Local businesses need to innovate and persevere through Covid-19

Covid-19 is an unprecedented situation for businesses, individuals, organisations and the governments around the world. Businesses never thought about this in the wildest of their imagination, and no one was prepared for this. Majority of the businesses and organisations have assessed the risks present in the market and are taking things on a day-to-day basis. Business managers have faced it, been hit hard by it and know it to be a real and present danger. Despite the governments’ support, many businesses will have to face hard times in the coming years. As for the governments throughout the world, they had no option but to shut their countries -- and the businesses -- with lockdowns.

Covid-19 has brought in a new era, which has changed our way of thinking, our style of doing business, our style of working, our preparedness to deal with lean period, and even the way we look at life now and look at the things which matter the most to humans. I understand that majority of the businesses are impacted, however, this is the time for business manager and owners to think about the new models of doing business, reducing our expenses and creating efficiency in the business processes.

Businesses need to persevere through the Covid-19 times. For this, they will have to reinvent themselves and will have to come up with new sustainable ways of doing business with less resources. They will require even more creativity, innovation and critical thinking to survive and flourish in the times to come. Business managers with foresight have clearly understood the value of building their presence online and seen the need to get comfortable with e-commerce, which will be a big part of business planning in the future.

Mr Paviter Noori

Before the online space gets cluttered, businesses should take a fresh approach and start creating fresh, well thought out business strategies and online selling strategies for their products and services. This is also the time for the businesses to develop their core competencies in house, consider digital media marketing, build their online presence and also seriously build their brand value online. Many businesses can develop their competencies with the help of the business support and funding available from the local governments.

I firmly believe that every adversity brings along the seed of equal opportunity. We just need to be optimistic, ready to learn, prepared to take action, upskill and ready to change with the changing times. Difficult times don’t last but difficult people do. Even though the situation might appear very black and bleak at present, this time shall pass, and I am looking at a very changed world around the corner.

The lesson we can take from the COVID-19 situation is that businesses need to think about sustainability, which cannot be achieved without bringing creativity and innovation into the business practices. Perseverance is the crucial quality now. As a businessman, more than anything else, you need to just persevere through these dark times.

By Paviter Noori

Paviter is an entrepreneur who has considerable experience in business development, branding and marketing with specific focus on digital and social media marketing, training, education management and consulting.