Businesses large and small continue to adjust to the changes wrought by Covid and the economic disruptions of the past several months.  Initially, most companies were faced with acute challenges, from cash flow, to supply chain, to workforce disruptions – or worse.  As the initial shock is fading now, it’s time to consider a more strategic response to assure the long-term health of your business.

Here are three strategies that companies should consider as we move towards the post Covid world:

• Accelerate Your Ability to Pivot.  The key to the discovery of new opportunities is to focus on how you create value.  Doing so will help you sharpen your message and leverage your advantages.  How does your product or service benefit your customer?  The benefits may be functional (a better mousetrap); or emotional (not worrying about the mice).  Honing in on your value will help you pivot and accelerate your ability to discover new opportunities.

• Improve Your Reaction Time.  As the business environment changes more rapidly, you need to improve your reaction time.  One way to do this is to improve the quality of your data and increase the frequency of your analysis.  Make sure that you are collected the right data – information that will provide real insight into key metrics.  Next, report that data in a consistent fashion that enables you to identify deviations and trends.  Finally, review these reports more regularly – that will help you spot the trends sooner and respond more quickly.

• Share Risk to Increase Reward.  The quickest way to do this is to exploit your relationships with others who are already in your business ecosystem.  It’s easy to imagine ways to partner with your customers or vendors – simply adjusting quantities or deliveries can be a simple solution to help increase margins and profits.  More complex, but potentially more rewarding, is the prospect of cooperating with peers or even competitors.  Whether it is a simple change or complicated partnership, leveraging your relationships will enable you to enhance returns without the need to compound risk.

For help implementing these strategies or for more insight into how you can move your business forward, give us a call or drop an email. 

Marc Alterman is the principal of MA33 Strategies, LLC, a consultancy dedicated to providing strategic planning and general business advice to entrepreneurs and executives.  For help with your company’s overall strategic direction or other management challenges, contact Marc Alterman at [email protected].