WHICH SOLUTIONS ARE AVAILABLE TO ASSIST BUSINESS EXECUTIVES AND BUSINESS OWNERS TO SUCCESSFULLY NAVIGATE THE PANDEMIC IMPACT AND POST-COVID SITUATION?
SYNOPSIS: Covid-19 and government responses thereto has significantly disrupted many industries and related business operations. Business executives and owners alike are searching for solutions to the many business challenges and increased risks they now have to manage daily.
Original article published on Quora.
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 min
Since early 2020 millions of businesses of all sizes all around the world have been affected by the impact of Covid-19 and, more specifically, negative and compounding impacts directly resulting from government regulatory responses to the Covid19 pandemic.
Businesses have been affected in different ways, including but not limited to:
- Significantly increased supply chain volatility and risks: Loss of suppliers, late delivery, unavailability of raw materials, looting or hijacking of supplies or deliveries
- Clients going out of business, increases in bad debt, slower inventory-to-cash-turnaround cycles, or inability to buy traditional order sizes, significantly loss or reduced demand, volatility in demand from one period to the next, difficulty in accurately predicting sales or stock volumes
- Disruptions to business operations - temporary or longer-term shutdowns of infrastructure, changes to key markets, inaccessibility of facilities, additional business restrictions or compliance requirements, working from home, adjusting to a distributed work-force
- Significant technological innovation and disruptive technologies gaining momentum
- Increased business disruption, loss of revenue, increases in unbudgeted costs, increases in unanticipated risk, inability to settle debts and pay running expenses
- Increased cybercrime, fraud, corruption, money-laundering
- Loss of key personnel and expertise
- And sadly a number of businesses have had to shut down altogether.
While some like to believe everything will go back-to-normal and the good old days will return as soon as we reach herd immunity in our town, district, province or country, that is unlikely to be the case. The expected impact of the pandemic and related lockdowns and business interruptions will be felt for months and possibly years to come. Some industries are undergoing significant pressures and changes such as digitization are disruptively changing entire industries and business sectors.
Different categories of Business and Management Consultants can advise and assist businesses with a variety of Covid19 and lockdown related business challenges (in no specific order):
- Reviewing and developing Strategies, redesigning Business Models to adjust to the “new normal”
- Identifying, mitigating and limiting supply chain risks, reshoring, nearshoring and replanning supply chains, sourcing new suppliers
- Rebalancing / optimising manufacturing/logistics/broader business operations impacted by changes in sales/legislation/business improvement: maximise revenue, reduce expenses, improve customer experience, risk management
- Improving access to information and decision-making with the use of data analytics/Adjusting or optimising KPIs and Metrics
- Asset disposal
- Business Rescue focussing on the rehabilitation of financially distressed companies (businesses unlikely to pay all of their debts as these become due and payable)
- Business Turnaround focussing on developing and implementing a set of actions required to save an organisation from business failure and return it to operational normality and financial solvency
- Balance sheet restructuring, working capital, bridging finance, debt restructuring, repayment relief and debt relief, new sources of debt, trade financing solutions
- Restructuring and Reorganising business entities
- Mergers & Acquisitions, Listings/IPOs, raising funds
- Optimising financial and tax planning, insurance, reducing financial risks
- Improving Governance and compliance with changing legislation
- Forensic investigations, developing and implementing controls to identify, prevent or report risks
- Plan, execute and de-risk projects and programs
- Embracing digital transformation (4ID), ranging from e.g. process automation, setting up data lakes, optimising architecture, to implementing Artificial intelligence, Machine Learning or IIOT solutions, identify risks and network vulnerabilities, improving business resilience and business continuity
- Interim management
- Crisis management
- Human Capital, Cultural and HR aspects - workforce planning, HR transformation, organisational design
- Improving marketing ROI, venturing into or improving existing e-commerce operations
This is a broad and non-exhaustive summary of what consultants can do for businesses impacted by Covid19. There is a wide range of consultants focusing on different industries and functional competencies - reach out today if you need assistance.
