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Evolving your business in a pandemic

When it comes to certain aspects of working during a pandemic, I don’t think we’re alone in wondering why haven’t we always worked this way?”.

Just look at how we all now approach meetings – I’m sure we’re not alone in historically holding a board meeting every five weeks with everyone spending hours driving hundreds of miles to sit in a conference room.

And of course, that’s always going to be necessary to a certain extent, but this unfortunate situation the world is facing has actually been somewhat positive in forcing us to see the benefits in fully utilising technology.

Now the board can simply jump on a Teams call or give a thumbs up, rather than leaving something on hold waiting for everyone to next get together in a month’s time.

We’ve become much more efficient in other ways too; cutting out physical paperwork in favour of electronic signatures means we’re suddenly able to get documents signed off instantly, which in terms of auditing has transformed how efficiently the team is able to function.

These are areas we’d have eventually introduced anyway, but at the start of Covid-19 we said there are two choices – cling on with a plan for survival, or plan as you know you have a great business and it might be a hard time but you’ll come out of it even stronger.

What is clear is that standing still isn’t an option, and if you’re trying to be the same business you were back in January then you’re likely making a mistake.

It’s not about being reckless with the investment you make but being brave – we need calculated decisions when others might be feeling less confident, that’s the role of a leader to give others that strength.

I sat down with Lisa, and looked through all the great ideas our teams have adapted during Covid-19, and in the end we arrived at several projects to make a real difference to the business which we call ’60 day plans’.  Having various members of the wider team helping deliver these projects in a short time frame is making all the difference.

Yes, you might not be able to go to the pub at the minute, but you can work from home with a glass of wine next to you and carry on meeting new people