- By Lanner
- In Blog
- Posted 03/06/2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected everyone across the globe. Every company across every sector has had to make adjustments to deal with the resultant disruption. By now, most organizations have taken the prudent step to create a Crisis Response team. A team consisting of cross-functional senior leadership roles who have the responsibility for monitoring, planning and taking rapid action during the evolving Covid-19 pandemic.
As we emerge from the crisis, new operating rules are being imposed by governments, markets remain volatile and the ways in which many used to work are no longer applicable. The focus of this team will clearly change from ‘how do we manage the crisis’ to ‘how do we maximize the new opportunities ahead’. The following 5 steps outline how your Crisis Response team can evolve into a Business Continuity team and future proof your business.
Step 1 – Establish the new objective of the team
The first step is to harness the existing benefits of your cross-functional team by maintaining a clear focus and preserving their planning frequency and decision-making powers. The initial change is more a mindset shift and clarity of the new team objective. The objective of the business continuity team not to make decisions that mitigate immediate risk, but instead to understand the current market landscape and develop future plans for multiple outcomes.
Step 2 – If not done already, empower your Business Continuity team with data
The second step, which many organisations will most likely have already have taken, is to provide a support team of business analysts and modelers. Their responsibility is to help gather appropriate data, model scenarios, and provide analysis to help support decision making, an easy evolution from crisis management to continuity enablement.
Step 3 - Unlock Creativity
A key trait of many successful organizations is their ability to adapt, not only to survive, but to grow in the face of tough market conditions. There are many examples of well-known brands creating new products & services, evolving their business models and going above and beyond in the realm of new customer experiences, but behind these great ideas and stories is the hard reality of processes that needed rewriting, finances that need re-planning and organizational restructuring. Technology is the key to doing this with minimal risk!
Step 4 - Model, Simulate, Repeat
To help bring concepts, ideas and solutions to life, your Business Continuity Team can rely on their modelers and analysts to translate their ideas into business scenarios. By developing a playbook of these scenarios, then simulating them against projected market conditions (good and bad), your crisis management team can develop a planning solution that evolve as quickly as the market conditions, offering answers to both tactical supply chain issues (supplies, resources, demand) as much as it does longer-term business strategy questions.
Step 5 - Communicate Plans
As the situation develops, the Business Continuity Team have a responsibility to not just make decisions, but to rapidly communicate new plans and key actions across the organization. Simulation visualizations & scenario analysis provides a clear vision and the underlying reasons for what needs to be done for all involved. Sometimes difficult decisions need to be made for success to be achieved but data-driven decisions can be more easily understood and are not easy to argue with.