Necessity and Invention
How Covid-19 has shown that SMEs could provide answers to society’s big challenges
It has been a pretty wild two months. Faced with an acute global health crisis nations, economies and communities have responded at previously unimaginable speeds to protect people from Covid-19.
In particular we’ve been watching the economy adapt to a low touch, digital first, socially distant, homebound world. A crisis like this changes the rules of the game, creates new constraints to which we’ve all had to adapt to. Small and medium size businesses (SMEs) have faced huge challenges from tightening cash flows to employee sickness/furloughing, changing customer priorities and behaviour to supply chain issues.
At Impactful, our mission is to activate SMEs for positive social and environmental change. It’s been hard to know if, given the immediate struggle for financial survival, businesses would have any interest or curiosity in thinking about their wider impact. So, we’ve been waiting and observing, listening to stories of how businesses and entrepreneurs have responded and distilling the trends that have emerged.
What we’ve seen, has filled us with so much hope. SMEs have innovated in so many ways to survive, thrive and contribute to all the efforts to respond to Covid-19. The beauty of a small business is that it can adapt quickly, is often deeply connected with its customers/community and has a connected team that above all wants to solve a problem.
Dozens of businesses have stepped up across the UK to make all manner of PPE for key workers including masks, gowns, visors and more. Companies like Displaymode, who previously made retail displays, are now making 10,000 face shields a day and fashion designers are collaborating to make NHS scrubs.
Alcohol producers across the country, including Brewdog, Psychopomp & 58 Gin have all been producing and donating hand sanitiser after shortages nationally especially within the health and social care sectors.
Businesses are offering ways to give back to our key workers in inventive ways. Bloom & Wild online florists offer discounts to frontline workers, restaurants have been fundraising and donating meals, 1Rebel Gyms have offered their gyms to the NHS and countless businesses have special deals for NHS workers.
As well as directly responding to the covid response, many small businesses have led the way in pivoting how they deliver their goods and services to continue to provide value to their customers, in some cases creating completely new offerings.
We’ve seen rapid business model shifts to delivery, online and low touch models to continue to provide their goods/services. Many businesses have offered generous discounts, free offers and support acknowledging that people are struggling and may not have the resources right now. Independent book stores across London have started delivering for free during isolation, restaurants are creating grocery boxes & meal kits directly delivered to your door, the creative industry are entertaining us online with virtual comedy clubs & theatre live streams, raising money for charity as they go.
The crisis has shown that many businesses are willing and able to respond to an immediate social challenge and innovate to remain financially sustainable whilst also increasing their social impact. What would society look like if some of these temporary changes became more permanent? If more businesses considered a wider range of stakeholders when thinking about their business strategy in the medium to long term? Covid-19 may be the one of the biggest challenges of the last century, but there were many, many social and environmental concerns before the pandemic and there will be many after. As a global society we’ve got 10 years to make meaningful progress towards the ambitious UN Sustainability Goals as well as our collective commitment to the Paris Agreement to mitigate the devastating impact of climate change. There is an opportunity here for small businesses to reimagine their place in society, defining their purpose and choosing to build a brand of service, working to create a better future for themselves, people and the planet.
If you’re curious about how your organisation could increase its social and environmental impact but you’re not sure where to start, we’d love to talk to you and understand the key challenges you and your business are facing. If we can help you, we will. Sign up to our newsletter here or drop us a note at hello@impactful.world.
