Tips for building resilience – weathering the perfect storm?

Facing Crisis Upon Crisis – a perfect storm?

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stated the war in Ukraine will severely set back the world economy and the UK is predicted to have the slowest growth in the G7 and across Europe’s main economies at 1.2% for 2023.

Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director Washington, DC Comments “The pandemic turned our lives and economies upside down, and it is not over. The continued spread of the virus could give rise to even more contagious or worse, more lethal variants, prompting further disruptions. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, devastating for the Ukrainian economy, is sending shockwaves throughout the globe”.

In economic terms, growth is?down,?and inflation is?up. In human terms, people’s incomes are?down,?and hardship is?up.

These double crises - pandemic and war - and our ability to deal with them, are further complicated by another growing risk: fragmentation of the world economy into geopolitical blocs - with different trade and technology standards, payment systems, and reserve currencies.

See: Facing Crisis Upon Crisis: How the World Can Respond (imf.org)

If you are in business and you know growth is slowing, inflation is rising and there are supply chain issues then what actions can you take to shore up resilience and stay ahead of the curve?

Building business resilience requires several key attributes:

• Collaboration amongst departments, your suppliers and even fellow businesses.
• Sharing resources and removing inefficiencies with duplicate information and processes.
• Team formation so all employees know what impact they have on the business and can adapt to changes.
• Suppleness and adaptability to make changes.
• Having a business culture that allows for some failures or mistakes with new ways of doing things and learning from them and adjusting swiftly.
• Spending time working on change management as well as working “in the business”.

Where will you start?