Reincarnate

I noticed these glaring recovery or attempted recovery pattern during this Covid -19 pandemic. I am writing purely based on our portfolio of companies. I was compelled to write this article so that I do not forget the lessons learnt by my clients during this pandemic.

 As a CEO or a senior partner, one of the main areas of interest, besides providing professional services is to drive new revenue. There is a constant need for them to enhance growth or to build or bridge new revenue streams. As a strategist I observed the following:

Companies that have always used market based strategy to emulate company policies and strategy based on the trends and the nature of the industry’s environment have remained consistently on the top tier. These companies constantly identify and select competitive dimensions and promote the management to meet the right fit.

In my observation, companies that struggled most during the pandemic were those who practiced resource based strategy. Companies practicing resource based strategy had to reinvent themselves, as resource based strategy was very often related to politics, policies and government regulations. It was also related to production of raw material, logistics, currency fluctuations together with many other permutations and computations most of which were severely impacted during the pandemic.

Whereby companies that followed market based strategy found it easier to reinvent themselves in the current market overnight. They are used to addressing the sensitivity from the market point of view in order to deliver the desired results for the both clients and themselves. Market based strategies are time consuming. It is not one that can be implemented over night. However once implemented it is a very easy strategy to manoeuvre in any climate.

To offer solutions for our clients was challenging. The companies who previously followed resource based strategy found it difficult to change the mindset of their employees during this pandemic.

It was a challenge to activate virtual offices on the onset of movement control and an equal challenge to deactivate these virtual offices when the movement control was eased. To overcome this we dismantled entire teams, we formed new teams and directed these new teams, concurrent to un training the older team and pushing all teams from entry level sales to pursuing mid-range growth.

Our aim was to change strategy without incurring further losses and we achieved it. In fact when the new team penetrated the mid – range market there was growth. This strategy also allowed us to achieve new presence in the mid-range market.

We went on to push our clients to pursue associated services growth.This is the process of improving some measure of an enterprise's success. Service growth can be achieved either by boosting the top line or revenue of the business with greater after sales service or by increasing the bottom line or profitability of the operation by minimising costs. When after sales portfolio is looked after you will find that a company is able to stand the test of time and market uncertainty, no matter what turn businesses took.

When industries reopened as the lockdown eased, we found tremendous market stagnentation. While the market was recovering, we advised our clients to focus on its current market share. Slowly as the movement control started relaxing and when the markets was opening up and moving, we started employing strategies to induce subtle traction. Though, this option was risky it was a sure way to increase the gap between its competitors.

We played a game with the risk of possibility to offer products at minimal rates, which could potentially allow them to gain a competitive advantage against their rivals. We also introduced an expansion of the services group which was based on customer needs. We structured partnering with third-party providers while also bulking up on its own services in order to provide customers with more competitive broad services offerings. 

We also urged them to consider its entry in new markets with its current products which have been left untapped. Being the first to enter these markets would allow for dominance. We studied the trends and nature of the new markets in minute detail to gain complete advantage and increase its market share segment.

 We managed to form a hybrid of market based strategy and resource based strategy by using some of their old resources while considering a wide range of options. Here we planed and design new collaborated strategies in accordance to its resources.

Then we briefed our human resource departments on the need to harness their employees as a growth strategy.  We recognise that employees represent the greatest untapped or under-leveraged strategic resource. Today employees are your currency to current accounts. If this is accepted there will be automated renewal on account development.

 We also reviewed the area of skills underutilisation. For the service industry we found that skill underutilisation was greater among the professionals services industry as compared to the than nonprofessional service industry and that the positive relationship between skill underutilisation and collective turnover is stronger for professionals than for nonprofessionals. Again we applied the same traction technique to ensure that skills were properly harnessed as highly skilled and intrinsically motivated professionals, who generate value for the firm is an asset and needed fertilisation.

We then moved on, scrutinised the under utilisation of the particular companies services. When we sat down for direction, reports showed that for professional service industries there is at least 65% of services not used by either new or existing clients. Take for example in the healthcare industry. While the main focus is treatments, hospitals also generate revenue from, use of medical equipment for diagnosis like the MRI machines, selling of medications, room rates, F&B etc. In many ways today owning a private hospital is more lucrative than investing in hotels as in hotels you only generate revenue from room rates and F&B. So today If for example today  you run a law firm while legal advise is your main product, there are “subsidiary products”  that should be generated, created or extended.

Last but not least we used technology to gain a new position in the marketplace. Most of our clients often think of software as a management tool. What is important to know today is that there are alternative management tools. For example, cloud-based platforms have become game-changers in building solid foundations with clients. It improved, tighten  and reposition client relationships.

Using cloud based platform’s allowed my clients to host services from remote locations that could be easily accessed via internet.  For example today architects are able to use cloud based platforms to render in actual site photos and create an alternate decision-making process. Cloud base platform’s allows for combined visual comparisons whilst taking into account construction and maintenance costing with relevant reviews on a side-by-side basis. Adapting this technology enables the

firm to expand its design services into a different dimension.

While all of the above strategies utilised did indeed keep our companies afloat the lesson learnt from the pandemic is to always be adaptable to change. Wether it is a change within the company, outside or extenuating factors inducing a critical moment, the need to always be ready to change - reincarnate should always be there. Building a resilient company is crucial but what makes a resilient company is the ability to change at any given time. People or companies who resist change almost always never grow.