A business lady. The coronavirus situation has slowed down the economy by untold proportions. PHOTO | COURTESY
Summary
- The coronavirus situation has slowed down the economy by untold proportions.
- The uncertainty that comes with the passing of days, which have slowly turned to weeks and threatening to run into months, has led to the slow realisation that something needs to be done to ensure that businesses and indeed life, must go on.
The coronavirus situation has slowed down the economy by untold
proportions. When all this first unfolded, there was defiance and hope
that the situation would quickly resolve. However, what the disease has
shown is that it hates overconfidence as much as it hates
unpreparedness. Basically, those who have fared better, are those who
took early precautions.
The uncertainty that comes with
the passing of days, which have slowly turned to weeks and threatening
to run into months, has led to the slow realisation that something needs
to be done to ensure that businesses and indeed life, must go on.
First
, it is important to note that for any business or project to recover
from a disaster, organisations need to take what I document as a four
stage process namely;
RELIEF
This
is normally the first stage of response. It is when an emergency has
occurred and caused disruption that doesn't give a company or
organisation time to put in proper response measures that allow for its
positive adaptation to the situation. The organisation is at this point
forced to take drastic measures such as asking employees to work from
home, before resorting to pay cuts and in some occasions, layoffs. On
the other hand, companies and non-profits seek relief of financial
obligations from banks and donors respectively, hoping to stay off the
emergency situation
STABILISATION
It is time to
move on. We have stayed safe long enough. We must now move towards
social recovery. This phase usually occurs within four to six weeks of a
disaster where people feel that lessons have been learnt on how to take
care of themselves either through hand washing and social distancing.
However, the biggest concern for businesses and projects is how to
initiate broken linkages with clients and beneficiaries. If these
entities fail to act at this time, they tread a dangerous path of
collapse. Remember, most businesses and organisations rarely have the
capital and funds that can sustain them for more than a couple of
months.
Organisations require to rescue and stabilise
their businesses' fortune. They need workable plan that will help them
reconnect with their clients and map ways of rebuilding relationships
and developing products that are friendly to the current situation. It
is important to note that only entities that add value, survive tough
times, because they climb up their client's priority ranks. These
entities must resist all temptations to follow the crowds. There is an
old adage; “there is no wisdom in crowds”.
DEVELOPMENT
This
phase is unavoidable, once an organisation manages to re-establish
itself among its clients. This is marked by an organisation's ability to
consistently reach out and supply to the needs of its clients to an
extent that old and new networks are fully established and even
flourishing. The organisation needs to keep doing things the right way .
RESILIENCE
Doing
things, the same way while expecting different results is the way of
failures. There is no disputing the fact that Covid-19 is not the last
pandemic to occur in our lifetime, and if it were, other emergencies
will be lurking somewhere in the unknown future. The best gift that
organisations can give themselves, is better disaster preparedness.
There are many ways to building an organisation's resilience to
disasters and emergencies. The first line of response in this area is
usually a food insurance policy. However, I urge development and
refining of emergency and disaster management strategic plans that
encompass a solid a business continuity plan and a resilience
contingency fund among other measures.
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