Article by Rachel Houghton is managing director of Business Moves Group (BMG)
In the early days of the pandemic, all eyes were focused on managing the crisis unfolding before our eyes.
We were working around the clock helping customers to provide their people with home-working furniture and IT equipment and set up effective home office environments, while supporting new ways of working for those still in workplaces.
Once the immediate emergency had passed, the pandemic has given us an opportunity to rethink our business. It’s been a chance for leaders to reflect on their operations and talk more to their people and customers, and see if there are better ways of operating.
For us at BMG, it’s been a chance to refresh what we do and reinvigorate our systems and processes.
Centralised processes
As a result, we recently launched a new operating model to centralise pricing, planning and billing activities across the group. Our new structure empowers our regions to sharpen focus, streamline processes, improve operational excellence and pass on cost-savings to clients. In analysing and stripping back processes and moving the administrative responsibility that each of the branches held to a centralised hub, our regional teams can focus on what they do best – supporting our customers.
In addition to centralising our administration, we took the opportunity to consolidate the range of BMG subsidiaries into one core company – Business Moves Group. This will improve our branding across the country and unify our services.
We also used the pandemic to explore how we could better harness technology to support our business. As well as implementing new reporting systems, we’ve invested in other technology to ensure our new operating model works smoothly. One of the most exciting developments is an online survey tool which uses drones to review a customer’s site so our operations teams know exactly what the project involves before even stepping foot there. Would we have introduced that if the pandemic hadn’t happened? Probably. But it would have taken longer for us to get there.
It’s been a complete change of culture for us as a business but everyone is hugely excited and up for the challenge. It’s also strengthened us as a team because there’s more opportunity for people to step into senior roles and further develop their skills. It’s helped us become an even better place to work.
As we now emerge from Covid, we are busy supporting organisations planning the return to the workplace. But we’re doing so from a position of strength.
Take the time to strategise
Covid has given us all that opportunity to step back, take stock of what we do and the way we do and make changes for the next stage of our journey. I appreciate that not all organisations had that luxury. But whether negative or positive, the pandemic has been a turning point for many businesses and those that took the time to reflect and take stock will be the ones who will make the most of the future upturn.
Fortunately, it’s not too late to address business strategy. Rather than thinking that they have missed the boat, leaders should take the opportunity while they still can to step back and ask important questions about the future of their business. Spending some time now on strategy could pay dividends in the long run.
About the author
Rachel is responsible for the strategic growth and day to day management of Business Moves Group. She is a companywide mentor and change agent in the business and thrives on decision making and innovation. She works with a strong management team and continues to develop close relationships with the client base and has overall responsibility for HR, health and safety and compliance.
BMG supports businesses of all sizes, from major blue chips through to SME business. The company also supports clients with operational day to day management of space and change whilst supporting strategic plans.
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