Doing business in today’s economy
Are you considering closing down your business, downsizing employees, seeking additional funds, selling assets, etc. because your business is not doing so well or as anticipated?
In the wake of the disruptions from the Covid 19 pandemic and the threatening recession coupled with high inflation which many attribute to the ongoing Ukraine-Russian war, we have seen numerous businesses struggling to survive and many folding up their operations.
This is due to tightening credit conditions or lack of financing opportunities, slower demand for goods and services, and general fear and uncertainty. We also see many new businesses spring up but only for them to last a few months and we see them no more.
Therefore, if your business is currently struggling for one reason or the other, you should understand that it is expected in the current condition. This notwithstanding, you have a better opportunity to turn things around and re-position your business by adopting resilience strategies.
Resilience in business, especially in our world today, is so important and an essential component of any successful organization. If companies are unprepared or structurally unable to bounce back from tough times, the result is often lost revenue, assets, and talent.
For those of you wondering what resilience in business is, it is the ability of an organisation to quickly adapt to disruptions while maintaining continuous business operations and safeguarding people, assets, and overall brand equity.
What this means is that unforeseen circumstances or changes, whether external or internal, should not affect the existence or continuity of your business. A business should be well insulated to withstand adverse conditions at all times.
But sadly, businesses and managers hardly pay attention to survival strategies. It is for this reason that we continue to see many causalities or businesses being adversely affected by the ongoing economic conditions in all industry sectors locally and globally.
According to a publication by Martin Reeves and Kevin Whitaker in the Harvard Business Review, July 02, 2020, the writers explained that businesses hardly measure and manage resilience due to one or more of the reasons below and I could not agree more:
The Challenge of Measuring and Managing Resilience
- Companies have been designed predominantly to maximize shareholder value from dividends and stock appreciation. Very few companies even attempt to measure resilience beyond merely disclosing specific material risks.
- Companies and shareholders often focus on maximizing short-term returns. In contrast, resilience requires a multi-time scale perspective: forgoing a certain amount of efficiency or performance today for the sake of more-sustained performance in the future.
- Companies have been mainly focused on creating and executing stable plans, which work well when causal relationships are clear, predictable, and unchanging. Resilience deals with what is unknown, changeable, unpredictable, and improbable and has significant consequences.
Indeed, business survival strategies have been given very little attention by organisations but there are several benefits to adopting and managing resilience in an organisation. A few we can name are:
Benefits of Business Continuity or Resilience Strategies
- It is the only sure way to maintain operations and service delivery in the event of business disruption.
- It ensures that the organization is able to proactively identify the impacts of operational disruption and adequately plan toward them.
- It enables managers to make the right decisions quickly.
- It ensures that the business has in place an effective response to disruptions which minimizes the impact on the organization.
- It helps to build customer trust and confidence.
- It helps to build confidence within the organization/business.
- It provides a competitive advantage over businesses that do not plan.
- It prevents significant harm to your corporate image and reputation.
- It prevents the loss of customers and/or shareholder confidence.
- It maintains contractual requirements from key customers, partners, and suppliers.
- It prevents the reduction of market share.
The Impact on Livelihoods
Among the many benefits of business continuity, my favourite is the benefit of maintaining and promoting individual livelihoods within our communities.
Undoubtedly, doing business guarantees some level of revenue for the business and its owners but many a time, we overlook the financial independence businesses create for employees and workers.
When businesses survive and do well, many homes are able to care for their needs, children get a good education, there is good healthcare, a low dependency rate, and improved economic conditions generally. Accordingly, it is for everyone’s benefit that businesses do well and survive.
Resilience Strategies
What then are the best resilience strategies for business continuity, especially in crises? As we near recession, how should businesses position themselves to overcome the impact of the economic conditions on their operations and service delivery?
What changes should businesses make to build immunity against disruption and are there any government, local or international organisational support for businesses struggling or undergoing any crises?
Webinar Alert
For answers to these and many more, join the MalletWricketts Family on 1st July 2022 from 10 am to 11 am as we discuss doing business in today’s economy and the legal, finance, and operational solutions for your business survival.
You may register your attendance below and we hope to see you!
Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMrdOirrD8oHtCyg9acaTt25mRDe81-s-IQ
Meeting ID: 876 3132 4244
Passcode: 992461
