The changing business environment forces all the companies to change or adapt their strategies to reflect the market changes or demands.
Failure to change with the times can be a dangerous step, as many companies that failed to respond and are now either liquidated or busy trying to reinvent themselves. The current environment requires all businesses to respond to these market changes, especially the challenges of Covid-19; this does not necessarily mean that you must be a big company; this change includes small companies. It requires all the companies to respond to these changes. We have seen some of the changes this pandemic forced us to incorporate in our business life, and these changes necessitated the quick adoption of digital strategies by some industries.
This forced change requires businesses to adapt their business strategies to remain relevant and be successful. We can go back to our recent past for some of the known business failures, Nokia, for instance, they were one of the biggest companies with significant market share. Their inability to recognise the changing business environment and consumer preferences meant that we are now referring to them as once a giant company. Their failure to move to the new smartphone market early resulted in Nokia losing a significant market share.
The companies that are to be successful in this time around will be those that recognise the new challenges, adapt their strategies, and implement them. It is no use to identify the market needs and change your business strategies but still fail to implement their newly developed techniques.
The above is another reason why some companies failed in these challenging times. A known business case in mind is that of a company in the film industry, and this company recognised the need to adopt new strategies and moving to digital technology. They are reported to be the first to acknowledge this recent change but failed as a business to implement, and this was their downfall, and now they are no more, this company was Kodak.
Therefore, it is essential to understand what this new world requires and be bold to implement the business strategies that will reflect such change. In South Africa, at the moment, there are a variety of industries that the market requires them to adopt new approaches to move with the market demands. In my view, I would think being in the tourism sector will need different kinds of business strategies to be successful and to remain profitable.
Failure to recognise or implement the required market change can result in them being included in the list of the companies that had potential but did not change and now are in their death beds.
Time is now to renew and adapt our business strategies to remain relevant and sustainable.