Business unusual

ARTICLE: Like never before. The new norm. Change is permanent. These are the clichés that are being discussed in every nook and corner of the world. As people find their movement restricted, their jobs constrained, their operations limited, the natural tendency is to have tunnel thinking. As they say, every change is painful and the only way to lessen this pain is to envision and prepare for the best and the worst. That is why organizations need to get out of the shock of being thrust into a world that seems to be paralyzed by this virus. The very fact that the world had become dysfunctional and the realization that it has to live and become functional along with the virus for a while has made organizations scramble into new modes of planning. While some businesses have already become familiar with this new mode, many others are struggling to cope. The new phase of the pandemic or the acceptance of the virus requires new ways of working and living. It is time for companies to measure the impact of the changes that are both negative and positive and create plans for preparedness for them. While world over economies are opening up there is still tentativeness on whether this opening up will be continuous or not. Under these conditions organizations need to embrace two core values of Agility and Flexibility. Based on these core values there are five trends that will shape the future of businesses: 1 Short term needs diversity- Industries like education, training, consulting have to adjust to the new reality. Virtual may seem endurable but strategies need to be made out for different combinations. In universities and schools online teaching and classes became the emergency solution. However, very few teachers or programmes were trained or developed for the virtual world. Teachers need to be trained on how to engage and motivate students behind screens who are sitting in their nightwear with zero attention focus. Training industry has to develop world class content where the lack of physical activities is compensated by virtual group activities and creative games that create the learning impact desired. Consulting industry can really gain if they are able to develop plans to deal with the business retrenchments and market diversifications. 2 Focus on what you can- With so much going against the established plans, the tendency in businesses is to go on herd instinct and find certainty by following what others are doing. If others are opening offices and making people work from home, so do they. If the industry has started producing masks as there is a demand for them, so do you. The danger with this is that you are focusing on what others are doing and not focusing on what you can do. The important thing is to see what and how "your" organization can perform. Even if it is the travel business and for the immediate future it looks as if travel and tourism are going to die, you still need to plan for some niches that may still operate. SARS broke out in Far Eastern countries and tourism nosedived. Having contained SARS these countries used the SARS-Free certified islands as places where tourism could be resumed. Another opportunity can be of doing medical tourism. This is a health industry connectivity with travel industry. Germany in Europe has dealt the best with Coronavirus and has now attracted people from the UK and other countries to come and be treated over there. 3 Co-Develop Markets- The present tendency amongst countries is to isolate and shut borders to keep Corona out. Physically, that may be fine but strategically not recommended. With traditional markets going down this is opportunity to develop new markets. The pharmaceutical industry is doing unprecedented collaboration. Research on vaccine and treatment is being done amongst almost 40 countries to speed up its development and that has created a model where it will create history. Businesses need to emulate. Central Asian markets are the ones that need to be explored for joint collaboration. Africa and South East Asian markets like Vietnam are other possibilities. The opportunity to share and support will lead to a win-win situation for all partners of the value chains. 4 Work Patterns and Policies-Working routines, patterns and styles have to undergo drastic changes. Remote teams that were an oddity have become a norm. However, managers are not trained to deal with this oddity. Organizations need to develop capacity of managers and leaders on how to keep connected to their team and the skills required to develop team trust and accountability. The team members also need to be trained on working from home. Previously, employees needed counselling on work/home balance as they would complain about not having enough time for their families. In this scenario, the employees need to learn how to focus on work when home pressures and distractions are hovering around them. Leadership styles need to adjust to the new reality of the stress and uncertainty of business, the remote employee productivity and the future uncertain prospects. Business capacity diversity will become a paramount requirement. 5 Restoring Balance-The world leaders, institutions and organizations will have to submit to the new world demands. Priorities will have to be changed as people of this world have discovered how even the most developed world has crumbled under the pressure of health emergency and the way the basic habitat has been destroyed causing this disbalance. A collective global reorganization is required to ensure true sustainable development where institutions and organizations have to be judged not just by financial audits but also by social audits, environmental audits and health audits to ensure that businesses are operating on holistic basis. This will be mandatory to prevent a mad pursuit of bottom lines with scant disregard on the societal and environmental impact. These changes require a new mindset, skill set and tool set in business thinkers and practitioners. After the comfort zone of many decades of practicing strategies of accumulation of wealth to become superpowers and corporate giants, leaders and institutions need to reset their priorities. This pandemic has highlighted the cause of this pandemic. The uncontrollable pandemic of greed, deceit, control, occupy, takeover, etc has led to this virus becoming a dire moment of truth. A truth that needs to be faced, accepted and adjusted in the DNA of leaders, institutions and organizations to save humanity from future disasters. (The writer is a columnist, consultant, coach, and an analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail,com. She tweets at @AndleebAbbas)