Building business resilience in 2020 and beyond

Building business resilience in 2020 and beyond

Australia is a tough country, yet the trifecta of bush fires, floods and the ongoing pandemic have left many businesses hanging on by a thread. Some businesses, however, have continued to trade during these extraordinary times, often because they have a foundation of resilience within their companies. 

Whilst challenges are not new to Australian businesses, knowing how to build resilience in your company can often be an illusive goal. It’s easy to talk about building resilience, but what is it and how can you build resilience into your company?  

What is resilience?

Resilience is the ability to recover ground quickly following a significant challenge or disaster. It’s the capacity to rapidly adapt to business disruptions, while continuing to trade. It’s about crisis management and business continuity within your company. However, if you want to build resilience in your business, you need a plan that’s specific to your company.

How can you build resilience in your company?

Designing strategies to overcome challenges will help to build resilience in your company. These strategies, however, will need to be tailored to your exact needs. There are many ways to identify your company’s challenges or risks, whether they are due to economic factors, supply chain failures, civil emergencies, strikes, natural disasters or pandemics.

However, whilst building resilience to specific risks is important, there are also ways to build general resilience in any company, regardless of size or industry. These strategies include introducing transparency within your company, using data to drive your decision-making and investing in technology. 

1. Focusing on transparency within your business: When the hard times hit, employees look to owners and senior management for guidance. If you have built transparency around your company’s core business objectives, your employees will be better able to stay the course during times of stress. They will be less likely to become distracted by what might appear to be priorities, but don’t actually feed into your core business goals. Transparency aids motivation, which keeps your employees on track in times of stress.

2. Using data to drive decision-making: Centralised data, accessible to everyone on your team, helps to promote operational efficiency. That’s because data can be used to fine tune your operations, for example to refine your marketing campaigns, identify best-selling products or services, and pinpoint where your logistics operations need to be improved. Operational decision-making based on real data helps to build resilience into your company, so that when disaster strikes, your company has the right structure to bounce back quickly.

3. Investing in technology: This goes hand in hand with using data to drive your decision-making. That’s because with the right technology you can access real-time data that can lead to better decision-making. Take for example, how a lull in sales in one area might lead to a refocus on new markets or an investment in other growth areas. Technology helps you to find new opportunities that build resilience into your business.

At Insurance Advisernet we acknowledge that many businesses are struggling during the pandemic. We also know, however, that with added resilience, you will come out of these challenging times even stronger. We are looking to the future and are ready to work with you to reduce your risk exposure, so that you can build even more resilience into your company.

To help reduce your business’s risk exposure during these challenging times, talk to an insurance specialist today and find your local adviser.

General Advice Warning

The information provided is to be regarded as general advice. Whilst we may have collected risk information, your personal objectives, needs or financial situations were not taken into account when preparing this information. We recommend that you consider the suitability of this general advice, in respect of your objectives, financial situation and needs before acting on it. You should obtain and consider the relevant product disclosure statement before making any decision to purchase this financial product.

SME Business Insurance

SME Business Insurance

Business Insurance is used by many businesses, but it’s best suited to SME-type operators.

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