Matrix Consulting on the pillars for a post-covid-19 recovery plan

Companies globally and across Latin America are facing an unprecedented crisis, forcing them to enact their business continuity plans and tighten their belts to stay adrift. 

At the same time, companies are in the background preparing for the post Covid-19 environment, which in the eyes of many will be a (completely?) different world compared to the current one. Digital working will have taken off, consumer expectations and behavior changed forever, and supplier relationship will be placed under a new, more agile and responsive lens. 

In order to be ready for this new era, companies should start working on building a future-proof recovery plan. Experts at Matrix Consulting, a management consulting firm with offices in Bogota and Santiago (part of Nextcontinent), share ten building blocks that in their view should be part of any robust recovery plan.

Operations 

Resume operations and strengthen supply chain

• Define guidelines for an adjusted operational model suitable for the new post Covid-19 reality
• Adjust procedures to safeguard workforce health while keeping social distancing without affecting continuity of operations
• Assess operational readiness and define realistic ramp-up rates for operations and supporting services for a “new normal”
• Inject greater flexibility and simplicity to operational processes to respond to changes in demand while minimizing costs 

Build operational capabilities for the future

• Increase resilience of weaker operational points to potential new Covid-19 outbreak waves
• Enable full supply chain visibility to promptly react to contingencies and contain undesirable effects
• Build contingency plans for frontline facilities and basic cross-functional services
• Accelerate adoption of digital technologies to increase efficiency in key business processes and to meet customers renewed preferences
• Redesign the products most valued by customers with a design-to-cost philosophy 

Workforce & stakeholder relations 

Streamline the organization to face the future

• Challenge the organizational structure and resize the workforce to achieve a lean organization in the short term
• Redesign the workforce allocation, maintaining the minimum required staff on-site
• Preempt potential constraints in workforce mobility and define suitable strategies to address them
• Adjust incentive metrics to align the organization towards updated priorities

Empower the organization to embrace new ways of working

• Leverage technological tools to enable remote work
• Formalize protocols to sustain new ways of working, including flex-work policies
• Adjust back-office processes and decision making workflows to expedite response in a context of uncertainty 

Strengthen relationships with relevant stakeholders

• Update relationship strategy to strengthen ties with critical stakeholders
• Closely monitor regulatory adjustments to anticipate and prepare for business impact
• Look for opportunities to partner with third party organizations to reduce risk exposure to future shocks

Sales 

Revitalize demand

• Identify impact on SLAs associated to key client accounts and adjust (if needed) contractual agreements
• Offer new pricing strategies to increase sales and boost customer loyalty based on new customers’ preferences
• Segment your customers and deliver precise commercial plans to reactivate demand through big data analysis 

Respond to new customer preferences

• Identify new consumption patterns and define guidelines to enhance new sales channels
• Simplify your product mix portfolio with focus on profitability
• Improve the value added of most valued products with an agile methodology
• Identify priority actions to enrich relationship with most valuable clients after the crisis
• Adopt new hygiene and safety measures when reaching your customers 

Finance

Adjust expectations for 2020-2021

• Reset plan and objectives for 2020 based on risks, opportunities and lessons learned
• Update business’ areas performance metrics in accordance to updated corporate priorities
• Update 2020 budget using Zero-Based Budgeting methodology, enabling proper auditing and allocation of resources

Ensure financial health and meet capital needs for recovery

• Stress test financial fundamentals under worse-case scenarios, identifying business priorities
• Protect your financial fundamentals, define capital needs under different scenarios and design financing alternatives
• Establish a renewed spending culture using a Zero-Based Budgeting methodology 

Strategy 

Update corporate strategy in a post Covid-19 world

• Update corporate strategy for next 3- 5 years based on new risks and opportunities
• Update list of potential acquisitions, looking for opportunities both up and down the value chain
• Make your company more flexible and resilient in order to upscale or downscale when necessary 

Executing the plan

In order to effectively execute the plan, Matrix Consulting recommends companies to set up cross-functional teams for a multifaceted approach, and utilize an agile approach. By using an agile approach, companies will be able to ensure an iterative, adaptive and pragmatic way of advancing their agenda.