There is no ‘COVID handbook’

CEOs and decision makers across the globe are doing what they think is best with no historical guidance or template to follow.

Rimini Street executive Emmanuelle Hose. Source: Supplied.

The COVID-19 pandemic is attacking our health and crippling the economy. Almost no sector is immune from seeing a negative impact to operations in some way, and as the pandemic continues to spread, the strategies developed by governments to counteract and mitigate the threat are constantly evolving.

Businesses are understandably cautious. They don’t know what tomorrow will hold because, frankly, no one knows. The virus plays by its own rules and we all have to adapt to new information on what seems to be an hourly basis. There’s no handbook to guide us through this; CEOs and decision makers across the globe are doing what they think is best with no historical guidance or template to follow.

We’re in touch with clients and prospects regularly, and the responses are clear about what their strategies and priorities are at the moment. What’s apparent is that many decision makers have already, or are looking at, how they manage their business through the crisis in progressive stages – and those stages are very similar across organisations of all sizes and sectors.

Keeping staff

Many of the CEOs and CIOs we deal with have a clear number one priority: save jobs where they can. Even at a time when many businesses have seen a marked drop in revenue, this first priority is clear.

You may look at this cynically with unemployment in Australia set to see a sharp increase due to the pandemic. But with a deeper look you’ll begin to understand that, indeed, saving jobs should be a priority and it is for many organisations across the country. A business losing staff during a downturn means it is losing people who have been ideal for the role – and helped it succeed – and leaving with them is the relationships built up with other team members and customers over many years. There is also a technical level of expertise built up over time and adapted to the specific quirks and intricacies of each customer’s unique requirements that isn’t so easily replaced with a new round of hires.

Decision makers, from government to businesses of all sizes, want as soft a landing as possible following the cessation of these turbulent times. Keeping people they can rely on when that moment comes will be vital to recovery. Many companies, sadly, will likely be unable to do this – but it won’t be through a lack of trying.

Adapting processes

Keeping staff employed is one thing; keeping them working is another thing entirely. As businesses adapt to remote work, many are building up their capabilities from scratch. Simple things some organisations take for granted are new to others: VPN access and remote desktops; conference dial-in options and moving pertinent files and applications as quickly as possible to the cloud are just a few of the technical capabilities many businesses are now implementing.

Further, remote work relies on the capability of the underlying network; some workers may be blessed with NBN, but others may be in the queue and still relying on 4G hot spots or ADSL2+. Slower networks need to be considered and processes amended to suit less-than-ideal conditions. It means support for staff – not just emotional but also technical – is paramount.

Rationalising around the edges

Of the organisations we have spoken to amid this crisis, many have told us that once they look after their staff, they will look to lower their baseline costs to ease pressure on their bottom line, particularly if the crisis is prolonged.

Once the reality of the “new normal” sets in and the Federal Government’s raft of stimulus packages are assessed, routines will begin to take shape and decision makers – which will remain under pressure to keep staff and maintain income – will begin to look at their IT applications and technologies and their underlying costs to see where they can lower them while maintaining efficiency. This could come in the form of reducing maintenance costs for software platforms, or the deferment of major IT upgrades. Some may even cancel major projects such as digital transformation initiatives completely.

What is apparent for most companies is that innovation, for the immediate future, will be replaced by a mandate to cut unnecessary costs.

Preparing for the other side

A major economic priority for governments around the world, forced into extraordinary lockdown measures and other tactics to “flatten the curve”, is to provide the economy with a soft landing on the other side. Decision makers, too, are looking at enabling a soft landing for their business.

Part of that will include having the staff in place to ensure business can resume akin to something resembling usual. Another is ensuring that returning to the workplace is safe and the processes effective once again.

But while businesses will return, how much business they are able to return to is another question. Industries have been seemingly decimated, such as retail and hospitality. Building up new relationships will be paramount, and the customer base or interest may have changed dramatically.

It could be some time before the new normal becomes a memory, so the rationalisation process around IT systems and upgrades is likely to stay in the short term as businesses remain somewhat cautious with non-essential spending. One outcome of this crisis will likely be an ongoing prioritisation of projects that drive business value and a closer assessment of IT updates without business value and ROI.

But in the end, decision makers are hopefully prioritising staff and keeping people employed. Many see having a full house – or as close to it as possible – as vital to having a chance of returning to normal. After all, a company is only as good as the company you keep, and it is people that will allow a business to land softly on the other side and, ultimately, bounce back.

Emmanuelle Hose is ANZ Regional GM, Rimini Street