The pandemic is dead, long live the pandemic: How to overcome the crisis

For the past 6 months, the Sars-CoV-2 disrupted and transformed the entire globe. An economic crisis was instilled, which forced digitalization where it was possible. Some industries thrived, others plummeted and new ones emerged. However, despite the ease of restrictions and lockdown, the pandemic is far from over. What comes next can be translated into chaos, shortages and fallbacks.

It’s true, Oves Enterprise was kept afloat during the first months of the pandemic. But, I like to see myself as a pragmatic person – I know that what I did until now can’t be reiterated indefinitely. Therefore, I have to sketch a plan that can take the company in the post-pandemic world, where we’ll encounter broader challenges and not their end.

Now, more than ever, it’s important to lay the groundwork for what comes next. Doing it right will save you time, money and even your company. Below I will present an outline of the plan I have prepared for Oves Enterprise for the months to come.

1. Acknowledge that the world we used to know exists no longer

During crises, there is no liberation day. Nobody can predict accurately a time when Covid-19 will be out of our lives. Moreover, everyone is aware that the disappearance of the virus won’t mark the end of the economical turmoil. Thus, it’s important to remember that things are not coming back to the normal we used to know. Leading with this aftermath in mind is the key to go forward. Also, you need to confront yourself and your team with this harsh reality.

How to acknowledge it? Don’t perceive returning to the workplace as the recovery itself. But use it as an opportunity to create meaning. For instance, together with my C-level colleagues, we asked questions such as how did this crisis affect us overall? What did we learn from the downsides and upsides? What should we do better in case this happens again? And most importantly what should we change to continue in making progress?

Based on these answers we reset our priorities, adjusted our short and medium-term plans and found new ways of redirecting the resources. We based all of our plans on the new rallying cry: “renewal, not return”.

2. Envision where your organization should be when the crisis is over

As a CEO of a company, no matter its size, you’re the one who is responsible about balancing the past, the present activities and future investment. Since everything seems to be nebulous, you can’t base your decisions on facts, but on judgement. After all, gambling with the future is as much science as it is art.

But by defining your vision – where you want your organisation to be when the crisis happens can lay a stable foundation for the future. It’s important to keep your aspirations consistent with a longer-term vision. When you finished imagining, it’s time to walk backwards from “then” to “now”. Why?

– Because it gives you the liberty of envisioning where you can be without being constrained by how it is today;
– It forces you to have a pragmatic approach in terms of cash flow;
– Aids you in deciding what investment should be given a priority.

And if you are to ask me, the latter is the most challenging – after all, picking between short-term and long-term priorities “is a challenge as old as business itself”. The best way to make the right decisions is to find the right balance. But, only the CEO can find it, since they are the ones who are exposed to both external and internal interests.

3. Embrace the transformation mindset

I don’t mean digital transformation, necessarily. But to transform the way your organization behaves on a daily basis. I mentioned this because I realized in the first months of the pandemic that some processes and procedures can be overbearing and even useless. This is why I believe this the right moment to make an in-depth analysis of how things went before the crisis, how hard it was to rewire everything during it and how can you ensure things will work smoothly in the recovery phase and forward.

What does that mean? Tackling the bad, old habits that made processes longer than necessary. Targeting the mindsets that appear to stay in the way. At Oves Enterprise, for instance, we started by giving team leaders larger autonomy in their projects. They’re the experts, they’re the ones who should know how to approach projects. And to reinforce it, I tend to create recognitions so that it will motivate them to find the best solutions.

4. Your employees matter and you still need to take care of them

Even though Oves Enterprise has highly skilled developers with 20+ years of experience, we have younger ones as well – incredibly skilled, but with fewer years of experience, for now. And both of these groups are still a bit stressed in regards to the ongoing crisis. Thus, to relieve them from stress, together with my C-level colleagues we offered solutions on two levels:

COMMUNICATION IS KEY

I mentioned in my prior article that one of the ways I managed to keep the company afloat was the constant communication. However, I do realize now that having a clear, transparent communication with your employees has to be a cornerstone in any company.

However, there’s a thin line the C-level has to cross. How much can you disclose? How little is too much? But, here is what I usually communicate about:

– Projects status
– Potential projects
– Encouragement and reassurances
– Potential changes that will occur
– Any possible delays in administrative issues

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Just because there’s a crisis out there, it doesn’t mean we should stop learning. After all, due to these circumstances, it’s possible to have to make shifts in business. For instance, to use different technologies to increase efficiency. Or to reduce costs by slashing or simplifying procedures. Overall, the plan is to make the business more competitive.

Based on all the aforementioned, we work on encouraging and providing the team to keep developing themselves. Learning new technologies, new methods to simplify their work. Indeed, in our case is a bit easier, because we have several experts who can take their time to share from their experience, thus helping others to achieve more. But I still recommend and motivate them to look into courses and to make progress in their fields.

5. Building relationships beyond my network

Humans are social animals and I couldn’t agree more. But when you’re an entrepreneur, you are quite forced by the conjuncture to be competitive. But, this period made me realize that only through compassion we can overcome this situation. This is why I planned on going beyond my network and build relationships with other CEOs, both from the same industries or different.

But, before I start connecting with everyone on Linkedin and invite them to lunches and coffee, I asked myself these questions:

• What peer networks should I continue to create beyond the crisis? With those who are in analogous or identical situations?
• What can be considered a treasured peer interaction? How can I make sure that these conditions are in place before interacting with others?
• How can I encourage my team to enrich their networks and share learnings with their peers across industries?
• Now, it’s true that networking is useful from a mercantile point of view – after all, you never know who can recommend us or even need a product developed. But, by expanding your network, especially in non-competitive industries, you can support each other in aiming higher, in sharing learnings, best practices and encouragements. Through this, we can go forward – overcoming the crisis and taking the business and implicitly ourselves to the next level.

History taught us that it’s always darkest before the dawn. My intuition and experience tell me that after this sanitary crisis will end, we will have a period of bloom. Industries will have exponential growth, plenty of activities will happen and others will appear, and in the end, us, as humans, will be more empathetic, resilient and dare to say content. But, until then we have to fight through it and to not lose hope. Remember, a crisis is nothing but an opportunity. Everything will turn out to be just alright in the end.