As a result of COVID-19, in the business environment we are facing countless conditions that we must know how to face in order to seek to leave the least affected in the economic, social and personal sphere. Once we have accepted this new reality and have understood the initial survival strategy that we must face to abide by uncertainty, we must then use modern business tools to be able to land the necessary business strategies to get ahead.
The first thing that we have to be clear about is that we must seek to take advantage of the situation and act immediately, and according to multiple readings and approaches from large consultancies such as Accenture, Boston Consulting Group and Deloitte, I summarize four essential tools for four business strategies:
The first is the “Analysis of the current situation and our company”, this is to make a general diagnosis of our business and our environment. The most appropriate tool is a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analyzing the internal origins (Strengths and Weaknesses) against the external industry to which I belong, seeking to turn threats into opportunities through strategic reorientation and developing skills and competencies. in our company to turn weaknesses into strengths.
The second is “Search for new business opportunities”, suggesting for this the Blue Oceans tool, a theory created by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne in 2004, whose objective is to achieve new markets and business opportunities (blue oceans) before continue to insist on destructive competition from already exploited scenarios (red oceans). To do this, you must have an innovative and differentiating idea, a creative entrepreneurship model and an impeccable execution strategy.
The third is “Development of new value proposals”, which unlike the previous point that seeks innovative business ideas, the value proposals are focused on understanding and providing solutions to the real and current needs of customers, involving us in the creative process of the proposal itself. The suggested tool is Design Thinking, which is a widely used methodology for the design and development of products, and which considers in its model the desire of the end user, the economic viability of the value proposition and the technological feasibility for produce it.
The fourth is “Flexibility in our company” that will allow us to implement new business opportunities and new value proposals in our company. For this, we suggest the Lean Startup tool, which allows you to adequately address the launch of business ideas and products by recreating the experience of what it would be like to start a company, from the generation of the idea, the validation of the hypotheses and the prioritization of the tasks to be carried out.
Market volatility, changes in social consumption habits and the global economic crisis must force us to get out of our comfort zone, which is no longer safe and we can no longer control it; and instead of falling into panic, distrust and excuses, we must try to be informed and prepared to acquire new business tools to face the situation in the best possible way. If not now when?
Eng. Hector Sotomayor, M.A. advisor specialized in investment and advertising projects, as well as a professor at the Tec de Monterrey in the Department of Engineering and Sciences. Email: hsotomayor@digitocreativo.com.mx