like digital healthcare or online grocery stores etc? Will they see exponential and unexpected growth during and after this new normal? Will they be new drivers of Retail sector?