In sports there are two main roles and formation: offence and defence. Teams are trained to quickly switch into various formations and stance, depending on how the game is played by the opposing team.
When you see an opportunity to score, you would immediately take the offence stance. When you’re faced with a stronger team, or uncertain about how the opposing team may play the game, you take the defence stance to minimise damage and losing points.
This is exactly the same for businesses.
So let’s talk Digital Perseverance.
First off, we’re going to go ahead to say that the world has gone digital, and Covid-19 has only accelerated the movement; the need for digital transformation.
Digital transformation itself is not only about digital marketing, or fancy tools, gadgets and pools of data. It’s about what you do with those tools, gadgets and pools of data to drive real change.
And that requires a solid plan, skilled individuals to implement and most importantly discipline to make sure the plan is carried out.
While Digital Transformation has a more victorious ring to it, like when you’re winning the game with Offence strategies; Digital Perseverance may have a more serious tone to it. Yet, with the uncertainty we all face today on a global scale, the name of the game really should be about Defence.
So what can businesses prioritise for a strong defence strategy during this ambiguous time?
1 – Cyber Security Protocol
Remember when the no-password sharing protocol was very important? Remember when firewall was the talk of the town? Cyber security today, further accelerated by remote working, has just become one of the most important elements in your defence strategy.
Remote working, social distancing, quarantine and isolation is not temporary. This is the new normal. Like it or not, even when there are medical breakthroughs, from a socio-economic point of view, we’re forming new habits. And these new habits will become very difficult to break, both as individuals and as a company.
Bigger giants already realised this new reality, this great reset and has rolled out solutions. For example, SIEMENS has just incorporated mobile working as the “new normal” for its 140,000 employees at over 125 locations in 43 countries.
2 – Online Project Management
Doesn’t matter what sort of project management model you’re using, whether it’s agile, scrum, kanban or the simple way of having a team of project managers and product owners.
What matters today is how the project management ‘process’ is being effectively and efficiently implemented.
From the tools you select, to ensuring all team members know how to use them, to enforcing protocol, having a strong project management plan and strategy in place will reflect in the end result of your team’s work. Which translates to the quality of the work delivered, customer satisfaction and most importantly, the defence of your product and services.
3 – Repository Regulation
While the new norm include working remotely between colleagues as well as customers, many times the challenge isn’t about communication, but about document and file control.
The local server maintained in the server room is quickly becoming a thing of the past. In comes cloud services.
That’s however just the beginning. Having switched from local to cloud services for your data storage is just the tip of the ice berg.
A strong defence for your product and service isn’t just about buying a box and throwing everything in it. It’s about version control, back-up and restore protocol, storage segmentation and much much more. Pick up your IT handbook and go through all the guidelines again. Revamp for stronger repository regulations to support your business.
4 – HRM online
One-on-one discussions? Face-to-face meetings? Time to get use to tele-feedbacks, one-on-one con-calls and new ways to request for leave approvals, conduct interviews, deliver performance evaluations, warnings, team building, reimbursements and much more.
If you were to compare gameplay to corporate functions, you can say that when you’re on a winning streak, you’re ramping up on offence, which are basically sales and marketing.
But when you’re on defence to mitigate damage and hold it out for the next opportunity, you’re back to basics. You’re going to need grit, strong internal team communication. You’re going to need to huddle together.
You’re also going to need to take some rebellious players and troublemakers out of the playing field to sit the bench and put in fresh positive energy into the field.
The challenge here is that online and remote human resource management is not easy. Human resource management itself has never been easy. Add the distance and online factor, and you’ll have the HR department dumbfounded on how to build trust remotely, while it quickly becomes one of the most important factor for a strong defence stance to get through ambiguity and minimise vulnerability.
Instead of waiting it out, start today. You can start small, but start today. Change is inevitable.
And if you’re not sure where to start, contact us to kickstart your digital transformation, aka digital perseverance. Follow us and stay tuned.
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