Readiness For The Upswing

As we slowly climb out of lockdown and resume some normality, our business, along with many others will swiftly face the reality of a post Brexit economy, huge national debt and a slower recovery as economic forecasters are now predicting.

I am not a pessimist, but I am pragmatic and a realist.

Taking time to develop a downturn recovery plan is something that most businesses struggle to face. Not least because it can feel negative and slightly depressing and many business leaders feel it hurts their companies. This is not true but it is the typical response. 

So, most will tend to focus on the near-term goals to increase revenue and maintain a lean overhead whilst holding on to what profit they can. However, there are businesses out there, like ours that have retained a strong balance sheet and a keen eye for investment and are ready to take advantage of the imminent upswing with a “downturn contingency plan”. Taking advantage of market conditions and being eminently placed to respond effectively at the right time.

This is achieved through careful planning and strong investment in areas of the business that can really make an impact, a few of which I have set out here.

Marketing

Having a clear marketing strategy and focus is key. Brand awareness and clear messaging are never more important than when customers really need help quickly.

View our award winning workplaces here.

Customer Service

Ensuring that you have superior customer service levels is also critical and being able to pivot your business to support the changing needs of your customers, will see you increase market share.

Tech

Accelerating digital transformation will also save time and money. Eliminating repetitive tasks with the introduction of shared IT platforms such as virtual desktop integration will enable staff to collaborate concurrently whilst building and modelling customer solutions, more productively, with quicker response times and higher service levels.

Read our latest blog about our five essential technology tips to consider for your office refurbishment here.

People

Finding and attracting the best talent and supporting them while investing in the tools to allow them to succeed will help your business to deliver beyond your competitors.

Right now when many of our competitors are consolidating and focusing on near term challenges, Modus is continuing to make significant investments in technology to support the verticals through the business and empower our unified professional teams working with our customers to enhance customer experience right through to service delivery and support.

Catch up on our some of our team's latest blogs by Sean, Steve and Ian here. 

As a result of our technological investments we have weaponised our workplace to allow our teams to work quicker and more effectively on a higher number and broader range of projects. This is increasing our market share in a smaller market. 

We are also hiring in a number of key positions in line with our diversity and inclusion strategy to support our continued growth.

This long-term strategic approach and highly effective, mature management of the business has played a major part in why this year we are 30 years old. In our experience over this time, working with companies of all sizes, we have found the most successful businesses have some interesting things in common.

They rarely expand during a booming market, avoiding the premium costs of the “topping out of the market”. Investing at this point is usually too late and an expensive idea.

Instead they strategise growth and investment in leaner times, taking advantage of better value purchasing power, favourable levers of negotiation in acquiring assets, products and materials and onboard more widely available and diverse talent in readiness for the upswing.

If you are looking to plot your course in readiness for the upswing and want to understand how you can sweat your property assets and workspaces, get in touch with someone from our team here.