First, a very large number of large and small companies are facing immediate liquidity problems.\u00a0 Under such conditions, managing liquidity positions and generating top-line revenues will be a top priority.\u00a0 Second, changed circumstances require new strategic answers.\u00a0 Many organisations will have to adjust their pre-COVID-19 strategies, structures and processes.\u00a0 And third, as if this is not yet enough, managers need to lead these simultaneous changes while keeping their colleagues and employees motivated and engaged.<\/p>\n
The COVID-19 crisis is likely to usher in a shake-out, innovation and further specialisation.\u00a0 Many managers will upgrade their functional specialisation, as their firms are seeking to serve specialised markets.\u00a0 This process will be driven by digitalisation and new organisational forms, such as agile and virtual teams.<\/p>\n
This specialisation will at the same time increase demand for executives who can connect the dots.\u00a0 Specialisation only generates value if senior executives can bridge fragmented units and expertise.\u00a0 In one scholarly paper<\/a>, two colleagues and I showed how bridge-building CEOs may unite divided management teams in order to outperform their competitors.<\/p>\n At the Executive School we have programmes to support organisations with all these challenges.\u00a0 For instance, our Customs unit<\/a>\u00a0is working with former CEOs of large multinational companies and top consultants in order to support companies with their restructuring efforts and strategy redesign.\u00a0 Our programmes for senior board members and top executives <\/a>\u00a0offer platforms for discussing strategic leadership challenges and exchanging lessons learned.\u00a0 We help executives to understand the opportunities offered by digitalisation<\/a> and new team structures<\/a>.<\/p>\n Innovation and new strategies will generate uncertainty, even with competent and indispensable employees.\u00a0 Successful leaders have an open eye for this and will invest in their employees.\u00a0 The hard factors will be pre-eminent at the beginning of a restructuring process, but the soft factors will determine how successful \u201cbrainy\u201d ideas are implemented.\u00a0 After all, the soft side is the hardest.<\/p>\n Companies and individuals who want to survive this crisis will invest in their own development and in that of their colleagues.<\/p>\n If you are early in your career: look for a boss and a company who will support your development, e.g. by joining a Leadership Development Programme<\/a> or an MBA programme<\/a>.\u00a0 If you are in a leadership role: be the boss you wish you had had when you were younger and encourage your managers to improve their knowledge and skills, e.g. by pursuing an Executive MBA programme<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post-COVID-19 world will be a different one than before.\u00a0 This world will be shaped by innovative companies and their managers and employees.\u00a0 Ultimately, the COVID-19 challenge is a human capital challenge.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" First, a very large number of large and small companies are facing immediate liquidity problems.\u00a0 Under such conditions, managing liquidity positions and generating top-line revenues will be a top priority.\u00a0 Second, changed circumstances require new strategic answers.\u00a0 Many organisations will have to adjust their pre-COVID-19 strategies, structures and processes.\u00a0 And third, as if this is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[55,30,14],"tags":[],"acf":{"excerpt":" The COVID-19 crisis poses a dramatic strategic leadership challenge and a triple hurdle to most managers and executives.<\/p>\n","school":false},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}