Thank You for Driving Through a Rear-View Mirror

2 MINUTE READ FOR SHELTERED-IN OR QUARANTINED | STAY HOME & SAFE

Everyone has a view on why and how Covid-19 became a pandemic. The focus is strongly on leadership, as it should be. Most of the commentary is on leadership in a crisis and on what organizations are doing best in crisis management - today.

It will happen again at some point in the future, this is the nature of life on our planet. When it does happen, at that point of time in future, you can identify smart leaders and companies through 5 aspects.

1.     Leaders who believe in globalized world win

No matter the impact on supply chain, the truth is that no single country has the full resources; intellectual or otherwise to be successful. Isolated countries take longer time to recover from an economic downturn than interdependent countries. This applies to companies too in the partnerships they build. This helps them bounce back quicker.

2.     An augmented talent strategy survives

I find the discussion on how people are discovering 'working from home as if it was something so new' very outdated. If your company’s employees are in this group, your company is outdated. Having a workforce strategy that combines full-time talent with part-time gig talent seamlessly with automation and autonomation will ensure not just business continuity but build a real customer centric workforce.

3.     Organization habits will matter

What and how companies do with their employees, partners, vendors and the society they live in matter when things turn difficult. It is very difficult to show empathy in difficult times when it does not exist as a habit in normal times. These are daily habits that come to the rescue in difficult times and in turn build the good will from the people. These habits then percolate into the near-by circle of influence of these people impacted positively.

4.     Small business ecosystems are the focus

Every country is made of small businesses. The larger corporations always create multiple downstream and upstream ecosystems. These ecosystems comprise of both large and small players. Companies will do well to pay attention to and support the small businesses in their ecosystems as they directly drive liquidity in the hands of people who need it. Keeping small businesses in your ecosystem healthy is a corporate responsibility.

5.     This is the new normal for people practices

Flexible workforce, remote working, technology that enables collaboration, managers who can engage virtual teams, keeping the company’s purpose multiplied in a highly distributed virtual employee base etc. are all critical and no longer a differentiator. They are as basic as soap. 

When in the future point of de ja vu, hopefully your company is still not where we found you standing today.

Hari Abburi is the Managing Partner at The Preparation Company LLC, focussed on building agility for strategy, leaders, organisations and HR. Read more.