Business
The essential guidelines for succeeding in times of crisis
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
By Brian Klingbeil, CSO at Ensono
The last few years have uprooted the status quo for UK businesses, and, unfortunately, it’s unlikely to be changing anytime soon. In February, it was reported that the UK wasn’t forecasted to bounce back to pre-Covid levels until 2026. The news shocked many, with leaders like Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, reflecting, “It’s extraordinary…Covid has had bigger long-run effects than we thought it would, particularly in terms of things like the labour supply”.
2023 is full of uncertainty for businesses. So, what can leaders do to flip the switch and use this time of crisis as an opportunity for success? Companies like Amazon and Mailchimp serve as prime examples of what can be achieved by embracing uncertainty.
Times of volatility offer immense potential for a company to achieve significant growth that will endure long after the crisis becomes a distant memory. But only if leaders are willing to adapt, double down on their mission, accelerate innovation, and build for the long term.
This is not the first period when businesses have faced a crisis. The 2008 financial crash was a huge disruptor to global business, leading to a loss of more than $2 trillion in global economic growth from the end of 2008 and the start of 2009. Business leaders were faced with a shrinking economy, job cuts, and financial uncertainty as several major banks collapsed and the stock market went into freefall. The companies who did not fall behind in 2008 managed to look beyond simply survival, and adapted to turn a potential problem into an advantage.
LendInvest, for example, was founded in the aftermath of the 2008 crash and used an accessible platform to connect customers to short-term property financing – delivering on its mission of simplifying property finance.
The organisation streamlined its tech solutions based on its core values, focusing on steady and transparent innovation. This perfectly demonstrated to its clients that LendInvest was developing a tech stack around user experience and the brand’s vision of simplicity. In a time of complexity, it was a great way to display stripped-back solutions that were easy to use as a commitment to its users.
It’s important for modern businesses to remember that intricate problems don’t always require complicated solutions. On the contrary, innovation can often be most effective when it involves simplifying services and complex tasks.
When dealing with challenging times, the primary goal isn’t to develop the next big thing. Instead, the key priorities are drilling down into your vision and showing your clients you’re committed to your core principles, being faster and more decisive than the competition, and, ultimately, listening to your clients and taking action from their feedback, be it direct or indirect.
Adopting this mindset enables you to react to times of crisis with a strategy promoting adaptability, simplicity, and commitment to your brand’s long-term goals. The growth and innovation that follows will be born from your core values and enhance your company’s resilience in your consumer’s eyes.
Businesses aren’t just facing instability triggered by global crises but also the human impact of these events. The COVID-19 pandemic began a significant shift in the working behaviour and patterns of employees. Remote work, hybrid models, and “quiet quitting” are all challenges employers must meet within the modern workplace. Retaining top talent is a number one priority for organisations, and it is crucial for innovation to be successful.
The events of recent months have shown the vulnerability of the current job market. The tech industry, in particular, has witnessed mass layoffs, including high-profile departures from Twitter, Meta, and Amazon. In April 2023, Elon Musk confirmed that the company had cut its workforce from 8,000 to 1,500 since October 2022, and Meta is currently in its third wave of layoffs as it looks to reduce its headcount by 10,000 in 2023. Furthermore, Amazon has cut 27,000 jobs this year, which is roughly 8 per cent of the company’s entire corporate workforce. The industry has been left divided on the best way to respond, with some advocating for a return to “hustle culture” and others on a renewed focus on retaining a core group of high-performing individuals, despite the risk of over-burdening employees and compromising productivity.
Navigating the tech talent landscape amidst these diverse and rapidly evolving circumstances is a complex challenge. So, how can organisations cultivate an innovative workforce in a highly competitive and change-prone market?
The answer lies in committing to creating a work environment that is fulfilling to your workforce in multiple ways. Fostering innovation, removing rote, repetitive work, and allowing a certain level of flexibility are key ingredients.
To create this environment, find and fund safe and impactful ways to use AI and hyper-automation, and establish training and hiring practices that can adapt to the evolving nature of working practices. This can have the dual impact of removing repetitive tasks while also fostering innovation and making your top talent feel that they are part of progress and have the freedom and the support to innovate.
Companies also need to use these new tools to develop processes that aren’t as reliant on institutional knowledge, while recognising that automation is there to free up your most creative thinkers.
Many organisations have already identified where they need to innovate. However, moving from concept to practice is another story. As mentioned earlier, the key to innovation and success in challenging times lies not in perfection but in speed and agility. To paraphrase Charles Darwin, it’s not the strongest or the most intelligent that survives, but the one most responsive to change.
Identifying options but failing to implement them is no longer a viable solution. Instead, Gartner has emphasised that “hyper-automation has shifted from an option to a condition of survival.” This is where embracing AI and automation can make a difference as a complement to the human workforce.
That combination is key. Hire and develop skilled employees and invest in tools that empower their success. The final step, which is perhaps the most crucial, is to drill down into the organisational vision and wholeheartedly commit to transforming it into reality.
A financial crisis is a situation where financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value, often leading to a loss of confidence in the financial system.
Innovation in business refers to the process of creating new ideas, products, or methods to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and competitive advantage.
Customer experience encompasses all interactions a customer has with a brand, influencing their perception and satisfaction with the company's products or services.
Economic growth is the increase in the production of goods and services in an economy over a period, typically measured as the percentage increase in real GDP.
A business strategy is a plan that outlines how a company will achieve its goals and objectives, including how it will compete in the market.
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