COVID, CLIMATE CHANGE, UKRAINE

Three ways in which businesses can adapt their models to working in an age of crises

OLIVER LAASCH

IT'S BEEN a tough few years for people who own or manage a business. Lock-downs have shut down entire industrial sectors worldwide, turning profitable businesses into loss-making ones, while a lot of smaller businesses went under.

Many companies will now be hoping for a return to some type of normality after COVID. However, there are strong signals that a resumption of how things were isn't on the cards any time soon. Instead, the world appears to have entered into an age of accelerating grand crises.

Even before COVID, the climate crisis was increasingly disrupting the world  through extreme weather events. Then, just as some countries had declared their war against COVID to be won, the invasion of Ukraine has not only reshuffled global geopolitics, but also led to a dramatic increase in energy and food prices, having massive knock-on effects on a whole host of other sectors.

One day there may be a time after COVID, after the Ukraine war, and even after the climate crisis-but there's unlikely to be a point of general stability any time soon. Humanity is pushing environmental limits to breaking point, risking further crises-whether in terms of disease, conflict, or natural disasters.

Businesses therefore need to be adaptive in how they operate. This means responding to current crises, being better prepared for future crises, and addressing their own role in generating these crises in the first place. With that in mind, here are three types of business models that companies should start adopting now.

1. Be responsive to current crises

What is needed are reactive business models that can respond to crises at hand. Such adaptability will naturally have a survival element, in which organisations do whatever is necessary to mitigate any negative effects on themselves.