Business Continuity and COVID-19

Business Continuity and COVID-19

The world seems to have finally come out of the Covid-19 pandemic, with life returning to its usual pace; it has never been more important to take some time out and reflect back on the previous years. One good thing that has come out of it is that we have begun to value the little things in life more. Our perspectives on life seem to have changed, and even businesses are now focusing on different strategies to compete with other brands and be better prepared for future uncertainties. We have prepared a summary of the business continuity lessons learned to help you with it.

One of the key lessons was the importance of business resilience. Before Covid-19, it was even hard to imagine that in the modern era of information and technology, a virus could spread so rapidly and cause many countries to go into lockdown. Now, when we have finally come out, we know that we need to be better prepared for events like it. Start by focusing on your existing supply chain issues and how you can prevent them from happening in future.

Many companies are now exploring new ways to think about and partner with third parties in order to become more resilient going forward. The COVID-19 emergency has challenged companies to work in new ways to address disruptions to their supply chains, changes in customer demands, and risks to workers’ health. As organisations recover from COVID-19, changes are occurring that could be permanent.

Shareholder engagement in corporate governance

As economies continue to recover, a proactive stance for companies will be to establish and revise readily available business continuity plans -a “game-changer” stance that will enhance their resiliency and enable them to structure operations to accommodate the fast-evolving landscape.   

Empowering employees can play an important role here. As they say, one can just be as good as their team; therefore, developing strong workplace culture is essential to attracting and retaining talented people. This requires great leadership skills, as times are uncertain and competition is massive.

Developing great leadership skills requires time and effort. It can not happen overnight, as there as so many aspects to look at. By just having a great leader, not a great team to back them up, they might not be able to do much. Board accountability in corporate governance is also crucial for the business’s success.

Another main area to focus on is that the consumer’s behaviours have changed, and because of that, there’s a need to create environmentally friendly products. It can require investing more in the research and development process, but it is worth it, as greener and healthier products are here to stay. Shareholder engagement in corporate governance would also be essential to ensure that the key stakeholders are all on the same page.

Integrating IT and business strategies is also very important. Looking back, we’ll notice that many companies not just managed to survive but also came out of the pandemic stronger than ever. As the world is becoming more digitalised, businesses need to find a balance between the things they want to do manually and the processes that can be automated or outsourced to cut back on the cost.

In addition to the above, working from home has also become popular to help achieve a work-life balance. It is a trend that has become an essential part of our new normal; hence, just thinking about returning to the same old days when we all used to come to the office daily might not be the best possible approach. What can be done instead is that greater emphasis should be put on team building and allocating a few days in a week in which all the team can come into the office. Meeting each other on a regular basis will strengthen the bond between them, which can, in turn, have a positive impact on their overall performance.

In a nutshell, the pandemic has significantly impacted all businesses and forced leaders to think about more efficient ways to create high-quality products. The well-being of the people and planet is at stake, and it calls for some serious actions to be taken so that we can create a better tomorrow for our future generations.

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