If 2019 was a challenging year for businesses in the UK, with 2 general elections, Brexit hanging over a cliff at the end of March then again at the end of December, that seems nothing compared to what we have had to endure through the first 8 months or so of 2020 and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Many businesses were forced to close with little to no revenue from the end of March, through to the end of June 2020. As the Covid19 lockdown was lifted, businesses slowly day by day, started to reintroduce staff members and some of their customers have returned. But if your business is like many, chances are you’re not back to Pre-Covid trading levels and you may have been reliant on government business grants and financial support to date.
- Has your business suffered a severe impact due to these market changing conditions?
- Are you at a crossroads and not clear on a path forward?
Now could be the time to consider hiring a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Consultant. They will assist with a business continuity plan. Not just reviewing where you’re at, but supporting you to create a clear Business Continuity Management (BCM) roadmap along with the associated actions to ensure your business will be sustainable in what will become the new normal.
Some areas a Business Recovery Services Specialist would support and help you analyse;
Your market: What’s been the impact and likely consequences to your traditional business marketplace? Have your customers’ needs changed, diminished or become critical? What’s the future needs and demands likely to be? Are there some new opportunities, post Covid19?
Your competitors: How have they adapted? What’s been the impact to them? What’s been their business disaster recovery plan?
When there’s radical changes in markets it’s normally the bigger organisations that struggle to shift and the SME’s that gain the first move. However, the larger organisations, normally catch up and have longevity providing they have access to, or available funds.
Will there be opportunities for you to adapt and become an agile business? And how will you finance these changes?
Structure & Resources
Are your current business structure, hierarchy and employees’ roles, responsibilities and capabilities aligned to what the new business environment will need and want? Are there staff you could reallocate tasks to, offer disaster recovery training, upskill and develop their capabilities to adapt or are there gaps. Do you need to recruit, or could a specialist consultant be of more value and offer you flexibility?
Consideration would also need to be made to letting some of your existing staff go. Redundancies can often be an outcome from business restructuring and a consequence through the business disaster recovery strategy.
Processes
How do your business operations and processes need to be adapted to the changing environment and to maintain business continuity? With less face to face contact could the personal touch be achieved through remote interactions? Could IT systems and software be deployed to improve customer interaction and satisfaction?
Communication
Who do you need to inform of these changes, how should this be delivered and positioned? Sending an email with a copy of a new plan or strategy won’t suffice. Think about how your business recovery plan would look and be perceived by your employees, by your suppliers, the wider supply chain, customers and any associates or strategic partners. Your communication will require adapting to suit different audiences.
Reviews and Setting Milestones
Key to obtaining success would be setting key dates to carry out a business impact analysis, review progress and evaluate any changes in the marketplace. Reflect and learn from these reviews, highlighting what’s worked what hasn’t, then agree short term priorities and set milestones.
"The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not turbulence itself, but to act with yesterday’s logic."
Peter Drucker (1974)
Business Recovery Services Cumbria:
Implementing Your Business Recovery Plan
Don’t underestimate the time and effort a business continuity and disaster recovery plan will take to set up and implement. However, it’s companies that learn and adapt through turbulent times that come out the other side often leaner, stronger and gaining market share and new customers.
It sounds daunting, however with the support of a Business Continuity Consultant working by your side, implementing business disaster recovery solutions will be much easier. At least you have another pair of shoulders, as a sounding board and to fall back on should you get lost in your plans or tied up being reactive with day to day crisis management and just firefighting.
Please note our first consultation is free and there’s also a strong chance that specialist business continuity and disaster recovery training and advice of this nature could be part funded through one of the current UK government business support schemes.
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