Safety: An essential ingredient to your recover strategy

As we move out of the immediate response into a recovery mode, businesses need a set of guiding principles and a strategy for this transition period, with the knowledge that recovery will likely not be linear and filled with setbacks, starts, and stops. Therefore, the organizations that are simultaneously agile, inventive and open to changing practices will likely be the ones best equipped to serve their customers as their needs, behaviors and attitudes change.

While there are myriad possibilities for how businesses can respond to stakeholder needs, as we enter this transitional period, safety has an opportunity to become the differentiator between businesses. We see success and safety as inextricably linked—businesses that can innovate their business models to make their people safe can ramp up reentry sooner and more completely; businesses that make customers feel safe are likely to win more customers in the transition period and keep them even after the pandemic. The more businesses respond to this challenge with vigor, the quicker our overall economy may recover.

As leaders take their feet off the brakes and move forward with reentry plans, we offer five considerations for establishing your next normal.

• Take a comprehensive view of safety 
• Eliminate data filters
• Rethink your management systems and operating models
• Expand collaboration
• Maintain liquidity strategies