For several weeks now, Russia, and Moscow in particular, has been gripped by a panic called Coronavirus. This panic affected both ordinary people and companies. I will leave the discussion of the virus itself outside the brackets, but its consequences are very interesting.
As a rule, any company has only two valuable resources - employees and Clients, and in all this fuss, companies are divided into three categories:
- save themselves. Companies that turned out to be unprepared for a systemic crisis and a sharp change in trends and, in general, the 21st century as such. They think hard about how to maintain the current model or quickly rebuild business processes. There is no time to think about Clients, because basic business processes will be idle, on which the financial condition of the company directly depends. But it's like saving one wing of an airplane. If the second wing does not survive (Clients), then sooner or later it will make itself felt.
- save themselves and their Clients. Mainly medium-sized companies that, in principle, were not ready for remote work and remote form of interaction with the Client, but have a certain reserve of resources to begin saving their employees and Clients. In such companies, some things work out and some things don’t, and success directly depends on the professionalism of the top management team.
- save Clients. Modern digital organizations that switched to remote work without disrupting even the slightest business processes the next day (hour?) after Moscow’s recommendations on organizing remote work. After that, they focused on helping their Clients (after all, nothing is more important after employees, right?). Some digital giants even help their potential Clients, for example Google and Microsoft will make business video communication free due to coronavirus. The standard of Customer Focus, Customer Preservation and Customer Care. This category can also include states that are trying to save businesses by transferring tax payment obligations to a future period.
As a result, digital, flat and virtual organizations escaped with a slight fright.
What about people? Some company employees realized that the work they were doing could not be done outside the office and it was terrible. The reasons are varied: from the need for a paper signature, to the lack of Internet and computer at home (2020)... I am already silent about the organization and self-organization of remote work, this is a separate topic for discussion. As business guru Tom Peters predicted 20 years ago, such professions would disappear and be replaced by a $100 chip, and apparently I know who they’ll start with after the situation stabilizes.
As the same Peters wrote: destruction is necessary and I tried to summarize the expected consequences of the pandemic for Moscow businesses:
- some businesses are closed and ruined (mini coffee shops on the corner).
- some businesses will close after a while, because... accounts receivable grow, a cash gap arises.
- employees are not paid bonuses for some time, only salaries.
- some businesses will be able to temporarily increase revenue due to massive demand for certain groups of goods and services (cloud systems, food delivery, medicines).
- some organizations will change the type of activity for the sake of survival (tailoring -> sewing masks?).
- decrease in rental demand, because some organizations have seen the reality of remote work.
- organizations will take care of their business processes and try to automate the maximum number of operations.
- cloud technologies like Azure, Office365 will sparkle with new colors and with proper marketing support - this is their finest hour.
- organizations will understand on whom their critical business processes depend, and which of the employees is eating up their capital.
- companies will understand that remote interaction with the Client is marginal and can be quite effective.
Analyzing what is happening, I understand that the occasion is not very joyful, but it is a big shake-up and test for business, business models and people. Have we stayed too long in the 20th century? Do we need an even bigger kick to start automation and digitalization in the 21st century?
The next threat could be even more unusual, is your business ready? What about you?