By Fintan McGovern
We live in interesting times – or so the saying goes – and today this is truer than ever before. In fact the challenge that we as leaders are facing today is that as we are faced with an existential threat to how we live and consequently how we do business due to the current Covid-19 pandemic; the world has been and is changing very fast. The world has changed more in the last six weeks than it has over the last six years. It was Lenin who said, “nothing happens for decades, then decades happen in weeks”. This is where we are right now. So when asked to impart my thoughts on the importance of innovation with regards to SMEs and innovation, I believe that we should now be fighting for our lives. Because that’s where SME’s are right now – they are fighting for their business lives all around the world in order to survive and to do so they must be innovative. The knock-on and contagion effects of the Covid-19 pandemic – aside from the sheer horror of the illness and loss of life – is that for many SMEs, their sources of revenue and cash into the business vapourised almost overnight. The hospitality sector globally has now ground to a halt as the global economy hurtles towards recession and perhaps even a depression. The recession that has arrived will be deeper, bigger and more asymmetric than the last, which was largely confined to the financial services sector.
When faced with a challenge, a business can either remain ‘boxed in’ to their main sources of revenue or else can try and see if they can chart a course to survival. Innovative leadership sees opportunity and is not blocked by the bias of the past. Take O’Neills (www.oneills.com) – a sportswear manufacturer in Ireland that produces sporting equipment like team jerseys and tracksuits. The global pandemic has forced all sports events, competitions and fixtures to be postponed or cancelled. O’Neills was going out of business, ready to shut their doors and lay off their employees until that business’ leaders realised that they could start to manufacture specialist equipment and protective clothing essential for frontline staff in the fight against Covid-19. The leaders were brave enough to see that with a small sideways step, a willing staff and a massive opportunity, the business could survive and at the same time deliver much-needed frontline equipment.
