5 Things to Know Before Making A Decision During Pandemic Time
Everything changed since the COVID-19 pandemic.
People had to change their lifestyles because of the epidemic: from the prevalence of the reservation system, not accepting a direct walk-in, QR code online menu; to the supply chain and supply relationship change. Even as people seem to be getting back to normal, the global supply chain continues to sputter and break down. Each day comes news of choked ports, out-of-place shipping containers, record freight rates, and other problems that cause disruption and defy easy answers.
In October, corporate CEOs in a McKinsey survey for the first time identified supply chain turmoil as the greatest threat to growth for both their companies and their countries’ economies — greater than the pandemic, labor shortages, geopolitical instability, war, and domestic conflict. Even in digital marketing, the products system can not live without a healthy supply chain as well.
Therefore, today we will talk about the five most important issues to consider before developing a strategy from a supply chain perspective.
- Maintain High Business Continuity.
Before the pandemic, cost reduction and productivity enhancement were driving supply chain process improvements, digitization, and investment. Those drivers remain important, but the unprecedented chaos caused by COVID threatened the competitive position — even the survival — of many businesses that found they could no longer meet customer expectations.
Manufacturers are vulnerable.
Bold companies are not waiting for supply lines to untangle themselves — retailers short on storage space are buying warehouses, shippers that can’t find containers are making their own, and companies unable to book with ocean carriers are chartering vessels, while those unhappy with their online sales are buying e-commerce fulfillment operators.
Clorox is one of many companies taking action. It is investing $500 million in upgrading its digital capabilities, citing the need for real-time visibility and better demand planning.
2. Think Your Customer More
If people’s lives change, how can you achieve success by continuing the previous strategy?
Roughly a quarter of Americans (26%) talk about ways their daily lives have improved, in many cases describing a slower pace of life, new hobbies, more time to get things done around the house, or the freedom to simply relax in ways that were not possible in the pre-pandemic era.
Grabbed the opportunity, Peleton developed its live streaming sports platforms to encourage people to work out at home. They were keenly aware of the need for people to keep up with their workouts because they couldn’t get to the gym and launched the product just in time, resulting in a sales surge of 172% as the pandemic bolsters the home fitness industry.
3. Use a Cleanroom to Share Data
In certain industries, the failure of critical links in the supply chain has led to new alliances and co-development ventures between original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers. Alarmed by the shortage of semiconductors, for instance, Ford and General Motors formed strategic agreements with chipmakers.
Reuters report Where’s My Stuff? suggests businesses could share sensitive data with partners by creating “cleanrooms”, where joint teams can perform analysis without fear that competitive information will be leaked. Blockchain technology, which enables secure, access-controlled data exchange, could prove valuable for data sharing.
“With the benefits of increasing collaboration through data sharing and visibility into deeper tiers becoming more obvious, addressing mistrust becomes a key objective and will require concerted and directed efforts. … (O)organizations will need to move closer to their suppliers and build relationships and trust, but they can also use smart approaches to data sharing to make progress,” the report says.
4. Recognize that the impact of the epidemic is far-reaching
Few of the early commentators on COVID-19 disruptions anticipated the magnitude of the latest shock, which has seen eight-fold increases in average container shipping rates, global transit times lengthen by 25% or more, and widespread product shortages at every level in the value chain.
The pandemic is also likely to accelerate the uptake of new technologies such as augmented reality in warehousing operations and 3D printing. The latter has found many new applications over the past two years increasing its influence on supply chains, particularly in the medical equipment sector.
Therefore, it is better to recognize the current situation in time and not skip the epidemic to make decisions after the recovery but to start from the present moment and adjust your strategy according to people and the market changes.
5. Back to Simple Questions.
However, as mentioned above, whether it is a particular time or a long-term normal state, the company’s decision should return to the most straightforward situation — to follow up and adjust according to consumer and market conditions. While it is necessary to make a long-term situation, please do not ignore the impact of unexpected events to consider what the company’s decisions should look like after removing them.
Back to customers’ sides and think from their angle
1. Can I meet customers’ needs at the moment?
2. Will consumers get the goods they have purchased on time?
3. Will consumers wait too long?
4. Whether the supply of goods is sufficient, and if it involves import and export, whether the whole batch of goods will not arrive in time because of problems at the place of production or in the transportation process.
5. Whether the consumer return involves cross-country transportation and whether there will be a refund delay in the middle.
6. Whether the company’s existing business can survive under a pandemic and whether it needs to transform its business scope or cooperate with local enterprises.
7. How to make the company’s business survive during the pandemic, such as launching a work lunch delivery service for restaurants.…
No one likes change, but no one can escape it either. Keeping an eye on the market and consumers at all times, and finding problems to solve in time, will be the key to driving successful decisions.
