Navigating Business Disruptions: Strategies for Resilience and Adaptation
At times of business disruption, having a plan in place is vitally important. PRIME46 research and strategic advice can assist your company with adapting quickly to an ever-evolving environment.
As businesses navigate a climate of constant disruption, continuous adaptation and fundamental transformation are both required to adapt successfully. To assist firms in these efforts, the World Economic Forum and Kearney have collaborated on creating the Resiliency Compass as an assessment tool specifically for supply chains and manufacturing firms.
1. Identify the Sources of Disruption
Business disruption refers to any external force that impairs a company’s ability to create, ship and sell products – from COVID-19 pandemic outbreaks and government policy changes that affect global supply chains to cyber attacks aimed at your IT systems.
Successful disruptions typically enter markets by targeting customers that do not comprise core sources of revenue for incumbents, enabling them to operate under the radar and make incremental advances until their performance starts surpassing rival solutions.
One key part of disrupting an industry lies in making it hard for incumbents to replicate your product, with disruptive innovators often succeeding by pricing their offerings lower than equivalent solutions. Finally, true disruptive innovation requires time – Wikipedia overtook Encyclopedia Britannica after 11 years while Uber replaced traditional taxi services globally within 2 years.
2. Create a Continuity Plan
As businesses become more dependent on technology, companies must develop an exhaustive business continuity plan (BCP) in order to manage and mitigate threats effectively. Business continuity planning differs significantly from disaster recovery planning as it encompasses more aspects.
BCPs typically consist of these elements:
Businesses should ensure their comprehensive business continuity plan is regularly reviewed and updated using automated tools for this process, to make the review and update seamless with other processes within their business. Employee engagement should also be increased through transparency in this review process; employees can feel engaged and empowered through this engagement, increasing likelihood of adherence. Testing tabletop exercises or emergency enactments to make sure all staff know the steps to take during an emergency will further reaffirm plan effectiveness and reliability. Feedback loops should also be established to allow continuous improvement to strengthen effectiveness and reliability within this plan’s design and improve overall effectiveness and reliability.
3. Take Stock of Your Resources
Businesses must monitor market changes while also closely examining what’s going on within their own enterprises, evaluating customer churn, revenue trends and any changes that could signal shifts in business practices or models.
Sheffi notes that one of the key steps is keeping an eye on resources. This includes having a balanced budget and financial reserves in place. Furthermore, it’s crucial that in case of crisis situations all information can be reviewed by decision-makers quickly and discussed easily.
Establishing open lines of communication between customers and suppliers is also vital. Inform them of any limitations or challenges they might experience in the future, such as delayed shipments or price increases, to manage expectations and build trust. Also useful is having a list of alternatives, so customers can locate what they require elsewhere.
4. Evaluate Your Customers
Keep abreast of emerging innovations and technologies outside your own business, while taking stock or inventorying yourself.
One effective method for this is analyzing customer correspondence such as emails, letters and chat logs. By reviewing these documents you can evaluate how well customers are being served and identify any problems which need to be addressed.
Review customer feedback and ratings with easyfeedback’s tool, to gain more insight into customer experiences with your products or services and identify any areas needing improvement.
Ideal, customer evaluations should be carried out regularly to make sure that customers are pleased with the level of service they’re receiving from you. By tracking trends in customer satisfaction rates, changes can be implemented that will further expand and strengthen your business.