7 tips to build business resilience

 


 

Is your business resilient? Several years ago, most businesses would have answered yes easily to this. However, there has been so much turbulence in recent years; Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain challenges and an economic crisis to name just a few, that has highlighted business fragility and has left organisations questioning their resilience, or lack of.  

The importance of resilience

The business environment is constantly changing and throwing up new unpredictable challenges. Having a plan in place for different scenarios is essential so that you can overcome them efficiently with as little disruption as possible, and building resilience offers your business a competitive advantage too. 

Challenges businesses face

We have touched on some of the challenges that have been thrown at businesses over recent years. However, when we talk about preparing for unexpected challenges the range is vast. Internal challenges may include a key employee leaving suddenly, a major client not renewing, employee theft, cyber-attacks, a skill shortage within the business or management issues. Environmentally there are also lots of pressures which businesses should prepare for such as economic downturns, natural disasters, government legislation changes or terrorism. A sobering study revealed 40% of businesses don’t reopen after major disruption, and among those that do, 25% will fail within a year. 

Difficulties measuring resilience

Measuring resilience is incredibly tricky, unlike measuring performance which is simple to analyse in terms of sales figures, turnover, and customer feedback. However, resilience can’t truly be measured until a crisis occurs, often by which point it’s too late. You’ll only get a true overview as a crisis occurs and you witness how quickly and smoothly your business bounces back. The key is in the planning and preparing as thoroughly as possible for every possible eventuality.

Tips for building business resilience

Let’s get down to resilience planning. We have compiled our 7 tips to help you build a resilient organisation.

Prepare for the unexpected

When it comes to planning, it’s not a matter of if a crisis will occur, but when. Knowing how you will respond to potential problems is a crucial step in building a resilient business. For example:

  • In the event of a fire or flood – do you have insurance to cover natural disasters?
  • Another global pandemic – would you be able to quickly adapt to remote working within your business?
  • A cyber-attack – are all your files backed up?
  • Economic downturn – do you have a capital backup?

Don’t be afraid to change

“Every success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision and change” Richard Branston.

Only those who welcome change and are brave enough to diversify accordingly will survive and thrive. Whilst it’s important to make smart decisions (and we’ve written plenty of blog posts on the importance of decision making), sometimes it’s vital to make fast decisions to move your business forward and demonstrate strong leadership. Try not to become tied up in “paralysis by analysis” waiting for the perfect decision because when in crisis, decisions need to be made timely and efficiently because the future depends on it.

Consider diversification

We’ve all heard the phrase “to put all your eggs into one basket”, and the exact same applies to your business strategy. To put all your business focus and resource into one area can be a big risk if something changes, and not a resilient move. To build resilience it’s essential to consider to concept of diversification and explore additional revenue streams to provide a buffer for your business.

This could involve examining different product options, having back-ups ready if you encounter supply chain issues with your best seller, looking at ways to diversify in quieter months for seasonal organisations, and investigating new markets. 

Empower your people

Your people are the backbone to your business and critical to your resilience. Trust and empower them whilst equipping them with the tools they need to drive the business forward is essential, and don’t forget to clearly communicate your position, plans and challenges. You may need to look at your company culture and consider whether you have a strong culture – companies with a strong culture have employees who know their purpose and are motivated.

Put robust technology in place

Robust software can protect your business in the same way that the lack of robust software can expose you to all kinds of threats and weaknesses. Having reliable technology in place is essential to helping your business overcome challenges quickly and efficiently. ERP solutions like Opera 3 SE give you real-time visibility and collaboration across all areas of your organisation and highlight trends so you can identify and act upon them early, such as bottle necks in your supply chain, or cash flow difficulties, slower product sales for a particular product or any unusual trends. 

Know your customers

In recent years, advances in online solutions have made it much easier to predict your customer behaviour and monitor your brand’s online presence. Understanding your customers is crucial to building resilience and ensuring your offering what your customers expect, and more importantly, predicting what they may want next. Customers are crucial to a continuous cashflow so you should be using your tools to examine some of the following key areas:

  • Is your customer buying behaviour changing?
  • Do you need to create new channels to reach our customers?
  • Are you offering our customers what they want – right products, good service?
  • Are you getting the customer intelligence needed to answer these questions?

Review your processes

Are your processes still fit for purpose and working for your business? You should make time to regularly review your processes to ensure they are still efficient, because what has worked before may no longer be working now. Good processes will be smooth and efficient rather than time consuming, non-productive, and difficult. In the event of a crisis, you will need robust processes in place which work for your business.

Final thoughts…

To succeed in turbulent business environments, as has been witnessed in recent years, you need to be resilient and have strategies in place to survive unforeseen challenges and risks. Building resilience has become a matter of failure or survival and ensuring your business puts steps in place to become resilient is essential. Preparing for challenges and putting a plan in place for different scenarios is a good place to start, but don’t be afraid to change or adapt if you need to.

For more information about building a resiliency, or to learn how our next generation ERP solution, Opera 3 SE, please get in touch with us today.

 

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