As an entrepreneur you always want to find solutions to problems, always focus on the positive and create the best basis for growth. However, this is easier said than done, especially in tough times like these, as well as in companies where the entrepreneurial spirit is not obvious. Instead, many start to panic and shift their focus from growth to savings, which is quite natural and also reasonable if you want to survive. But the key to success is to remain calm and think of what will be there, once you step out on the other side.
Currently, many companies face different challenges, some more than others, but everyone will be affected in one way or another. The CEO's and the management's responsibility is to reconsider the financial situation, and together with the company set a plan for the future. We face a great deal of uncertainty and we don't know how long this will last. However, the only thing we could be certain of is that this will pass and then we need to be ready for growth again! Right now, everyone are sitting in the same trains, but when it's time to change train, we will all want to be the company that has a ticket for the Hyperloop, so that we can recover what we have lost and be the forerunner leading the race.
The actions we do today will change the outcome of tomorrow
1. Do a risk assessment
Look at different scenarios of how the company could handle various situations that may appear, create an overall plan for each of the situations and model the outcomes. Avoid making decisions “by accident”, instead make sure that you can make active decisions that are thoroughly considered. For example; how we decided to implement “Work from home policy”, here you can learn more about what we did and how we implemented that change.
2. Communicate and be transparent
My main challenge as CEO and founder has always been to communicate and get the right message and information out to the entire organization. And yet we are extremely transparent and communicative at GetAccept. In these times it becomes even more clear, uncertainty causes concern and is one of the main reasons for more unsatisfactory delivery and performance. Therefore we have now started with Monday meetings where every employee is present, the presentation that is shown is shared before the meeting and is the basis for what is going to be addressed while each department presents information that is relevant to their particular area, and they present initiatives that we are working on and what results have been achieved.
3. Clarify the objectives and the way forward
All organizations and departments should have specific goals (everyone knows that). However, now these may have to be overlooked or even radically changed. No matter what, it is very important that the goals are explicit and provided to everyone. Talk about them a lot, visualize them on dashboards and in reports and get everyone to feel that they are a part of the company. At GetAccept we work with OKRs, directly linked to our overall business objectives. Each department and individual have connected their objectives and key results to the overall vision and individual and team initiatives are discuss daily.
4. Create conditions for success
As described above, it is also important to get help from the organization as a whole and consider how to create the most favorable situations for achieving success when the company has the opportunity to gear up again. How can you prepare for the upturn, how can you come out as a winner and recover what was previously lost. Get help from the organization, make sure they are aware of the current situation and know where you need to go. I am certain that everyone will do all they can to come out as a winner, by engaging and involving.
To challenge myself, I sat down and thought about how I would have acted as a business leader in a sector that might suffer harder than others. I will get back to you with my thoughts on this in a separate post.
Also read: "5 tips on how to create a remote sales team that rocks"
Samir Smajic | CEO & Founder at GetAccept.
The actions we do today will change the outcome of tomorrow
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GetAccept change and simplifies a seller's processes and allows the digital signing of the agreement to take place on the customer's terms with the seller's control. Read more about our product and how you can streamline your sales processes with sales enablement!
