As the COVID-19 is still spreading across the world, the immediate impact is astonishing.
Never had we ever imagined a world where everything simply slowed to a minimum, in some cases grounded to a halt, entire cities and regions quarantined, people not even allowed to set a foot outside their home, hundreds of thousands of infected, tens of thousands deaths, panic buying resulting in stores running out of essential items, and so on.
And these are only few aspects this pandemic has brought to the people’s daily lives. If this devastating psychological impact is not enough, more turbulent times lie ahead once the crisis is over.
But what is the expected impact on the businesses and global economy?
When the situation stabilizes and look back at the impact on the global economy, we will then realize how ruthless this pandemic was and the legacy it left behind.
We will be left with the majority of businesses operating at minimum levels, many layoffs, high unemployment rate, weakened markets across the world, governmental institutions injecting helicopter money in hope of stabilizing the markets, housing market tumbling, inflation rate increasing, potential shortage of essential items resulting in potential unrest around the world and so on.
Sound hypothetical? Welcome to the tomorrow’s world of unknown.
Pandemics come and go. People, companies, and industries across the world will adjust to the bitter reality, investigate their shortcomings and failures, apply lessons learned in order to better prepared for the next happenings.
And our industry, IFM, is no exemption.
Only after deciphering the unfolded tragedy, we can than slowly build up on our weakness. IFM & FM service alongside the healthcare sector, are the prima face of this disaster and the ones who rushed to the rescue of the people and companies in need. Disinfection services are having a positive impact on fighting the pandemic and keep some business functioning at full or partial mode. Nevertheless, the matter of truth is that even the FM service providers were not fully aware of the wrath this epidemic brought within. As with all others, we were simply caught off-guard. Suddenly, as a result of huge demand from many, whether people or businesses, we were faced in some cases with shortage of essential materials like masks.
Adding this into broader perspective, some FM companies didn’t have enough resources whether manpower or materials to cope with this situation. It showed that we were not immune to such situation. It also shoved the complex web of integrated supply chain across the world and consequences associated with, courtesy of globalization.
The picture of tomorrow
The general picture emerging is a world where trillions of dollars are being pumped into the global economy, many businesses winding up and others heavily indebted, mass layoffs, very uncertain time ahead, etc.
Most of the business’ survivors can barely breathe and walk. They are disorientated and screaming for help, painfully watching their sandy castle crumbling under their feet and realizing the inconvenient truth of tomorrow’s world.
A world where
o No matter how hard you try, your forecasts can be meaningless and don’t matter that much anymore.
o Your ability to sustain business continuity is put into a breaking point limit.
o Your ability to penetrate markets is subject to many internal and external factors.
o A world where the word “Change” is going to be the Mr. Normal.
o Inability to change fast simply means a guaranteed and painful decline.
o More than ever, creativity and ability to adjust is the key to businesses survival.
o Inability to focus on core business means a guaranteed failure.
o Inability to shift non-core business to the partners means a certain failure.
o Strategic choice on attracting and retaining the right talent, not just talent, means better future.
o Ability to be the one, and not just” one of others” is critical to the survival
o The old mindset of doing what is in your best interest, rather than doing what is in our best interests, means more harm than good.
o Everything which was taken for granted is not there anymore.
o Globalization, which was a norm in this modern world is not going to be the same.
o Inability to have a big picture and work with others mindset is a recipe for disaster.
o And so on.
You can run on your own, but rest assured that you can’t hide or escape the turbulent times hovering around you.
Where will this new world lead businesses?
Fortunately, many businesses will learn and adopt to this unfortunate situation. They will realize that.
o Core focused business is the golden rule for a guaranteed success.
o Size is not everything.
o Businesses with very strong focus on their core business will lead tomorrow’s world.
o Having trusted partners taking care of non-core business is critical to the overall success.
o The motto “Simple is beautiful” is the most important motto in the 21st century.
What can the IFM companies do to help partners more
Throughout experiences with clients across many fields and industries, our emphasize has always been to make them understand and focus on their core businesses. It has been a bumpy road until now, but with the situation we have just witnessed, we hope that common long-term ground will emerge. One of the key takeaways from this pandemic is that although there were few companies unscathed from this crisis, no one is immune. For a vast majority of them, the debt level has been certainly increased, while revenue has grown to a halt. They are looking into ways of drastic cost cutting measures, potential layoffs, new revenue streams, dealing with new regulations and requirements, re-drafting their strategies, etc. At the same time, they would certainly make sure that all the above happen without any quality decrease in their product or services and without compromising rules and regulations.
This is where the IFM service providers can step in and cross work with each other. IFM model is the way to answer the client’s call and help them by taking over their non-core functions. Thus, resulting in cost relief in terms of savings, guaranteed quality, potential resource transfer on case by case study, potential cross-selling, potential exploration of new opportunities, etc. It will also help alleviate the fact that that we will not look at each other just as a buyer and supplier to put it simply. Rather, we will look at each other through different angle. An angle of equal partners eager to share other’s concerns and building a common long-term strategy for better tomorrow.
What has this crisis taught us?
It doesn’t matter how big or small, what industry or field, location, etc. We are living in a “Global Village”, in an interconnected world where any happening somewhere, will certainly lead to consequences everywhere else.
It is a chain reaction and “United” is the only way to withstand, minimize the impact and have a chance to survive in these uncertain times.
“Building a new future without forgetting the past” motto has been true in the past; it is today, and it will be even more tomorrow.
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