Future- proofing Business Critical Than Ever
The priority in the new normal will be to create businesses that can withstand unanticipated stress
In
the words of singer Jimmy Dean, “I can't change the direction of wind, but I can adjust my sails to reach my destination.” I cannot agree more with this as my experiences have taught me that there is no alternative to staying the course during challenging times. This means having faith in yourself and backing your people to sail through tough times.
Just like Rome, a business isn’t built in a day. While its success depends on managing your existing resources and making the right decisions at the right time, it also means embracing the unknown and navigating the unchartered waters through agility and constant cost restructuring — simply, being open to evolution. The 25-year
long journey of building McDonald’s in India has been exciting and rewarding. But it has also taught us the value of struggles, the significance of a crisis, and how it compels us to assess efficiency in an organisation.
And yet, despite all the preparations, some situations leave you stumped. Nothing could have prepared us for an unanticipated black swan event like the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout. But as they say, a good crisis is a terrible thing to waste. And at Westlife, we made sure that we turned it into an opportunity — an opportunity to make our business even more robust, empower our people and build new strengths.
We hope the worst is behind us. We have entered the New Year with new rigour, new zest, but not without key learnings from this unprecedented crisis that has paved the way for a completely new world. I think it’s fair to say that 2020 has rendered the traditional ways of working, conducting business and building strategies redundant to a large extent. Here is how I aim to weave in my pandemic learnings into a new paradigm at Westlife.
1. Double down on agility — 2020 has brought forth the volatility of the world we live in like never before. In these exceptionally trying times, our agility became our biggest strength. The fact that we could create a robust framework of survival and revival within a week gave us a strong headstart. Once we had a strategic direction, we were able to execute complex and high-stake projects such as negotiating rents and deploying contactless operations, in a matter of weeks. We also activated our omnichannel strategy that ensured business continuity even in the most challenging times. This played a pivotal role in insulating our business from the shocks of the pandemic. Organisational agility will be a key competitive advantage for companies going forward, one that will set the course for existence and growth. 2. Accelerate digital transformation journey — The pandemic has ushered in an unprecedented change in customer habits, preferences and behaviours. In India, eating out used to be a social occasion, which has now transformed completely, and will continue to evolve in the new normal. It will therefore become extremely critical for companies to have a single view of the customer and the way to enable this is to invest in cutting- edge technology. It has become increasingly apparent that an omni- channel strategy will be paramount for any business to thrive in this new world. So, we will complement our strong retail presence with an equally robust digital presence. This will ensure that our customers are able to access our brand whenever, wherever and however, with an experience that is seamless and consistent across platforms. We will also invest in technologies that help us anticipate