Jan van Veen says firms need to protect themselves first and then accept and adapt to the inevitable long-term affect of the virus.

We all need to take our responsibility to keep our colleagues, our clients’ staff and the public safe. The Coronavirus will be with us for a long time, probably years. We should anticipate a scenario that will have to continue carrying out measures to control the virus.  This could have a substantial impact on our society, economy businesses and our clients' businesses. If we stay close to our clients, we have the best chances to mitigate the impact and reinforce the loyalty of our clients.

Three Phases

In the next six months we should all walk through the next three phases:

Response: Right now we have to control the crisis and mitigate the direct impact on the short term.

Review: Assess what we can learn from the impact of the current outbreak on our business and clients business. What are the vulnerabilities and weaknesses? What are our strengths and what are our opportunities? Which other trends are being triggered? Often, an economic crises and new disruptive technologies can accelerate market disruptions. This could be a chance for significant and innovative change. 

Redesign: How can we make our business more agile and less vulnerable to these kind of outbreaks? Think about safety, capacity, supply chain, remote capabilities. How can we enhance our value propositions to better support our clients? How should we evolve our operating model and business model? Stay flexible and be prepared to adapt.

Jan van Veen was part of our panel at Field Service News' Covid-19 Emergency Symposium which you can listen to here.