By now you are aware of the sea change that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to your Homecare business and you have undoubtedly made many changes to address some of these changes.
Have you taken time to sit down and re-examine your overall business strategy and identify any changes you need to make to address the long-term effects of the pandemic?
It is important to regularly examine your business strategy and yet most business leaders do not take the time to do it.
In fact, research has shown that company leaders spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy and 50% spend no time at all. 1
This is risky in good times and downright dangerous to your business when your market is changing correctly.
It is crucial that you be ready for those changes.
Maintaining the status quo will likely result in you and your business being left behind.
If you think ahead and adjust for the coming changes, you have an opportunity not only to preserve your current position in the market but also to grow by outdistancing others who will not or can not change with the times.
First Things First
If you have never thought this out systematically, now is the time to start.
Begin with analyzing your current situation, specifically ask yourself these questions:2
Goals – What are you trying to achieve in general terms, e.g. be the largest or most profitable Homecare agency in the greater (insert your city, state, etc.) area
Objectives – What are you trying to achieve in specific terms, e.g. revenue, profit, or patients served, …
Strategy – In general terms, how are you trying to achieve your Goals and Objectives and how is your strategy different than your competitors
Tactics – What specifically are you doing to achieve your Goals and Objectives
When you take the time to lay out this information in detail you may discover things you hadn’t realized before, including how much time and resources you are spending in ways that don’t add value to your Homecare business as well as opportunities for growth that need additional resources.
Next Steps
Now that you know where you are, think about where you want to go. This is harder because nobody is certain about what holds in store in the post-pandemic world, so you need to think through it carefully.
Create a list of questions for your team that challenges your current strategy and tactics and ask how the post-pandemic world order may affect the current Homecare marketplace.3 For instance:
How can we reduce risk to clients and caregivers?
What additional services can be provided remotely, e.g. can we manage grocery shopping by using delivery or curbside pickup?
What are implications in terms of quality of service, infrastructure needs, number of caregivers, management/oversight, revenue generation, etc.?
What do these changes mean to your current culture?
What are your competitors doing or likely to do?
While you formulate your new plans, keep up to date on changes in the marketplace by listening to your team members and clients as well as news information and industry articles/blogs, etc.
Involve your team members in crafting your new plans
Then test your conclusions and plans with the same stakeholders.
Make any changes needed based on the feedback. Make sure the plan is realistic in terms of your ability to execute before you pull the trigger. Do you have enough resources to execute? Do you have the skills needed? If not, what do you need to address any shortcomings?
Once you have completed all these steps then execute your plan. The best plan in the world is no good without the action needed to follow through.
One final note: remember to monitor your plan and make changes as necessary, in particular during a dynamic time like the post-pandemic world.
Change is OK. It’s expected.
When asked about Evander Holyfield’s plan to fight him, Tyson famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Holyfield, however, changed his plan as the fight went on and emerged victorious. The key is to be ready to change your plan when it is necessary.
Kaplan, Robert and Norton, David. “The Office of Strategy Management.” Harvard Business Review (October 2005)
Horwath, Richard. Deep Dive: The Proven Method for Building Strategy, Focusing Your Resources, and Taking Smart Action (Austin, TX: Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2009)
