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Things You Can Do to Maximize Your Chance of Surviving this Crisis (3 of 3 - Prepare for a Restart)


As small businesses and non-profit organizations, you are likely in midst of figuring out how to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. The implications of the crisis can mean loss of sales, staff, and potentially business closure. 

If you are one of the lucky ones that are still in operation, here are some tips that can help you: 


PREPARE for RESTART

As many have said already, once the crisis over, we will NOT be returning to where we left off. Our experience (as individuals and as businesses) in this crisis will shift our value system as well as ways change the way we engage with the world. 

Practically speaking, people are forced to try new things that they otherwise would not do: 

  • ONLINE SHOPPING + DELIVERY SERVICES: There are many people placed their first order of groceries online in the past weeks than ever before. This experience serves as crash course to digital commerce and will accelerate the adoption of digital sales and e-commerce in an unprecedented way. 

  • ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS: People’s comfort level with using online platforms to communicate, access help, and even connect will increase significantly. Organizations have an opportunity to tap into this to potentially create a more accessible and scalable offering. Why? The perceptions of “technology” will shift. Technology will no longer be the antithesis of human interactions; rather, an enabler and facilitator to human connections. 

  • VALUE SYSTEM SHIFTS: Furthermore, the emotional trauma from the crisis will shift value systems of our society. 

  • People will value physical safety and security more so than ever. Helping people feel safe and prepared will be an emerging area of demand. 

  • Also, the paradigm of better, cheaper, faster of our current productivity focused society will be up for disruption. This crisis surfaces the latent need for “interconnectedness” and our value towards community, connections, sustainability, and essentialism. As a society, we will evolve and will jointly determine how these values will be baked into emerging business models and how we operate together. 


As we find ourselves in midst of the crisis, remember, things are not business as usual, despite our best attempt to hold down to “normalcy.” Risk management can help us think through things and provide temporary sense of control. That said, our environment will continue to shift. Leaders need a combination of foresight and adaptability to navigate in this critical time. We need deep thinking around how to navigate this changing landscape. We equally need to stay open and listen to what is required of us. Only by shifting towards “what is possible” mindset, we can learn, grow and reinvent. 




Hsiang-Yi Lin is the managing director of MKMB Consulting, a boutique management and strategy consultancy that helps organizations navigate uncertainties, build strategic capacity, and accelerate organizational transformations. She can be reached at hsiangyi@mkmbgroup.com.

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