Preparing Your Business for a Post-Pandemic World

These days you can’t open a web browser without some sort of Covid-19 resource, information or warning.  As business leaders, not only is it important to know what’s going on during a crisis, it’s even more important to guide those on your team towards how to maneuver through the “after-effects” of that crisis.

Leaders across the globe are doing their best to balance what’s going on right now with their businesses and also strategizing about how they will run their companies after the Covid-19 pandemic ends.  This “after” focus is echoed in a Harvard Business Review article titled “Preparing Your Business for a Post-Pandemic World” by Carsten Lund Pedersen and Thomas Ritter.

Pedersen and Ritter state, “And like the health and humanitarian sides of the [Covid-19] crisis, the business side needs ways to recover. Ad hoc responses won’t work; organizations must lay the groundwork for their recoveries now.”  Following the same style as management theorist Henry Mintzberg, they created the 5 Ps for business recovery as a model for businesses to transition from crisis mode to whatever the new “normal” will be for their companies. Those 5 Ps are Position, Plan, Perspective, Projects and Preparedness, and the questions they pose would be great discussion starters for you and your team over the next few weeks:

1. What position can you attain during and after the pandemic?
2. What is your plan for bouncing back?
3. How will your culture and identity change? (Perspective)
4. What new projects do you need to launch, run, and coordinate?
5. How prepared are you to execute your plans and projects?

A link to a worksheet from Pedersen and Ritter to help you process those questions is provided in the article (click here to read the entire article and access the worksheet).

Credit: hbr.org

For many companies, the effects of the coronavirus have shaken them to the core. Many business owners across the globe are desperately wondering if they will be able to turn things around to remain in business and prosper in the future. Before sinking into a deep pit of despair and financial anxiety, consider this…you are NOT alone! The community of marketplace leaders knows exactly how you feel, and many of those leaders are compassionately doing their best to help others within their sphere of influence – including our company, Aepiphanni Business Consulting.

We are passionate about small businesses and thankful for the opportunity to work with so many businesses across the country. We have developed the free Business Catalyst Masterclass Program as a way to give back to the small business community, and are excited about this new way to serve.