The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has pushed numerous
businesses on to their knees. Those saddled with debts pre-Covid-19 are
the most hit.
The pandemic is a wake-up call to
enterprises and corporates whose foundations are built on sand to
reorganise quickly amid the unprecedented disruption.
Many
businesses including blue chip companies have been forced to carry out
organisation-wide rightsizing resulting in reduction of staff. Others
have been shut down, leading to lose of jobs among menial and white
collar workers.
But is not all doom and gloom as the
pandemic period has thrown up opportunities as well. Businesses,
therefore, have to embrace a paradigm shift if they are to capture these
opportunities amid the threats. It is now business unusual. Only
organisations that are agile and specifically embracing holacracy and
digital disruption will withstand the turbulence.
Agility
is the ability of an organisation to adapt quickly to internal and
external market changes, respond rapidly and flexibly to opportunities
and threats, adapt and add competitive value. The salient principles of
agility are anchored on structure, process and people.
The directives issued by WHO like physical distancing will
change the way we organise ourselves at work places and this calls for
changes.
Corporate agility is significantly important
since the future is ever unpredictable, with the world and technology
changing ever faster.
Agile businesses adopt a
holacracy organisational structure, which is a new approach to
management through a system of rules to obtain order without the needs
for bosses. Agile companies provide mechanisms for quickly assembling
teams with the right talent to address the blend of challenges and
opportunities. Holacracy states that business standard operating
procedures are not cast in stone hence affording flexibility.
The
self-managed teams in holacracy have facilitated effective management
in virtual offices with the advent of teleconferencing apps like Google
and Zoom meetings.
Agile enterprises take digital disruption as a welcome change.
Digital
disruption denotes a transformation that is caused by emerging
technologies and business models. Advanced disruptive technologies such
as data analytics, robotics process automation, artificial intelligence,
machine learning and internet of things are such kind of technologies
that need to be explored and tapped by businesses to stay in the dynamic
world of business.
As things pan out, nobody knows how
long Covid-19 will last. Its negative effects so far might just be a
tip of the iceberg, though we are optimistic that all will be well.
However, companies must prepare accordingly by integrating appropriate
technologies to their operations.
Mr Kisumba is an accountant at Rea Vipingo
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