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Alan Manly. Source: Supplied.

Building a business is not for the faint of heart. The obstacles are substantial, the naysayers are numerous, and the risks are plentiful. Not to mention COVID-19 which has taught many lessons about how resilience works in practice.

Resilience is defined how “the ability to recover from, or easily adapt to, adversity or change, ”and the pandemic is the greatest global calamity since World War II.

Here are five of the key resilience lessons emerging from COVID-19.

Reconnect with customers

As the Founding father of the modern management studies Peter Drucker states that the purpose of a business is to “create a customer”.

However, COVID-19 and the resulting lockdowns and national border closings have denied many companies this most basic activity.

All the other items required for the business were still there: the employees were still on the books, the properties were still rented, the capital goods were still there. The only thing missing was customers.

Hence, the first act of the resilient entrepreneur when he comes out of the pandemic is to reconnect with customers.

Let them know you are still open for business. Describe any new or changed service terms. Demonstrate your COVID safe processes.

Most of all, listen – how are you? Have your needs changed? What can you do to help them?

It takes resilience and tenacity to win back old customers and identify new ones.

There are always winners and losers

In all market downturns there are winners and losers. COVID is no exception.

Harvey Norman, for example, reported more sales than ever before Profit increases 185%. The big supermarket chains and postage services also saw booming demand, so they had to hire additional staff to cope with it.

Others weren’t so lucky, of course. Who would have thought 18 months ago that Australians would be excluded from overseas and even international travel?

The only certainty is uncertainty, and resilient entrepreneurs are prepared for both outcomes.

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Strong leadership strengthens resilience

Good leadership is not just about driving the growth and success of companies in good times. It takes a qualified leader to motivate teams and maintain employee morale in difficult circumstances.

This leadership must have an overarching purpose: to maintain customer support. The well-being of employees, the public image and social action will never replace a customer-oriented company.

This lesson will be difficult to accept for many business owners and employees alike. The backdrop is a seemingly endless success building on a boom that has lasted a long time Australia has been avoiding a recession for almost 30 years.

Teams – especially younger ones – will seek advice from their executives and managers on how to continue to support customers after the game changes.

Adapt or die

In the early days of COVID, we heard many stories about how companies turned their business around – cafes turned into outlets for meals; Distilleries started making disinfectants; Theatrical props makers turned to making home office furniture.

These adjustments were no accident.

Business resilience is about finding and retaining customers. This can mean finding new ways to deliver products and services to customers, or turning operations around completely. Whatever it takes to get paying customers through the door.

A resilient state of mind

The consequences of a crisis or a market shock are never the same. It differs between companies and industries. COVID made this painfully clear.

Some industries and markets have quickly recovered from the initial shock of hard lockdowns. Others, hardest hit by the pandemic, could take five years or more to get back to pre-COVID levels. McKinsey management consultancy suggests. Some may not recover at all.

There is no set timeframe for how long resilience will be needed. Rather, it must be an ongoing part of every company and the companies that operate within it.