Anti-Crisis Management: How To Function In Times Of Uncertainty

A pandemic, a war, an economic crisis caused by them—this is the third year in a row that we are facing crises that affect business in one way or another. Obviously, we may face no less serious challenges in the future, and we need to be well prepared for them. And, since 2020, we’ve managed to develop several universal anti-crisis rules that will help your company cope with difficulties and survive the tough times. Let’s take a look at them!

Prepare the company to fight for its place in the market

Companies with spare capacity need to continue building the basic infrastructure for the opportunities that the crisis will bring to the market. After the first stressful measures are taken, analyze the risks and continue to look for projects that can strengthen the company’s economy over the horizon of a few months. Avoid stagnation to attract better talents and more clients when you emerge from the crisis.

Try to keep your team at all costs

Many companies will be forced to cut staff and jobs no matter how the situation develops. The most important thing is to retain expertise during the period of survival. At Default Value, we are committed to “long-term relationships”—with both clients and employees. Carefully plan the support measures for your team that you can afford. Yes, you may have to sacrifice some non-material benefits that delighted you and your employees. But you will be able to save your team. This is a matter of both humanity and reputation.

Don’t leave your clients behind

In addition to focusing on finding new segments, look for ways to do more for your current client. Reorient your employees to get the most out of the inbound flow. Demand will change, but it won’t completely vanish. So reducing your presence in the client’s mind is a strategic mistake. Hundreds of players will make it, as they did in the 2020 crisis. Prepare your employees and improve your service to welcome the traffic your competitors will lose.

Choose an authoritarian management style

The immediate operational priority is to get through the period of uncertainty with minimal losses. That is why employees’ personal development, non-material motivation, and happiness indices will disappear from the agenda for a long time. Authoritarianism will become the only true management style under stress. But don’t forget: you have to stay human.

Highlight specific business processes, the KPIs for which will be on your desk every day. Don’t be slow: test crisis solutions in a short time frame and change processes that no longer work. Get instantaneous reactions from employees—ideally, 24 hours from decision to process change. Allocate time for regular feedback. Make sure employees clearly understand what is expected of them.

How to accelerate positive change

Staying ahead of industry trends is the most powerful lever to impact the economy positively. And one of the most effective steps is working with a portfolio of assets, which generates 40 to 80% of the value of companies and can have a significant impact on revenue growth (“Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick” by Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt). This involves reallocating resources to profitable areas, conducting M&A (mergers and acquisitions) to accelerate positive change, getting rid of non-core assets, and investing in capacity development.

To keep the process moving, proceed as follows:

• Analyze and fix the point you are at, your ambitions, resources, budget.
• Look for sources for development, conduct workshops with the team—it is good if the “healthy conflict” mode is included because the more opinions, the more objective strategic initiatives will be.
• Build a new “dynamic” map of priority steps and activities, which in the current reality is worth revisiting every week, two, once a month, depending on the scale of the business.
• Involve all stakeholders and monitor execution.

We hope these tips will help your business survive any crisis painlessly. Our profile.