Business Strategy: Change to Operate Effectively in the VUCA Era
In times of upheaval, even the best, most well-thought-out plans sometimes have to be shelved for reasons beyond your control. One of the most important characteristics that any business needs to have at this stage is flexibility. With the flexibility and willingness to refine your original business plan and strategy in the best direction, your business can better withstand difficult situations.
If your business is struggling with market uncertainty, we will offer ways to increase flexibility for plans, projects, and strategies to get you through this period.
Business strategy: Accept changes or delays
If the external factors affecting your business suddenly change, you also need to make changes inside your organization. Especially in cases where you need to tighten your budget and ensure that it is spent in the most profitable sources. Take a look at all your projects and assess what really needs to be prioritized right now, what can be postponed, and what can be eliminated. This is the first and foremost trading strategy that you need to consider.
Encourage all parts of the business to ask questions:
- Is now the best time to do this project?
- Should we tailor our content and delivery to bring the most value to our customers?
- Is our budget in the right place or do we need to change the way we allocate it?
- Can team members get the most out of different projects?
- What priorities should be taken?
- If your business is experiencing a high churn rate (when a customer decides to stop using a service or end a contract) or lower profitability, you need to reevaluate your goals during periods of prosperity or at least adjust your expectations.
Identify where you can bring the most value
After you’ve re-evaluated the projects your business is working on, it’s time to review your to-do list.
Ask yourself: Where can I deliver the most value in an hour, a day, a week, or a month?
Even if you can’t predict the upcoming situation, you can still think of the best business strategy to spend your time on. Make sure your work schedule fits in with important tasks instead of being busy with other tasks.
Encourage different ways of working
Building a resilient and resilient business requires a willingness to do things that are different from what you did before. You’ll need to adopt new ways of working instead of insisting “this is how we’ve always done things.”
This can include adapting to different working styles, such as remote work – which is now a necessity for many businesses. To help your team adapt to remote work, think about policies that people can adopt to encourage focus, better health, and productivity.
You can use these trading strategies:
- Use friendly apps for video calls
- Adopt tools for company-wide communication (e.g. Slack, Trello)
- Schedule online meetings to discuss and share information
- Encourage team members to take care of their mental and physical health
Taking advantage of time to strengthen internal resources is an essential business strategy
At this stage, your business is usually less busy with potential clients and new projects. However, this is a good time to focus on strengthening the foundation; Leave yourself in the best position when things start to pick up again.
Consider important issues that are often overlooked, such as improving management processes or adopting automated workflows that make teamwork more effective. You can also use this time to review your technology applications and identify weaknesses and areas for improvement. This is not just a temporary trading strategy, but you must regularly test, monitor and improve continuously.
Some questions to improve this section include:
- What apps are we paying for that don’t add value?
- Is it possible to replace some apps with free tools?
- Do we have any tools with the same functionality?
- Is there a way to integrate data between applications to increase productivity?
Facing periods of upheaval is challenging for any business. However, flexibility and high resilience are factors that help you and your teammates weather the storm. At Metta, we understand the difficulties and are ready to accompany businesses in business strategy and execution management activities. Contact phung.metta@metta.com.vn for a free consultation today.
Source: Hubspot
Metta Marketing
Leading Brand Strategy Consultant
