Support in a post-pandemic world

Businesses have had to change more in the last five weeks than they have in the last five years. What was initially seen as a temporary disruption has extended into a ‘new normal’ with broken supply chains and changes to working structures that will not easily revert back. As this new realism strikes, it is time for businesses to have a strategic rethink.

Companies that adapt well to the crisis will emerge with a new sense of confidence and feel they can take on even more challenges. But many will flounder due to supply chains that were not robust, inadequate team skills and leadership, or weak and inflexible management systems and infrastructure.

When we emerge from the current crisis, successful businesses will make quick decisions on which products and services to divest and refocus their energy on areas crucial to defend and maintain or build up and expand.

PS Partnerships believe that relationships across the supply chain will be permanently altered by the crisis. Interdependency will be magnified, with stronger more agile organisations required to support threatened or compromised business partners. Key to success and vital for recovery will be transparency and maintaining open and clear stakeholder relationships involving employees, suppliers, banks and customers.

In our view, companies that utilise external consultancy as an ‘arm’s length’ transactional, expert service will be increasingly outdated. When we emerge from lockdown and the current restrictions external technical and management system support will be far more focused on a strong partnership approach. This will require sympathy and an understanding of client culture, close involvement of client team members, adjusting services as circumstances change, building internal capability and shared data information systems. The strength of the connection between the client and external support will be increasingly important for success.

In our ‘new normal’ pandemic environment, companies need to be mindful of a number of key drivers which will support success:

• Comprehensive business continuity planning that considers disease outbreaks and pandemics as well as other natural disasters
• Demonstrating the sustainability of products and services as a clear way to communicate and win customer trust
• Re-evaluation and de-risking of supply chains; finding alternatives and adapting existing ones will become a key tenet of corporate strategy to avoid further supply disruption.
• Entering into new markets, such as medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

Businesses will need to quickly learn, adapt and integrate the requirements of this new business environment, market structure and working practices into their own organisation in order to succeed.

PS Partnerships are well placed to support your business as an outsourced part of your team. Working in partnership with you, we can help you get results while building in-house capability and capacity … without the additional cost of a full-time employee.