How Today’s Businesses Can Take Steps To De-Risk

Innovation How Today’s Businesses Can Take Steps To De-Risk Ray Grady Forbes Councils Member Forbes Technology Council COUNCIL POST Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based) Jul 27, 2022, 08:30am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin CEO and President of Conexiom .

Ray brings more than 20 years of experience in scaling high-growth B2B organizations. getty Here we are—two-plus years out from the beginning of a global pandemic. Even if we all had our own crystal ball, it still would have been difficult to predict the twists and turns that have taken place since the onset of Covid-19—economically, politically and socially—and the speed with which those changes have occurred.

As 2019 concluded, we looked back on the best year the stock market had, with the Dow up 22. 3% . Three months later, at the outset of the pandemic, market contraction was a concern, and businesses made moves to tighten up their employee rosters.

The year 2021 made the ” Great Resignation ” a well-known phrase as employees stepped away from the workforce in pursuit of fulfilling vocations. We’re still seeing the effects of that departure from the workforce in today’s understaffed restaurants and manufacturing floors . How Will The Remainder Of The Year Play Out? The dynamics of the last two years included a great deal of tumult.

As a business owner, you’re likely asking yourself, “What’s next?” Several indices point to a recession descending later this year. But that official declaration is largely unimportant. Simply considering our escalating gas prices and how much more money it takes to buy everything this year compared to last is the signal businesses should be (and are) paying attention to right now.

MORE FOR YOU Google Issues Warning For 2 Billion Chrome Users Forget The MacBook Pro, Apple Has Bigger Plans Google Discounts Pixel 6, Nest & Pixel Buds In Limited-Time Sale Event It’s time for businesses to do what they can to eliminate risk where they can. I call it de-risking. Creating An Agile Business What’s an agile organization? The first thing an agile organization does is honestly assess what it does, who its customers are and who wants to be employed there.

An agile tech business may likely have different needs and work interests coming through its doors. For instance, there are still a lot of people who want to get into tech and do the type of cool work that tech companies do—code, design, project manage. Agility for an established tech company may mean attracting the best and the brightest, no matter the cost, while keeping the balance sheet leaner in other areas.

For a manufacturing and distribution company, agility likely means something slightly different. It could mean evaluating the workforce, providing opportunities and experiences for as many employees as possible and automating the tasks that can easily be transitioned to that paradigm. One of the first drivers of this push for organizational agility is the workforce searching for personally fulfilling employment.

In fact, it has always been the case (in either a good or bad economy) that employees want to do value-added tasks. Changes That Usher In Agility As we head deeper into 2022 and watch the ripples in our economy unfold, it’s time for businesses to de-risk. In doing so, organizations must invest in areas where they can create a more agile, flexible and nimble business.

I do believe we are heading into a global recession, but I also believe executives will use technology as a value creator in this recession. The world is much different than it was in 2008. Look for investments in the following areas.

• Automation: Automation processes free up business owners to provide their employees with better quality opportunities. Do people want to go to an industrial distributor to re-key information from a document into another system? Maybe not. And these jobs are the perfect place to begin the de-risking journey.

For companies looking to reallocate or eliminate labor, automating those positions will allow for more creativity and designing impactful solutions that grow existing customer relationships. And by consolidating work functions that can be automated, automation can increase cash flow for a business by freeing up time. • Analytics: Forward-thinking companies will leverage insights from data to deliver a differentiated experience from their competitors.

• Innovations in the supply chain: Be it analytics or process mining/automation, executives will place a huge focus on supply-chain bottlenecks, and the winners will use technology to make life better for their customers. Organizational agility will help rein in costs and create a workforce that knows its talent and expertise is being directed toward meaningful work. Now is a good time for businesses to start.

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