What You Expect AFTER MCO?
What is the NEW NORMAL you experienced now?
And, what kind of HELP you needed actually?
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Here you go the slide
#1 “Man Man Lai” (慢慢来/Despacito/Slowly)
Recovery takes time and the ripple effects from all the related stakeholders will be felt especially when you want it fast. It takes time for warming up after a total shut-down. “Get yourself through this year and come back stronger in 2021”, seems like a reasonable suggestion.
Just like all the major sporting events in the world right now, 2020 is effectively written off. Start to get used to all odd numbers year now as it will never get even again. Donald Trump might even oddly survive the presidential election scheduled for this year.
In my signature words, “slowly but surely”.
#2 Honest Communication will keep your business alive
Start your talking now, perhaps this is the only thing that you cannot afford to be “Man Man Lai”. The earlier you start, the better you will get the hang of it when things are catching up. We have all the time for each other right now during this MCO.
No need to do anything fancy with video conferencing call all the time although it is trendy thing to do now, a good old fashioned 10 to 15 minutes phone call can easily do the tricks. Just pick up the phone and start, WhatsApp or WeChat in messaging is only useful after the voice call.
#3 Block Thinking is the key
Think Lego! That’s RIGHT! In another word, when you are overwhelmed, just do one block at a time. Remember the good old Malaysian proverbs the “it will soon become a mountain before you know it” (“Lama lama jadi Bukit”).
This is akin to my version of the “lizard theory” that I have shared recently with my team. When the lizard got stuck, the lizard willingly detach its tail for survival. This is a permission to regenerate that we can learned from the nature, rather than keep crying over the spilled beans. In this context, businesses shall think in block when asking for the survival solution. Put the past experience aside and not to dwell into the fault and justification process; and start a new block afresh now with new issues and new solutions.
Rome is not built in a day; and there is a lot of sacrifices in the process.
#4 Engagement for Reinvention
This new normal is the perfect condition for businesses to engage internally for a reinvention of their existing business model based on the resources and network that they have established all along. Engage with your staffs and front liners to see if they are new ways to deliver the business as well as the changing in demands as the new challenges is unfolding now. Engage with your customers and your clients to understand their new challenges and source out new solutions in the process.
Changing your employees’ role from just the wage earners to a stakeholders in your business on a project to project basis is a great reinvention of the old employment model. There will be extra motivation and security in the process rather the usual lack of control and the unsecured feeling of the employees in challenging time like this. In fact, why stop there? Reinvent our business model with your customers and clients, and in fact your suppliers too. Make all of them your stakeholders that thrive on your success and survival. Here’s a tip, your banks are your stakeholders, it is never their intention to see you going down, engage with them; they are not so flexible but there are ways if there is a will…
Quoting Jack Ma, “when you have no enemy, everyone is your free” (“心中无敌、自天下无敌”）
#5 Government Assistance is to keep your business alive to see the recovery
If you want to keep your growth, you must engage in self-help instead of relying on the Governmental assistance. Chart out the resources and map out your opportunities vis a vis these thriving businesses:
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- food
- daily household products
- PPE (Personal Protection Equipments)
- Baby Products
- Online Learning (Education, Skills, Leisure, Health etc)
- Online Entertainment (Gaming, Streaming, Content etc)
For a start, as much as we are losing population in this pandemic, we will potentially gain even more population with record breaking new birth rate expected by the end of the year 2020 because of the prolonged lock down at home. This will be an interesting generation to serve with certainly new business opportunities, if only you know how to capitalise on it.