During the second wave in Europe, and after the third wave and lockdowns in the United States and Asia, we all find ourselves asking about the future and how to keep our businesses safe during a pandemic.
We have gathered opinions about the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy and your business from global entrepreneurs, venture capital investors, strategic advisors, and medical professionals, who all deliver reports to the banks and government institutions.
Let’s try to prepare for the so-called “new normal”. After any further updates, we will keep you posted! This might be tough, but there are new opportunities too - and we’ll check out the most important, as well as addressing how to stay safe.
Pandemic waves affecting business
Waves of the pandemic and its restrictions have had a great impact on business markets and negotiations. Many aspects of business have been interrupted – from timing, dynamics, and the will to close deals, through health and treatment, to family aspects. At the time of writing Hong Kong and the United States have emerged from the third Wave of the pandemic, while Europe is entering its second biggest lockdown.
After the pandemic of coronavirus SARS in Asia 2003 and SARS-CoV-2 in 2019, we might expect in the future to suffer through SARS-CoV-3 and -4, etc.
As new information is announced from day to day, it’s a good idea to prepare your business for new scenarios by analyzing COVID-19 and the impact of lockdowns on your company.
Consider different counties’ COVID-19 policies, the varied stages of the pandemic, and the need for quarantine when traveling abroad for business. If you must travel, call the relevant embassy to check restrictions before any international business trips. If travel is not required then stay safe, and stay home.
When more risk appears, try to create a cross-sectional SWOT analysis and keep it updated. On the other hand, make sure you will be aware of new opportunities. People and companies have new needs.
Decisive strategies in place
“In a dynamically changing environment, there is an urgent need to have the ability to make quick and good decisions and to have a flexible strategy” - that is according to Tomasz Niciak, the founder of Global Ventures, which is an international advisory and financial company. Consider the SMART rule of effective project management - Specific, Measurable, Available, Realistic, and Time-bound. Include time as a critical aspect of your plans and actions.
Dynamic decision making, based on ever-changing situations, is becoming an even more crucial ability. Update your business strategy, operational plans, and KPIs, as well as deliver products on time. Make your corporate governance and risk management procedures more efficient, and include new potential COVID-19 risk factors. This is the advice of Niciak, the owner of Global Ventures Angels based in Zurich, Switzerland, which is a global investors network. If you search for ventures, business angels, or private equity capital, then structure transactions well and multiply your options.
Smart change matters
Your company might be well run, yet its position in a specific sector might be threatened due to impacts of restrictions or decreasing market demand caused by changes in the economic situation.
To make good decisions, you want to have access to multiple sources of reliable information. Try to make your own assessment of the state of public affairs, especially when it comes to the economy and your markets. Take into consideration new, reliable sources of information that come without hype! Keep up with your own, good mindset and maintain a clear vision of your business right here and right now, as well in the future.
Include digital transformation based on solid research as a new possible direction for your company. Changes in markets will correlate with restrictions that are announced from day to day. Be sure to include these changing scenarios when securing your company, and consider remodeling its organizational structure. For example, you also need to take into consideration upcoming things like NAKIVO backup for Microsoft 365, end of third-party cookies or cloud siem (which can be extended with an MDR service provider, e.g. Castra) that will influence your business.
Consider diverse income sources
Diverse sources of income can help make your business more secure. Be SMART, think SMART through innovations, and think innovatively. How best to upgrade your company with knowledge, know-how, ideas, and innovations? Try to find new products, new services, new demand, or market niches that you can supply. Consider what you require in order to fulfill your chosen backup plans.
“Today, fields that are in development or in high demand are chemistry, biotechnology, voice biometrics, fintech, blockchain development, AI software development, real time location systems, software, hardware, health, medications, online prescriptions, telemedicine, Internet, e-commerce, cellular data and commerce, materials, medical devices, and many more.” – as stated by Professor Jaroslaw J. Fedorowski, President of the Polish Hospital Federation and advisor to companies on pandemic relief funds and corporate medical safety. He also says that non-contact technologies such as smart shopping carts, new types of thermometers, or other remotely controlled devices are more important.
