What should leaders do now to prepare their business to return?

What Business Leaders Do Now To Prepare For Re-opening Post-COVID-19 | Business In :60 | GZERO Media

Kevin Sneader, global managing partner for McKinsey & Company, provides perspective on how corporate business leaders think in response to the global coronavirus crisis:

What do I need to do now to prepare my business for return?

Well, the first is adapt. Adapt to the next normal, a very different future than the one originally envisaged. And to do that, you should have in place a plan ahead team, a second group of colleagues who can look ahead to how you want the business to evolve. The second is accelerate. Accelerate the shifts that you now know are needed to be successful in the next normal. And that means taking a hard look at, for example, the balance between remote working and working from an office. As you've now learned, what can be done well remotely and what cannot. Thirdly, craft. Craft the plans for a return. There needs to be detail. You need to think through what it means to work together in an environment that now has to be coronavirus proof. And that's going to be quite different than the past. And fourth, timing. When? When to go back? Who goes back when? And in what sequence? All of that requires careful thought and diligence. And that's why at the heart of this is to have one group of colleagues who are working very hard on the here and now and the detail planning, and another group who are looking ahead to adapt and accelerate.

More from GZERO Media

World leaders assemble for a group photo at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on November 19, 2024. The gathering was overshadowed by Donald Trump's impending return to the White House.

REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

With Trump about to take power again, one of the world's most important multilateral gatherings was an exercise in cowardice and smallness.

Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party Pete Hoekstra speaks during the Michigan GOP's Election Night Party.
REUTERS/Emily Elconin

Donald Trump on Wednesday tapped former Michigan congressman and Netherlands ambassadorPete Hoekstra to be US ambassador to Canada.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a signing ceremony for the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA) on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S., January 29, 2020.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Donald Trump’s election win has Canadian premiers worried about the future of free trade. Trump has promised to levy across-the-board tariffs of between 10 and 20%, but it’s unclear whether Canada would be included.

Striking Canada Post workers, represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).
REUTERS/Carlos Osorio

After years of struggles with their employer, Canada Post, posties in Canada have gone on strike as the holiday season settles in.

In this photo illustration, a Google Chrome logo seen displayed on a smartphone with a Google Logo in the background.
Reuters

The Department of Justice is fighting to force Google to sell off its Chrome browser in an antitrust action against the company.

Malawi soldiers part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) military mission for eastern Congo, wait for the ceremony to repatriate the two bodies of South African soldiers killed in the ongoing war between M23 rebels and the Congolese army in Goma, North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo February 20, 2024.
REUTERS/Arlette Bashizi

Fighters from the M23 rebel group in northeastern Congo have been targeting civilians in violation of a July ceasefire agreement, according to the Southern African Development Community, whose peacekeeping mandate was extended by a year on Wednesday.