An eye on the future and innovation essential for COVID lockdown release

It’s been interesting to witness the differing responses of business leaders to the initial shockwave of COVID-19 lockdown.

Have you written off this year already or ...

We’ve seen heroic efforts in the agile response to the divergence of retail, manufacturing, transport and supply chains to react quickly to needs of PPE, Treasury needs and Nightingale infrastructure builds for example. On the flipside we have seen some PR disasters with the needless release of staff and short sighted lockdown of P&Ls with little consideration to finding innovative commercial solutions or consideration of longer term impact on their business – kicking the can down the road.

There’s never been a more important time to continue activity and planning for the release of the lockdown to put you in the best position to mobilise quickly post-lockdown, rather than suffer delayed mobilisation.

Have you written off this year already? Or have you reshaped your business so that:

1. you can continue your business as usual as well as

2. keeping a firm eye on recalibrating your future, whether that’s considering new products, new ways of working or new commercial offerings now and post-lockdown – long term activity should not stop.

Have you reached out up and down the supply chain to work out fiscally the best way to stimulate the whole supply chain as activity resumes. Cash will be rich in some areas and bleak in others. How can the value chain work together to stimulate greatest activity as we progress? In fact the government’s release of £1bn to disruptors, demonstrates the confidence and necessity of innovation. Some businesses were struggling before the Coronavirus hit us and I fully empathise that there was no way out. However, not all UK businesses are trading on a 3-week shoestring reserve of cash and many have the opportunity to strengthen their relationships with clients and their supply chains with commercial innovation.

I have heard of instances where activity or recruitment has stopped because a business can’t on the face of it, afford to continue work. People laid off and furloughed needlessly in some areas. In some circumstances I believe this has been very narrow and linear thinking. Those most guilty of short termism will be slow to mobilise and will be buying twice and with a higher cost in the mid-term. Look for new commercial solutions to ensure that the activity continues. This can be buy-now pay-later, new temporary financial terms, try before you buy, offering free value add, accessing community practices, creating virtual NED or extended critical expert activity.

After the dotcom bubble burst in the early 00’s and the aftermath of the post-2008 recession, innovation at pace was a necessity to trade up and out of turnarounds and tough times. Even reaching out to your competitors for collaborative ideas or support is OK. Certainly for the time being we need to create innovative new norms, some of which will stick as we exit. Industry and commentators will look to those who were innovative, successful, created new products, found new ways and were altruistic in helping to rebuild the economy and society as a whole.