The coronavirus pandemic is first and foremost a human tragedy that will be marked on the pages of history. It will reshape a “new normal” in every sphere in the post COVID era. Affecting millions in almost every country on the globe, the outbreak has had a devastating effect on the global economy as well. Dealing with the coronavirus crisis and its aftermath is the imperative of our times.
Here are 5 steps of how organizations can adapt to getting back to “business as usual”.
The McKinsey article calls organizations to act across five stages, leading from the crisis of today to the next normal that will emerge after the battle against coronavirus has been won:
1. Resolve
2. Resilience
3. Return
4. Re-imagination
5. Reform
Resolve
The need to determine the scale, pace, and depth of action required at the state and business levels. As one CEO told McKinsey, “I know what to do. I just need to decide whether those who need to act share my resolve to do so.”
Resilience
The pandemic has spawned a worldwide financial and economic crisis. A McKinsey Global Institute analysis, based on multiple sources, indicates that the shock to our livelihoods from the economic impact of virus-suppression efforts could be the biggest in nearly a century. Near-term issues of cash management for liquidity and solvency are the foremost challenges at the present. But soon afterward, businesses will need to act on broader resilience plans as the shock begins to upturn established industry structures, resetting competitive positions forever.
Return
For companies to return to business as usual, the supply chain needs to be reactivated. It is extremely challenging after a lockdown that spans the globe. With the coronavirus impact spreading across geographies, supply chain disruptions are inevitable in multiple locations. . The weakest point in the chain will determine the success or otherwise of a return to rehiring, training, and attaining previous levels of workforce productivity. Leaders must therefore reassess their entire business system and plan for contingent actions in order to return their business to effective production at pace and at scale.
Re-imagination
The post-Covid era will define how we live, work and play and how technology can be harnessed. Contactless commerce with online transactions will be rule of the day. The pursuit of efficiency will have to make way for the need for resilience and the global supply chain might have to be reframed with production and sourcing moving closer to the end user. This is also the time to tap into opportunities to improve business processes and performance. Technology adoption will be accelerated by quick assimilation of what it takes to improve productivity. In the end, we will have an understanding of how businesses will become more immune to shocks resulting in better productivity and improved service quality.
Reform
The pandemic has opened doors for a wide variety of innovations and experiments like working from home to large scale surveillance. If we adopt these innovations on a permanent basis, we could provide an improvement on the socio-economic development of our society and also help in stopping the virulent virus in spreading.
The pandemic has inadvertently caused a restructuring of the global economic order. How this crisis evolves is still yet to be seen. These five steps can help leaders beat a path to return to a “new normal”, that is unlike anything that was before.