Since 2020, “unprecedented” has become the norm. The pandemic, energy market disruption, swings in interest rates, changes in political leadership and policy and conflicts impacting fuel costs, supply chains and inflation may have been regarded as storms but together represent a climate of uncertainty. Navigating unforeseen shocks to the operating environment has become the new normal.
The understandable response can be to wait for the next budget announcement, change in administration, conflict resolution, stabilisation of interest rates and inflation before making operational and strategic moves.
However, rather than waiting for a change that may not come, laying the foundations for resilience and flexibility can be the basis for thriving so that when opportunity presents itself you are best able to strike.
Laying foundations
Resilience and flexibility can come from having a solid operational architecture in place. For example:
Is the leadership team engaged under up-to-date and compliant contracts or is there an informality that may knock you off course when you need to be focusing on the next unprecedented shock?
Are there clear arrangements in place between owners that address retirement, succession and disagreement or is there a reliance on goodwill and the status quo?
Is the key intellectual property protected or tied to an individual which could hamper growth, investment or a disposal in the future?
Ensuring that there is structure around employment, governance, intellectual property, contracting terms can provide the resilience to cope with the unexpected and the foundations to pursue opportunities when they present themselves.
Consistency
Developing structural resilience does not need to be transformational. It can be developed through consistency: applying processes to review governance, contract terms, management of assets with a regular rhythm so that it becomes a habit not a response. That consistency can mean that when there is an opportunity to secure a transformational project, increase personnel, take on new investment or even sell the business, what is needed has become habitual and does not need to be remedial so you can focus on what’s the most important thing ahead of you.
Where to start
Start with taking stock of the status of current operations. When was the last time that contract terms were reviewed, employment contracts and handbooks were updated, governance was considered? That should signal the sort of assistance you may need and the type of incremental support that would complement the business because the businesses that are best placed to tackle the next unprecedented event are the ones who had their operations in order before they needed to.
