How do you Maintain Performance when Covid Becomes Endemic?

Most businesses have been in reaction mode over the last 24 months. Covid and its variants have hit supply lines, customer behaviour, logistics, staffing, costs and pricing - just about every aspect of how we run our business. And we have been reacting - some well and some not so well. And some, were definitely harder hit due to the nature of their business such as travel & entertainment (see Same Storm Different Boats).

The thing is, we are now entering the ‘new normal’. Covid will move from pandemic to endemic which means that, while it may not be fatal, the virus will remain a factor in life and in business. We will see significant absenteeism over the coming year – how are you going to incorporate it in your plans for 2022 and beyond?

We have business resiliency plans for equipment failure, floods, fires, cyber sabotage and so on (or at least we should…). So what plans do you have for Covid outbreaks in your business and in your eco system of suppliers and clients?

Internally - you will want to make sure that you have redundancy in your key staffing positions. Where are your single points of failure? Sales, accounting, shipping, receiving, customer support, etc? Can you survive for 3 weeks without these people? Can you cross-train other staff? Are the processes for each area well documented and understood? Do you have a quick list of contractors, consultants or outsourced facilities to call upon?
Suppliers – do they have inventory set aside for you? Do you have multiple contacts you can engage with? How solid is their supply chain? If you are single-sourced on key components – why?
Clients - do you have multiple contacts at each client? Can they generate orders? Can they pay you?

If you want to stay ahead of the curve, I strongly suggest you work through the three areas above at your next executive management meeting. At the very least, you’ll understand your vulnerabilities. If you want some further discussion and ideas for possible solutions, I’d be most pleased to chat.

Talk to you next time,

Andrew