If COVID-19 has taught us any important business-related lesson in 2020, it is the importance of being agile. More than a mere business practice, this agile philosophy of quickly adapting to opportunities and threats, both internal and external, must be rooted in an organization’s culture. It certainly proved essential to my company’s ability to respond to the emergence of COVID-19 at the start of last year.
Executive Summary
Dan Epstein, the CEO of ReSourcePro, explains how his company felt about and reacted to the impacts of COVID-19 long before U.S. insurers did last year. The insurance services firm offers tools and services for business process management, operations optimization and analytics through global services centers, including locations in China and India. Although information was imperfect at first, leaders mapped out principles of employee safety, minimal disruption and proactive communication to guide the way.A Little Background
We were among the first U.S. companies within the insurance industry to face the threat of what was then referred to as the coronavirus. In addition to our U.S. offices, we also have multiple office locations in China and India. When we began hearing whispers of a possible public health threat in Wuhan, China in January 2020, our local leaders immediately brought this to our attention here in the U.S.
An agile company mindset does not exist in a vacuum. It must be rooted in good practice and plenty of practice. One foundational program is developing a business continuity plan (BCP) that is frequently updated and stress tested through simulations to provide assurance of redundant capacities to support clients. Our BCP had to address multiple business disruption scenarios across several offices in three countries, multiple work shifts or schedules, and cross-functional teams.
