COVID-19 has proven challenging for almost every business in the market. But it’s also an opportunity to look at the underlying structure of the business
The COVID-19 pandemic is presenting businesses around the world with both challenges and opportunities. For some, the focus is on how to salvage a working business in a post-pandemic world, while for others it’s presenting opportunities to grow their market share.
Whichever position your own business is in, Ken Brophy, Director at K3 Consulting, believes that the current situation presents companies with an opportunity to get the right underlying structure in place to secure future success.
Given that structures are intimately tied to the people who work within them, Brophy believes that HR leaders have a significant role to play in this process and should be actively striving for structural improvement as a day-to-day part of their role.
“It’s still going to be a while before things are back to “normal”, and it’s entirely possible that things will be permanently changed as a result of this pandemic,” says Brophy.
As such, it makes sense to ensure you have the right plans in place and that everyone in your organisation understands what you want to achieve and where the future focuses should be. Structure doesn’t create the capability to do the work you need to do in and of itself, explains Brophy. But it will have a direct effect – negative or positive – on the ability of the organisation to rise to the task.
“For example, if your strategy is heavily focused on delivering exceptional customer service – but the current experience for the customer is less than exceptional – that could be a sign that you’ve stripped out the wrong roles,” says Brophy.
“By doing that, you’ve likely also removed organisational knowledge of key processes and eroded trust within the wider company culture. It doesn’t take much science to predict that this won’t be good news for your profitability either.”
Of course, redesigning a company’s structure is a significant undertaking. Without a proper plan in place, a bad restructure can hurt even more than the original inadequate structure. Having a clear strategy ahead of time is crucial, notes Brophy.
“Strategy should dictate structure,” says Brophy. “You need to look at what your goals are as an organisation, identify the activities that will drive future differentiation and then build the roles and structure of the company around that work. Too many companies do it the other way around, and it’s not sustainable long-term.”
Irrespective of whether your company is in growth or save mode, Brophy believes outlining a clear strategy makes it easy to identify what activities to focus on, what resources you’ll need and where you’ll need to allocate them to ensure success with a new structure. Being clear about your proposition makes it easier to ensure you respond wisely throughout the course of trade-off conversations; you can change your business while still creating the right experience for customers.
“Part of that process is empowering the organisation from the bottom up,” Brophy notes. “People at every level need to be equipped for decision-making relevant to their role. If you want to change results, you need to be willing to change more than just structure and reporting relationships.”
Brophy is also clear that copying a competitor’s structure is a bad idea.
“Even though you might be in the same industry, every business has its own unique challenges, pressures and flaws,” says Brophy. “As HR professionals, you want to look at what you can do better than them, and where you get the best value from that, rather than replicating the same issues that they have.”