Pandemic to Plandemic

All of us in 2020 found ourselves going through many unprecedented situations due to the occurrence of the novel virus Covid -19. Many lost their jobs or faced massive financial hits. On the flip side, many made a big and bold fortune and become the new normal leaders. In this article, I am not going to discuss whether what happened was part of a conspiracy theory or not, but I will talk about the main lessons that we should’ve learned in order to mitigate the risk of any future planned or unplanned crises, instead we should make such situations be in our advantage to reach our goals regardless to what is happening in our surroundings.

Personally, 2020 was a year of clarity for me, since I found more time to rediscover myself and find my own passion. I spent most of the pandemic days in the UK in a lovely town called Royal Leamington Spa, so I was so fortunate to have many long walks near Leam River and around many parks, greeneries and nature. During my walks, I left my thoughts to fly in a world of limitless imaginations and according to Albert Einstein “Imagination is More Important than Knowledge”. So, during that time I was imagining myself starting my dream company which is going to be specialized in every gaming setup gadgets to bring happiness and confront to all gamers around the globe with a clear vision message “Haven in Every Gaming Room”. My process started by breaking down these imaginations into written plans and sub plans. After many hours of imagination, education and planning, I felt that I was able to take the first step and establish my first web store that is growing every single day and I called it Setup Master Store.

Now, we can look back to others who succeeded in doubling or tripling their income during the unusual time to figure out how they turned their Pandemic into a Plandemic:

1. Cash is King

The most obvious role in business is “Cash is King” or “Cash is the Oxygen”. A tremendous number of small and medium-sized businesses run out of cash within the first few weeks of the lockdown because they were unable to pay their bills and commitments. This brings to our minds how critical to have a proper financial plan and a contingency account to survive in uncertain outcome situations.

2. Break down to Break Through

Always come to my mind a quote by President Donald J. Trump “There is nothing we cannot do to task too great no dream too large no goal beyond our reach”, so the first step if we confront any challenge is to have trust in God that he will support us to rise above any circumstances followed by self-belief and the most aspect of it is self-talk. You have to tell yourself that you are great and you have to believe it. Then specify the problem that you are facing and write it down and follow Prince2 Change Process as (figure 2.1) and that would give you the insight to specify the wanted solution.

Figure ‎2‑1 Prince2 Change Process

After opting for one solution, you have to break it down and my favourite technique is work break down structure (WBS), which definitely will help the team to concentrate their effort to complete every work packages.

3. What’s the Worse that Could Happen

In such conditions, bold and fast decisions need to be made. At the same time, you have to be agile and nimble. For instance, moving from selling in physical stores to online stores decision, need to be made on a fast basis so you can get the biggest market share before the competitors. Ask yourself what the hell do you have to lose and take action and remember to build resilience and come back bigger, better and stronger than ever before.

4. Know Yourself

One of the universal laws: “As within so without, as above so below.” The origin of this law goes back to ancient times. Which means whatever you see in your life is a reflection of your inner thoughts. The lockdowns were mentally challenging for many people, but it was a chance to stop the noise and listen to your inner voice and think about your emotions, relationships, mental wellbeing, healthy habits, and how to increase self-worth because self-care is self-worth. Above all, once you know yourself, weaknesses and insecurities you will be able to understand the perspective of others and what they are going through before being judgmental of their behaviour.

5. Build a Puzzle of Connections

Staying at home campaigns have kept most people so isolated. However, no one can run any business without building connections. During the pandemic, the entire supply chain has been affected in the usual supply chain which starts with the manufacturer, followed by the distributor or wholesalers who deal with the retailers. So, if any of them shut down, the final product availability will be uncertain. For that reason, the importance of building a backup connection and network which provide similar to your products is so crucial. Therefore, try to call and reach as many people as you can.

6. Cut the Loses and Move on

Have you noticed that rockets detached some of their massive parts after seconds of taking off? In fact, when the boosters run out of fuel, they are detached from the rest of the rocket. The same should've happened with many businesses, lockdown happened all of a sudden and as business owners, you should always think to improve and raise your standards because if you don't expand you will shrink. That's why you should be like a rocket through such circumstances in which you have to cut your losses immediately and move on to survive, and that might be in a form of releasing employees, selling assets, replacing current employees with ones with the new required skill sets. Remember always to be fast in learning and nimble to take the corrective actions before.

7. Seek and Seize Opportunities

During the pandemic, many governments have funded small and medium-sized businesses, for instance, the UK government support was so generous that extend to reach many categories like Paying the employees, Paying sick pay, Paying tax, etc. to those who got impacted by the applied restrictions [1]. With that being said, business owners and entrepreneurs might lose their momentum without realizing that the support was a temporary drug to keep businesses alive. Waiting till things get better would cause you to lose the race for competitors who seek to provide value for their customers. having a closer look at Bill Gates for example and how he has grown his fortune with $20bn from March to December 2020. Gates, co-founder of Microsoft the fourth-richest person. Gates’s wealth has increased by about $20bn since March. Over the same period, he has committed billions to the development of coronavirus vaccines and healthcare projects related to the Covid-19 pandemic [2]. And this is a great example of understanding the market need and being so quick in bouncing back and providing value for the consumers.

8. Cut fat and Waste

Definitely, your business supply chain has been affected and changed regardless of your business type. If you are a retailer or a manufacturer your final product is either getting delayed or you have been forced to replace some raw materials which lead to inevitable financial and non-financial ramifications. Having said that, taking a higher view is crucial to identify and eliminate the waste in the journey in striving for perfectionism. Dr James Wamack in his book lean thinking has identified seven types of waste and these are extra inventory, motion, waiting, defects, overproduction, over-processing and defects figure(8-1).

Figure ‎8‑1 Seven Types of Waste

9. Actions over Analysis

When you have a crisis of uncertainty such as the COVID-19 outbreak, in which fear spread at a supersonic speed, business decision-makers fall under paralysis by analysis syndrome which refers to over-analyzing (or over-thinking) a situation, so that a decision or action is never finally taken. During such times the higher the risk the higher the rewards, therefore McKinsey has coined 5 steps to make bold decisions to go big or to go home.

The first step, taking a breath by giving yourself a moment to step back, anticipate, prioritize and communicate to the team. Secondly, involve more people and trump the official hierarchy and encourage different views and debates. This approach can lead to smarter decisions without sacrificing speed. The third is to Make the critical small choices by avoiding tuff choices at the beginning such as marketing a product in a new geography or shutting down a factory instead, But some decisions that seem small or routine at first can have large long-term strategic implications. It's all about the little things, the little things matter !!. After that, set up a nerve centre, That means minimizing distractions. because if a leader is overwhelmed, they are likely to make errors in judgment. Creating a nerve centre can help leaders focus on strategic decisions rather than tactical ones. Finally, Empower leaders with judgment and character, since they stay curious and flexible but can still make the tough calls, even if that makes them unpopular [3].

10. Setups to Maximize Productivity

Millions of employees have been asked to work remotely from their homes and the truth is that many of them struggle to meet the same performance mainly because of the change in the ambience and the working environment. And here is the solution, you have to copy the same working setup as possible. Besides, for your mental well-being try to specify a room for working hours and close it after finishing the working day.

References

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/financial-support-for-businesses-during-coronavirus-covid-19#support-for-businesses-of-any-size

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/dec/19/ten-billionaires-reap-400bn-boost-to-wealth-during-pandemic

[3] https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/decision-making-in-uncertain-times

Author

Abdulrahman Al-Duayji

عبدالرحمن غازي الدعيجي

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