INTERNALIZE, INNOVATE AND INSPIRE: A PARADIGM FOR FUTUREPROOFING ORGANIZATIONS POST PANDEMIC

As the businesses and organizations world over brace towards COVID-Exit, important lessons in resilience building emerge.

Chhavi Moodgal (PGP 2004), CEO – IIMA Endowment Fund

Over the past year and a half, organizations that embraced innovation and adapted their approach to reinvent themselves survived and even thrived. On the other hand, many others faced the full brunt of the crisis. What worked and what didn’t in these unprecedented times? A closer look hints at a paradigm that’s based on three “In”s: Internalizing the nature and specific implications of the emerging crisis, Innovating to rewire processes, systems and business models to make them future-proof and Inspiring all stakeholders to make similar decisions.

Internalizing is about quickly becoming aware of how the crisis affects a specific organization. Clearly, businesses are affected adversely as well as positively and to various extents. Also, for some the effect has been limited to the sales side while others have suffered on throughput. Depending on the operating leverage, the implications for profitability and solvency have also varied.

Innovating is about rewiring the organization in light of the crisis. This can be simple optimization of existing processes or a thorough overhaul of an entire business model. Through this whole spectrum, bold decisions that experiment with multiple approaches coupled with quick feedback loop can drive a successful innovation plan. The work of innovating is not limited to specific businesses. Even governments, central banks and not-for-profit sectors are waking up to the unprecedented challenges posed by the Covid crisis and various bold new ideas to deal with it. We are seeing innovation not just in tech, but in everything from online customer service to remote working, from supply-chain reinvention to central bank digital currencies.

Inspiring is about disseminating the working solutions. As a large number of innovations are tried across the world, a few would start to show results. Inspiring other stakeholders and the wider community in the specific domain of the organization is the duty of the implementor of every successful innovation.

It takes a confluence of resources, skills and networks to employ the framework described above. IIM Ahmedabad is in a unique position to bring these together. With as many as 33,000 leaders across different walks of life and collective experience of six decades in management education space, IIMA can be the flag-bearer of the need for profound changes in the way we manage our organizations in business and economy.

IIMA is creating new ways of engagement with their alumni and industry through initiatives like the Endowment Fund. Through the Endowment Fund and its associated initiatives, IIMA can have long term financial autonomy and also support additional research in the emerging businesses, institutions, and ideas. The solid foundations of the Institute coupled with continued excellence in research and adequate resources to support them will go a long way in building resilience in times of crisis!