“Go Online or Go Home”
Have you heard the phrase “go online or die” before? For many businesses that are faced with closing their operations, moving their dealings online is now urgent and inevitable. No matter which sector you’re a part of, going online is the best way to compete and survive.
Increase your online presence, and if you have a product that corresponds to the needs of the market, you will reach your returns.
““We've seen our customers react differently to the pandemic” – says Matt Kurleto, CEO at the software development company, Neoteric. “Some companies have cut costs, also in R&D - others from industries that suffer the most accelerate digital transformation. During the COVID-19 outbreak we’ve transformed a gym center into online fitness classes with tremendous success in the US to minimize monthly cost of running a gym, but we've also seen market leaders from the aerospace industry cutting costs overnight”, continues Matt. “As with any rapid change in the market, the pandemic has opened new doors, and companies that can leverage the increased time we spend in the digital environment will thrive on the size of opportunities that have just been unlocked. And there will be more - just prepare for 5G to unleash IoT, VR, and AR potential at unprecedented levels”, he also says.
Build up your community
Just a year ago we could say we knew someone if we met them in person. In the era of COVID-19, when conferences and meetings are limited to online conference calls, we say it after meeting someone online. A while ago we could say we’d closed a deal after meeting a client in person, and now we can close them online. All of that with no traffic jams, no business travel, and lower carbon emissions.
Build a community around your company and products to expand and internationalize your business. It's about much more than just a group of satisfied clients, as in hard times friendships and connections will be your greatest asset. Don’t be shy! Create contact with your connections and add them to your groups. When these are your shareholders, contractors, coworkers, and current or prospective clients, you can feel comfortable expanding your network since you can keep informing and gaining new leads naturally. Upgrade your company’s investor relations sphere to provide clear and direct information. There are plenty of new tools and platforms to help you keep everyone on the same page, e.g. Swiss Shares Inside.
Have your unique channel
In an era of information noise, it’s critical to manage information and its flow. This creates a need to upgrade communication strategies and consider new channels. Have your own reliable and safe communication channel, and actively communicate with your community. Inform and interact with all shareholders (e.g. anyone who is a beneficial owner under the Corporate Transparency Act), stakeholders, contractors, coworkers, current and potential clients, your ambassadors, and everyone who favors your company. Promote and remind them of your products when actively communicating with your community. Announce your new ideas and run new campaigns. If you use different types of communication tools and channels, integrate them and make them more effective. To boost your ability to win a market, join international business organizations, clusters of active entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists, and private equity funds. This will allow you to expand your community of contracting parties.
Reinvent meaningful meetings
Engage your community online with LiveWebinar – a real time communication platform that’s geared toward hosting webinar meetings. Most of all, it is a versatile set of business tools that can be used in the fields of sales and marketing, consulting, banking, investments, and many more.
Organize big conferences or small seminars, business meetings, and negotiations. With LiveWebinar you can show multimedia and presentations during business webinars, which keep your audience informed and engaged. Stream your webinar on YouTube and other platforms to reach an even larger audience.
If you use different web or UI components, check out ArchieBot technology to remove all the barriers of communication.
LiveWebinar integrates with almost any app, helping you create efficient sales funnels, organize leads, and make overall workflow easier. Add your favorite apps, integrate with Web Hooks, or use advanced API to seamlessly pair LiveWebinar with the rest of your company software ecosystem.
Help others
Tomasz Bruliński is a start-upper and co-founder of ZeroQs, which entered the California based Plug&Play accelerator and is delivering smart carts to the biggest global retailers including Ikea, Carrefour, and X5. He says “imagine your own shop with a product map inside a shopping trolley. You put your items inside, move out from the shop, and that is that - you have made your shopping! We secure our IPRs worldwide as the quickest and one of the most popular solutions for safe non-contact shopping nowadays. This technology tells us how to stay safe and win the situation.”
What more can we say? Be sure that your company fulfills medical recommendations on how to protect from viruses.
Take care of yourself, your family and friends. What goes around comes around, and it all goes back to you and your company's community, which can help make this world a little better. Stay safe and healthy with LiveWebinar and stay tuned for new articles!
We wish you a great scale upturn for your business!