IN THE midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, business owners are challenged in areas where they have not yet tested their leadership muscles. We are living through a global health crisis with no modern-day precedent but history dictates that any crisis can be resolved.
Remember the famous line of US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1933 inaugural address in the midst of the great depression: "The only thing we have to fear is ... fear itself." He followed that by pointing to the nation's strengths in meeting the crisis: "This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly."
Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) shows the Philippines booked a record unemployment rate of 17.7 percent in April as at least 7.3 million Filipinos had no jobs aggravated by the longest and strictest Covid-19 lockdowns in the world. Thousands of businesses have shut down and more are planning to regardless of business size and resources. But for some, life must go on, we have to look beyond the crisis.
This explains why some businesses opt to reopen despite the risks. It is as daunting as opening a new venture or even worse mainly because of the uncertainties that lie ahead. One particularly troubling aspect of this pandemic is the open-endedness of it.
How are local businesses coping up?
Majority of business owners who were courageous enough to re-open and test their business transformation plans focused on three key elements: Their EMPLOYEES, OPERATIONS and CUSTOMERS.
For "can't close" retailers like grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores, school and office supply shops and other essential supplies establishments, their main focus is the safety of their employees. Given the virulence of Covid-19 and the difficulties of maintaining and enforcing safety precautions, especially in retail stores with anxious shoppers, reducing the risk to zero is impossible. That said, retail establishments are clear in communicating their standards for sanitizing stores; implement social distancing; make handwashing and wearing of personal protection gears, including a surveillance to identify potential illness in employees mandatory. Businesses also opt for the reduction of employee work hours, work from home setting and skeletal work force to avoid overcrowding. Hoka Brew Restaurant offered a partnership program in May primarily to its employees who were displaced during the lockdown to earn commissions from home by simply directing customers for delivery sales to the establishment.
Hotels and restaurants have transformed their set-up with protective barriers and strategically located signs to keep their guests and customers well-informed. Their employees are well equipped with the proper ways to handle guests and to efficiently Implement the new normal protocol for accommodation establishments mandated by the Local Government Unit (LGU) and the Department of Tourism (DOT). Contactless menus are now being used to reduce the risk of contamination and online health declaration forms via a QR code are being used to facilitate faster and efficient gathering of information for contact tracing if need be.
Northern Luzon Market Associates (NLMAC), an accredited food distributor / wholesaler have set up their online store within one month after the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). The company used to be a B2B (Business to Business) platform, but after the lockdown, they have included B2C (Business to Consumers) services to serve the end consumers directly by using Facebook Business and Shopify as their engine tool.
Despite more leniency in opening up business doors to the public once again, it still proves to be difficult to achieve the same level of profitability to sustain normal business operations and graciously support their loyal employees.
What entrepreneurs need now are imagination and innovation more than ever. The capacity to create, evolve, and exploit mental models of things or situations that don't yet exist -- is the crucial factor in seizing and creating new opportunities, and finding new paths to growth because there will always be room for that. #fileunderbuhayentrepreneur