All businesses globally have been severely impacted by the Covid-19 environment which somehow brought about new abnormalities that we must all strive to adapt to if we are to successfully navigate this pandemic and avoid any severe impact to businesses.
It is vital to have a complete understanding of all dynamics that exist within our current ecosystem, as this will be a key driver of resilience among many organisations. Now is the time to rely on our SWOT analysis as a guiding tool to outline our future viabilities, refine our products/ service offerings and most importantly revise our organisational strategies/ policies to fit the current prevailing conditions.

It’s of paramount importance to understand that some of our marketing/sales tools that served us well in the past may not necessarily be applicable in the current business environment and that means by continuing to rely on these tools may cause some repercussions that will impact business growth and sustainability.

It’s critical to redefine our strategies to a new reality, outline key drivers of strategic executions, as such – how do we execute sales now? Is it still through traditional face-to-face customer contact or do we need to implement digital sales enablement tools; cost and benefits analysis of going digital, risks and security mitigations measures to enhance organisational flexibility? How do we accelerate and drive more impactful changes? To both within and outside the organisation that will enhance our competitive capability in the midst of the post-Covid-19 scenario.
It will be documented that the future of many organisations would significantly depend on changes they make today and those that will fail to make any necessary changes may collapse or require additional recapitalisation, if they are to weather the current storm of Covid-19.
Businesses must understand the current and future threats and develop new strategies as well as tactical performance measures that will ignite organisational agility to effectively sustain operations during the post-Covid-19 era. 

As part of WHO’s health and safety protocol, it can be observed that many businesses have significantly reduced their staff workforce on their premises. By allowing employees to work remotely may also impact employees’ productivity, which if not addressed or properly managed may derail organisations to deliver on their mandates. 

Working remotely has now became the new norm for many entities but having more than half of your employees work remotely also presents a number of challenges such as service delays, work overloads, effective time management, communications and lack of accountability.
Currently, there are many excuses of why you don’t get a particular service timely or can be assisted efficiently, apparently because people are working from home. Companies must be careful not to allow this to be a performance culture. 

Workers need to be productive whether at home or in the office, otherwise, many businesses will have a mismatch between production costs versus outputs which may result in significant loss of revenue and customer loyalty. The general service level agreement/production will be compromised (brand reputation) and new business volumes may also be negatively impacted.
While organisations need to make employees’ health and safety a priority, it’s also equally important to make employees’ remote productivity a priority. Productivity measures and controls need to be in place and linked with a recognition and reward mechanism as such, for the best remotely performing department or employees. This will help organisations to consistently deliver on their promises and maintain the standard of service level agreements irrespective of the pandemic. Thus, adapting to the norms effectively and profitably. 

• Peter Haingwedja is a strategist and is a holder of a BA Finance Management and MBA, specialised in strategic leadership and employee performance. These opinions represent his own views and are not necessarily those of his employer or any associate. He can be reached at e-mail: mfongokongo@gmail.com