Blog

1. Leadership & Management-

We all know that a couple of industries are affected badly e.g. Real estate, Hotel Industry, Travel & Tourism etc. Assess how the pandemic has affected your existing customers & supply chain segments.

Probe couple of key Customers & SCM partners, analyse their inputs & then take a call, whether you want to scale down the focus on your existing segments or look at new segments/opportunities like health, hygiene etc. Over the last couple of days, I have received lot of emails from business owners (whom I know), where they were not in the Health & Hygiene business earlier, but now they are trying to en-cash on the new opportunity by marketing masks, sanitizers etc.

Collate information, analyse & take the right strategic decision, whether you want to tweak your existing product/services to serve the new opportunity or plan a new hybrid strategy to scale down your existing customer focus & address the new customer segments & opportunities.

Collate information of your competitors, check which competitor products & services can complement each other, initiate discussions for collaboration to provide a new solution offering together e.g. Mahindra and Ford have collaborated & complimented each other strengths to develop Midsize and Compact SUV, Electric Vehicle and Connected Car Solutions.

Collate information of the top 10 products which were imported from China e.g. Mobile phones, Engineering Goods, Pumps etc. & check whether you can take advantage of the Make in India thrust and align with Self -Reliant India Initiative.

2. Marketing & Sales-

In most of the Small Business Organizations the marketing & sales are handled by the same team. With the new normal, the way that the Business owners & teams handle marketing & sales will change.

Register on GeM and pitch in your products/services to Government & PSUs.

Strengthen Inbound Marketing & align Business Goals and Social Media Goals- AIDA - Attract, Interest, Desire & Action

Plan a hybrid social media strategy & use Organic and Paid campaign effectively.

Plan Cross sell & Upsell effectively.

Focus on new strategies like Growth Hacking to get new orders and to increase the demand.

Strengthen the Customer Support Delight initiatives & collate testimonials.

Try to explore opportunities with the new Self-Reliant India initiatives & explore new opportunities both in the National & International Markets.

3. Building Effective Teams

With the relaxation of lockdown and where (50 % / 33 %) of teams are returning to offices and factories, alongside the new social distancing norm, we need to motivate our onsite & WFH teams to quickly align with the new objectives of Survival to Revival & Growth.

Encourage teams to adapt collaboration tools, strengthen cooperation to work as one cohesive team.

Implement a Performance Based Result Oriented Culture for both the onsite & WFH teams by aligning Roles & Responsibilities to the new Business Goals & implement Performance Based Salary Restructure and Incentives.

Assess the KSAA - Knowledge, Skills, Abilities & Attitude of your teams & encourage/incentivise them to learn new skills required, provide feedback & support them to adapt to the new Business Goals quickly.

Provide Business challenging opportunities for team members to plan & create new innovative products/services.

4. Process- Most of the Small Business Organizations have been slow to adapt & implement Technology because of investments & lack of skilled team members. However, we need to position & adapt Technology as a Strategy & Enabler for Business.

We can explore & start with a couple of simple tools like CRM, Collaboration tools which are available as freemium models & scale up based on your requirements.

Try to implement lean process improvement tools like 5S, JIT & adapt digital supply chain. Replace mundane & repetitive tasks and use technology to improve the quality, efficiency, productivity & reduce the cost of production.

Collate information on the new technological advancements in your industry segments, initiate a cost benefit analysis & adapt to it in a phased manner.

5. Finance- Focus on your receivables & plan the cash flows.

Connect with your Bankers and assess the different options of moratorium, CGTMSE loans & be prudent to avail loans considering the demand & potential of your products / services to expedite kick starting your operations.

Focus on your existing order deliveries and discuss with your customers/offer incentives to expedite your receivables.

Register on TReDS.

Adapt lean inventory & don't make the mistake of stocking inventories again.

Contact your customers where you have provided bank guarantee & request for extension.

As we know change is the only constant. We need to adapt strategic thinking, be agile & take the right decisions quickly. Your quality of Decision Determines Your Destiny.