How Business Leaders Can Build Resilience and Navigate Global Economic Disruptions

In the last three years, the world economy has been greatly impacted by major disruptive events. In the year 2019, the outbreak of the Covid19 pandemic did not only raise health and pharmaceutical concerns but also affected the economy and social relations. These influenced several policies that have developed over the years.

One of the most felt economic impacts of the pandemic was the supply chain disruption which caused logistic bottlenecks and slowed down the operations of many businesses across the world. The global supply chain downtime also had inflationary effects. In early 2021 when the world had just begun to recover from the Covid19 shock, there was a sharp increase in global demand for food and non-food items which met with shortages due to the supply chain that was still reviving slowly. This brought about an increase in inflation even as unemployment remained high in many parts of the world.

Much later than the Covid19 outbreak, the supply chain of cereals and gas which are essential commodities in many parts of the world, had another stop-gap due to the Russian-Ukrainian war. The war was said to have compounded the Covid19 pandemic induced damage to the global economy which according to the world bank may be “protracted feeble growth and elevated inflation”.

While few businesses have exhibited full recovery from the Covid19 shock; some have yet to fully recover and some have been forced to wound up due to inability to adapt and build resilience. The pandemic and its ensuing events spurred the need to prioritize speed in adapting to the fluidity of the modern business climate.

The pandemic came with a lot of eye-opening experiences regarding how the future of work will be shaped. With the rising pace of telecommuting, hybrid working and increasing demand for digital-data skills, the will and the ability to avoid culture lag is very central to driving growth in the new normal. Hence, business leaders are preferred to seek the broader perspective in navigating barriers and exploring opportunities in the new normal.

For entrepreneurs and business leaders to excel in the new economy, they need to critically adjust their business models to accommodate the new reality, institute structures and cultures that are resilient to sudden disruptions and increase investment targeted towards improving their team as well as their public imaget.

This article by McKinsey explains how leaders can adapt to a very different future; it suggests five-action points that are strategic to driving excellent performance and growth in the post-covid-19 economy.

First, leaders need to centre their strategies on sustainability; secondly, they need to develop a capacity to transform in the cloud; thirdly, they need to increase investment targeted towards improving their talents and human resource strength; fourthly, they need to prioritize speed in adapting to the fluidity and fickleness of the modern business climate; and lastly, they must consistently go about their operations with the central purpose in the mind.