'War room' set up can help firms lead through COVID-19 crisis

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SME Times News Bureau | 08 Apr, 2020
As businesses across the world find themselves in the midst of complex challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, experts suggest that having a robust strategy, including a "war room", set up in which a small dedicated team is empowered to take quick decisions and execute them, may help businesses sail through the crisis.

As the situation is changing every day in every region affected by the pandemic, business leaders should resist from overreacting, said three senior executives associated with the Boston Consulting Group.

Writing for the Harvard Business Review, the authors said that relying only on news reports can sometimes lead to wrong decisions as these reports often rely on current situations and tend to miss the big picture.

Further, business leaders should not be afraid to change their decision if the situation demands so, according to the authors of the article Martin Reeves, Nikolaus Lang, and Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak.

It is important to remember that these are extraordinary times and business leaders may sometimes need to change their decisions.

At the same time, they should be transparent with employees about the situation in their organisation, the response should be balanced across communications, employee needs, travel, remote work, supply chain stabilisation, and business tracking and forecasting.

It is important to have constant updates about the situation and do their own analysis. They should decide for themselves if the forecasts made by experts are actually relevant for their business as well and take decisions after considering all the factors.

While employees work from home, it is important to set clear rules for them for getting maximum productivity.

Having an empowered small group within the organisation may help them cut through delays due to bureaucracy and take quick actions.

Most importantly, business leaders should take this crisis as a learning opportunity for any possible future phases of the crisis or for pandemics that may occur in the years to come.

Over 1.4 million people have been infected by COVID-19, while more than 80,000 have already died.