The strain of the COVID-19 pandemic

As an SME business owner, father of two (9 & 12) and son-in-law to, two ‘older adults’, one of which with ‘underlying health issues’, I am preparing to feel the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, as much as the next person.

With the Prime Minister and his cabinet advising against all non essential travel and social gatherings (pubs, restaurants and theatres).

With the UK boarder now on lockdown and public transport working to off peak schedules.

With many businesses postponing non essential face to face meetings and encouraging their employees to work at home, wherever possible, we truly are in unprecedented times.

Search: “GOV.UK-COVID-19: guidance for employees, employers and businesses” for official government advise.

Of course there is little we can do, other than respect the advice from Public Health England and the various experts that know more than you & I.

However it’s almost as important in my view, that we look to minimise the economic impact on UK business, as much as possible.

On the day that my sons secondary school has decided to implement home schooling with less than 24 hours notice, I was initially surprised to receive an email that same evening, from ASOS CEO Nick Beighton, advising,

“our fulfilment team is making effort to ensure deliveries aren’t affected, so you can keep on shopping without having to worry about not receiving your order. We’ll also keep on inspiring and entertaining you with our content”

Especially given the hundreds of workers, that all work within an enclosed space, in close proximity of one and other, at their Barnsley distribution centre.

However, as ‘home working’ is not an option for warehousing & fulfilment staff (as with many other industries) other than ‘shut down’, the likes of ASOS have little choice but to take it day by day, hour by hour, on the advice of Public Health England.

Upon reflection of the position of ASOS, I believe where possible, business should look to try and implement the same mentality, considering staff & customers well-being first and full-most.

Home working is a great example of ‘getting on with it’ and for those that have had the pleasure (or displeasure) of working with me, will know just how distracting it can be, to work amongst others in the office.

We should take this enforced position to rethink the way we work, to embrace remote working, especially given some of the new technologies out there, that help support it.

With the vast majority of us working from cloud based applications, the ‘office’ has now extended to the Costa, the Starbucks or shared space working, the likes of WeWork or Regis (other coffee shops and shared space providers are available).

The commute from the upstairs bathroom, to the downstairs dining room table, will have significantly less CO2 emissions attached.

When I think of the thousands of miles my national teams used to travel, to attend team meetings, or the hundreds of miles I might travel, to go and meet a customer, we have a genuine opportunity to rethink how we do things.

Dare I say it, think of the environmental impact we can influence also, in our new ‘enforced’ way of working?!

Let’s therefore swap the face to face, with video conference meetings.

Let’s save time, money and the environment in unnecessary travel to and from meetings and let’s get business done.

Let’s embrace these otherwise challenging times and get on with business, as best we can.

In the words of Albert  Einstein himself,

“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.”

Rather than hide behind “things are on hold due to the Corona Virus” as an excuse not to do business, how about use this time as the ideal time to review suppliers and company spend.

Without the day to day office distractions, this could be the ideal time, especially given the future financial strain, that this epidemic will bring.

If you get five minutes today, tomorrow or this week, take it to call your highest performing sales person and ask them this simple question..

“How difficult can it be, to source, process and close a profitable, new business opportunity for the business?”

Then ask yourself..

“How difficult is it to review an existing supplier’s service or product, against three other suppliers in the same market space?”

If your supplier is performing to the level that you expect, at the right market price, they’ll have nothing to worry about, right?!

There is more than one way in which you can bring profitability to your business, new business should only form part of that.

So let’s roll our Great British sleeves up, mix with a pinch of modern day working and let’s get business done. COVID-19 will test us no doubt, however we cannot allow it to beat us!

David Drake
Director of RDS (Sussex based, Logistics & Courier Experts)
david@retaildistributionservices.com
www.retaildistributionservices.com