Globally, businesses and enterprises are having to cope with dynamic situations that arise out of complex business scenarios. There is a huge monumental amount if information and data to cope with, a huge challenge in itself. In economies battered by the pandemic and changing work environments, flattened hierarchies, can the old style of management and operating function and cope? StartUps are by nature, forward-looking and ready to adapt. Let us look at a few ways StartUps can survive during the Pandemic:
1. Focus on disrupting the norms:
While running a business, there is a constant flow of information and suggestions from clients, target segments, teams, vendors and other people we interact with. And it can either help or hinder. Since organizations work in hierarchies, there is often a case of working in silos. Moreover if people are sitting at the same place everyday, doing the same things, meeting the same people – no new innovations or ideas will come. Disrupt patterns, try new arrangements and things. Opportunities are lost by constancy and routine habits. Change locations – Peter Drucker calls this “managing by walking around.” Prospective startups can explore options like online LLP formation, online GST registration, outsource accountings and more.
2. Don’t rush your decisions:
As information grows exponentially by the hour, decisions are becoming more complex in today’s 24×7 world. Most importantly, all your decisions, summed up, make or break your success. Hence much more time will be required to interpret, analyse and scope the data to enable the right decision. For this, allot much more time in your calendar to allow more time for making decisions. Slot a time in your schedule just for this task’s closure. You will find that this prevents huge problems later and gives due benefits in a long term perspective.
3. Be Crystal Clear:
In a 24×7 world, many leaders forget about clarity and how a short, simple, focussed and clear brief can help decision-making. Thus there is little, if any – confusion. The doyen of Management, Jack Welch says, “strategy is not a complex action plan. Just the journey of a core, a main idea.” So if you cannot sum up your strategy in a sentence, you possibly don’t have one. Ensure that whittle away all the non-essentials and stay focussed on stating the instructions clearly and briefly.
4. Stay receptive, Open to learning:
A fresh, newly recruited, will have a 1 – dimensional view of the business because of the lack of experience. After learning the ropes, going through a few routines, being involved for more time, he will gain a wider perspective. Having had experience in seeing various operations, he will give a wider perspective, consider the market, customers and other factors as well. Hence for personnel, it is important to stay focussed on learning new things, gain more insights and experience. This experience translates into a better judgement and deeper insight. Progressing into a senior management role itself means having effective leadership through empowerment and developing a much broader, all-inclusive view of the issues at hand.
5. Stay Flexible, be Agile:
Information has very truly been called the new Oil! Information reaches across the world in matter of moments, faster than ever before. The instant flow of information across the world and fast inter-connectivity of global synergies today requires a new skill – for staying competitive, businesses must be ready to change, adjust to new circumstances. This new ability is agility. In business, Agility is a company’s skill to identify and act upon new opportunities before the competition does.
