How to Prepare Your Team for Change

The year 2020 was quite a roller coaster ride for all businesses. There is barely a business client that has not gone through the ups and the downs of issues during the covid crisis, which caused tremendous changes in demand, changes in team members, working onsite to working remotely, changing hours, issues on the supply side since parts were not available, and collection issues, just to name a few. Looking back, it is amazing that as many companies that are still here survived what we went through and they deserve to be applauded!

Hopefully, this will not be happening again on this scale, but it is important to look at the lessons learned having gone through this process. There is no way to tell what the future is going to bring but having those lessons from this process may help more businesses survive and others to come out of it better should other issues arise. Here are just a few of those lessons:

• Build change into the business model. It is important that the business is always looking for a better way to deliver its product or service. It is also important to have alternate resources to bring to bear should your suppliers not be able to deliver. One of the issues during 2020 is that suppliers could not supply parts to businesses, as they were closed, or their workers were either not working or trying to work remotely. Knowing this, how can the business find new suppliers who might be able to supply at least a portion of the parts that go into the product, so that the business is not left without, if the current supplier goes down? If the business had access to several other suppliers who could deliver the same parts, even if they cannot provide the full supply, piecing together orders that will allow your customers to keep their manufacturing lines moving makes the business a hero to their customers, who will remember that help as they determine who to give their orders to.
• Review the methods of production to make sure that the methods are efficient. When times are good, businesses rarely take the time to look at how they produce product. They are too busy producing and providing product or services to their customers. Looking back, is there a better way? Are there some suppliers who can do a larger portion of particular parts, so that your crew is doing more assembly work, rather than manufacturing all of the parts in-house? Collaboration is becoming more important in producing products or services to customers. This is true even for those companies that have patents or copyrights for their products or services. How does the job get done more efficiently?
• Make your team nimbler to react positively to change. Businesses are always facing issues in their production, and changes in their team. Rarely do all of the issues hit at once, as they did in 2020. Preparing your team for many changes at once is hard to do. One thing to consider is to hire into change. What that means is to hire people who thrive where there is change, who look at the changes as ways to improve, ways to have the company stand out in a positive way among its competitors. It would be great to have people think that way, but at a minimum, review the changes that happened in 2020 looking back at what the business went through and applaud the effort and ingenuity that the team made to get the business through the crisis. Acknowledging what the team and the business went through may make it seem possible to overcome much smaller obstacles more easily.
• Stay in touch with the customers. This seems obvious, but when times are good, does the business stay in touch with the customers and constantly look for ways to help the customer overcome their obstacles and grow their business, or has the business just become order takers? It goes without saying that it is important to know your customer and what their needs are, even when the business itself has needs of its own. Not only will the customer appreciate the attention of the business helping the customer to grow, but that customer will give more orders to a business that really cares about the customer.
• Plan the business’s finances carefully. Last year it was even more important to rein in costs, maintain a good cash position and monitor accounts receivable carefully. It was a good time to review lines of credit, make use of government programs such as PPP or EIDL’s to provide liquidity. Cash was the reason that many businesses survived in 2020. With this lesson in hand, isn’t it a good idea to make sure that the business is always in a good cash position? How does the business improve its cash position?

These are but a few of the lessons that businesses learned in 2020. It is a good idea to review the business’s lessons with the team to be that great business in the marketplace that is nimble, changes itself to make the company more productive with better products that breaks ahead of the competition. Apply these lessons to the current business model you have in place and, not only will the customer’s business prosper, but the business will, as well.

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Denice Gierach

Gierach Law Firm

Denice Gierach is an attorney, CPA, Northwestern University business master's graduate, and has owned several businesses from real estate to manufacturing. She is the lead attorney at Gierach Law Firm in the Chicago area. With more than 30 years of experience, she has been a respected and sought-after resource for businesses looking to grow, sell, solve problems, and succeed long term. Her insights across business areas gives a fuller lens to business issues and solutions, and helps businesses grow and succeed with less time spent on legal issues and other time-consuming problems.

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