Over two years ago, the Coronavirus pandemic swept over the world, devastating the global economy and disrupting businesses. Most organisations did not prepare for a disruption of that magnitude, and many could not thrive under the pressure of the pandemic. So, they shut down their operations. But there are those who could. Businesses that quickly recovered their operations and functions, that thrived despite the impact of the pandemic, leveraging the opportunities it brought and have now managed to adapt to the new normal.
Despite the immense pressure from a global crisis like Covid 19, inflation and geopolitical crisis such as the war between Russia and Ukraine, some businesses continue to keep their performance high, outperform their competitors and achieve their bottom line, while others could not.
What factor separates these businesses that thrived in the face of disruptive change and those that did not?
Change is an ever-present fact in business—whether it is forced on the organisation by external circumstances, in which case, it is reactive or it is initiated by the organisation itself, in which case, it is proactive, change remains a constant in business. There is also the bitter reality of disruptions, which could be triggered by different factors like inflation, cybersecurity attack, pandemic, etc. And whenever these changes and disruptions occur, businesses have to meet them with quick, confident and strategic responses, meeting business demands despite the pressure the change might be putting on them. This ability of a business to protect and grow value in the face of rapidly changing internal and external conditions is known as business resilience.[1] A business is resilient when it can absorb stress, recover critical functionality, and thrive in altered circumstances.[2]
The difference between businesses that failed in the face of change and disruption and those that thrived and excelled is resilience. And business resilience is not just an ability that businesses develop in the middle of a change or disruption. Any business that survives periods of drastic change and thrives in difficult circumstances, has developed resilience ahead.
We live in uncertain times. To survive, organisations need to be able to constantly adapt to the dynamic world of business. To thrive in the face of the constant changes that affect the business landscape, to meet new demands of business, businesses must develop resilience. And one way business can develop resilience is by having a dedicated change management team.
What is change management and how does a dedicated change management team enable business resilience?
Change management is a structured process for planning and implementing new ways of operating within an organisation.[3] It is all the approaches that a business takes when making both short and long-term organisational change.
Having a dedicated change management team enables business resilience in the heat of drastic changes. One way in which a dedicated change management team enables business resilience is that the team ensures that the organisation prepares for change by monitoring and observing economic signals and understanding how they impact business. They then use this information to help the business to make sound and agile decisions.
A dedicated change management team conduct game planning and scenario analysis. The team do this to predict what a coming disruption would be like and how bad it would be, the opportunities and challenges that come with it and whether or not the organisation will need a fundamental shift in strategy to deal with it. [4]
And although scenario analysis might not always be correct as the trajectory of change might be different from what was planned for, thereby rendering many of the strategies developed ahead of a crisis inapplicable in that circumstance, having a dedicated change management team with the right mix of business and functional capabilities still benefits an organisation greatly in times of drastic change, as such a team will be able to respond quickly to emerging challenges. This core change management team formulates new strategies and introduces new infrastructure, tools and processes to restore business functions. The team measures results and adjusts to circumstances in real-time. And this enables business resilience.
Either from external factors or self-initiated, businesses will always go through periods of change. And when change happens, only resilient businesses will thrive. It is, therefore, expedient that businesses should have a dedicated change management team to help them navigate periods of change successfully.
Going through change without the right expertise and team can be daunting for your business. Perform Partners have helped several companies perform through sustainable business change by providing them with skilled and reliable expert teams. Partner with us and let us help you implement a sustainable change.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2021/04/10/developing-business-resilience-4-keys-to-success-in-uncertain-times/?sh=651440046b47
[2] [2] https://hbr.org/2020/07/a-guide-to-building-a-more-resilient-business
[3] https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/principles-of-change-management/
[4] https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk-and-resilience/our-insights/somethings-coming-how-us-companies-can-build-resilience-survive-a-downturn-and-thrive-in-the-next-cycle