COVID as we all know struck the face of the earth in early 2020. While we did understand that this was a global pandemic at the start, little did we imagine that this is bound to carry on for years to come. None of us would have ever expected the virus to have prolonged for 3 years and still continue to be strong. I am certain that many of the businesses must have thought the COVID challenge would have been dealt with in 2020 itself and we would enter a normal year again from 2021 onwards.
Unfortunately, things have not been the way we expected. Many businesses and economies are suffering. The ripple effects of COVID are faced by people from many parts of the world while the virus itself is in existence and hurting humanity.
Businesses are crippled as predictability of business environments were zero. So, what can we do as businesses during the years to come as the operating contexts are not stable:
Be careful and operate with what you have. COVID has crippled businesses as organisations are unable to freely move to attend to business growth strategies such as attending trade shows, suppliers, customers and so on. At this moment in time, focus on what you have and perfecting it. Example – Tecpacking used the time from 2020 – today to focus completely on its existing machines. We managed to perfect and upgrade the machines during this period to come up with a machine that is capable of producing 100 bags per minute. In the industry, some of the main players took up to 20 years to produce a machine of this efficiency. However, Tecpacking managed to do so in 3 years time.
Work hard and beat around the disease Working harder and smarter is a key factor in todays business environment. Businesses should realize that COVID will not go away soon. That been said,
we should not wait without growing till the disease is eradicated. Businesses should find alternative smarter ways to grow and think out of the box. Tecpacking focused effectively on using the time to train the staff, build more personal connections with our important customers etc. The communication with existing customers enabled Tecpacking to understand some pain points of our customers and this led to improving our machines further to help our valued customers. The team learned to do online training which is a considerably time and cost saving mechanism
Be patient These are advises given by our teachers, parents, grandparents and many more. Being patient during this period enables a sense of peace within and also helps think through innovative ways to get things done.
This opens up many opportunities for new ways of working. Also, moving forward in a stable manner will enable companies to weather through the storm until something good comes up.
Be positive “Positivity shapes the world” and being positive is a good way to see the world. This period is easy for anyone to feel anxious or upset.
However, this world has been through a tough 3 years in a consecutive manner. We have survived these tough years. As we fight through these difficult years, we have made ourselves much stronger. We are resilient to many unlike 3 years back. Working positively and calm help colleagues, partners and customers. Example – when China was controlling COVID well, some Chinese factories got the opportunity to produce face masks which was an urgent need at the time. The production was not sufficient to cater to the market while purchasing them were a difficulty as well. However, we managed to help our colleagues and partners by sending them using express mail such as DHL and FEDEX. These were not sent in bulk amounts, but were sufficient at a time of need.
This is how Tecpacking managed through the last 3 years. Writing this article, I realized that I have gained some valuable experiences. The learnings from the past is invaluable as we have learnt to be resilient to some of the greater shocks we were put under. We may be faced with many unexpected situations in the future as well. However, if we do stay positive, patient and use our skills to the betterment – we are able to get good results.