This article (10 minute read) offers advice on how to use your organisation’s purpose and values to navigate through make-or-break moments in business. Coronavirus has posed significant economic and societal problems – as executives, your actions can help bridge the gap between stakeholders and shareholders in unprecedented ways that and will ultimately determine your corporate legacy.
- The magnitude of the coronavirus pandemic and its impact of business and society has forced many leaders to introspect their company’s purpose- it’s reason for being and its impact on the world.
- Expectations are even greater from businesses in such moments of crisis. It presents an opportunity for businesses to leverage their scale to benefit the society.
- Decisions made during this crisis will shape a corporation’s identity and tell a story that will leave traces long after COVID-19 has been quelled.
- Those who have carefully honed a sense of company purpose will find a foundation and set of values that can guide critical and decisive action. For others, this moment can represent the first steps toward defining their corporate purpose in a deliberate way.
- Listen carefully to rapidly evolving needs of stakeholders and be prepared to handle trade-offs.
- In times of crisis, rely on the organisation’s greatest strength and scale it up to make the biggest difference for your stakeholders.
- Collaborating with the business ecosystem including suppliers and customers can unleash unique synergies and creative solutions that will linger.
- Be agile and redeploy the organisations capabilities and resources to respond to the crisis. For example, French perfume makers have retooled to pump out hand sanitizer and car-parts makers have turned to building ventilators.
- In uncertain time, decision making can be very difficult. Use the organisation’s purpose and values to “gut check” your decisions. Are your actions consistent and do they align with the organisation’s larger goal?
- Many employees and their families are suffering from isolation and loss of income, leaving them thinking about what is truly important. Focus on your biggest asset – your employees and support them show empathetic leadership to unite the team.
Key insight:
Executives are uniquely poised at this pivotal time to bring corporate power, guided by social purpose, to the aid of millions of dislodged and vulnerable lives. Done well, their actions in this crisis can bridge, in unprecedented ways, the divide between shareholders and stakeholders in the communities they serve—and leave a lasting, positive legacy on their corporate identity.
