Help guide people through this period by encouraging them to access opportunities for professional and personal development.
5. Facilitate agile mindsets and methods
Allowing employees to run self-forming teams, and prioritizing results and pace over organizational structure, can have a double advantage – higher productivity and reduced management workload for COOs.
6. Restructure resiliency governance
Integrate key stakeholders from business functions, crisis management, continuity, technology and security services into one operating model to drive full transparency around risk and build confidence to sustain business operations. Instigate regular performance testing, and identify and address resilience challenges in the supply chain, such as reduced service from critical suppliers. Also build greater visibility into extended businesses: for manufacturing-centric value chains that means developing end-to-end visibility from Tier N supply base through the distribution network to customers.
7. Embed resiliency into daily business operations
Stress test the business and supply chain for other types of potential disruptions, uncover the gaps and build a plan to build resiliency in. Coordinate changes across enterprise resiliency plans, innovating rapidly with the aid of a resiliency platform to integrate plans.
Summary
COOs must focus on ensuring the safety of the workforce but it’s also critical to keep employees engaged and motivated. However, policies and procedures typically designed for “business as usual” may become barriers for companies responding rapidly in this global pandemic threat. A new protocol has to be defined and invoked.