SHIFTING INTO HIGH GEAR

ACCESS’s 14^th year was capped with an event in Phnom Penh that inspired everyone on the team. Despite two years of lockdown and online meetings, the team was able to survive and has remained strong. Some adjustments and belt-tightening measures were implemented but suffice it to say that nobody was left behind.

The post-pandemic world is showing new trends and opportunities: digitalization not only of finance but almost everything under the sun, growth of initiatives to address climate change, more support going to green (and blue) finance, are some of the ‘flavors of the month’. These trends and opportunities require the team to adapt and retool itself to remain relevant and attractive to our clients. Aside from upgrading the competencies of current set of consultants, there is a need to infuse fresh blood, so to say. Don’t worry­­––it won’t involve any needles!

Opening new geographic areas is another development that is taking place. Our foothold in the South Asia and South East Asian regions is well-established, and our partnerships are bringing us to Africa where our skills and services are needed. We should proactively pursue projects, not only in Africa, but in other regions as well.

We thank our God who made these things possible, and as the Roman poet Horace said, ‘Carpe diem’––let us seize the day, shift our gears, and go full steam ahead in 2023!

Taking advantage of opportunities in a pandemic

With the Covid-19 pandemic showing no sign of abetting, scores of industries have been badly hit, resulting in closures of businesses––not only those with limited resources but even large corporations with global outreach. Hardest hit are those in the  tourism, retail, food, financial services, real estate and transportation industries.

Nobody knows when the virus will subside as vaccines to counter it has not yet been discovered and produced. And even if the vaccines and medicines are developed, it will take some time for the pandemic to settle. Talks of the ‘new normal’ are giving businesspeople nightmares because it mean less customer traffic and limited transactions due to social distancing.

What is the scenario for the consulting industry? With development agencies and community-based financial service providers looking for solutions, we are in a position to respond to their needs. And we have to be very keen in ‘sniffing’ these opportunities since they may not be expressed directly by our partner institutions.

Some of the applied solutions we can provide are the following:

• Study on the impact of Covid-19 on the enterprises and operations of financial service providers;
• Remedial management training for financial service providers (banks, cooperatives and microfinance institutions). Past due accounts will emerge as one of the challenges for financial service providers and we can help them design effective programs to address this;
• Assessment and design of resiliency measures for enterprises. This will allow micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) to review their systems and install measures that will improve their tolerance for shocks brought about by pandemics, disasters and natural calamities;
• For larger institutions, we can also facilitate strategic realignment process to review their long-term plans and adjust their direction to address pandemic and other emergency situation;
• We can also assist organizations who would like to go digital and pursue e-commerce. With the increasing volume of sales passing through internet platforms, more enterprises are considering adding an internet platform among its channels.

 

Originally published in ACCESS Advisory Newsletter, July 2020.

Time to innovate

For the past two decades, several global pandemics affected the way we live. Among these are SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, 2003), H1N1 (Swine flu, 2009), MERS (Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome, 2012) and recently the Covid 19.

‘New normal’ habits resulting from the pandemic-induced practices have not only changed the way we interact with other people, but also the way we provide our services as consultants. For now, I can think of two main themes in our work that has to be modified to fit to the present realities.

First is capacity-building and formal training activities. We have been used to classroom-type and face-to-face training activities and directly interact with participants. Our group dynamics and ice-breakers endeared us to our participants and made our activities lively and never boring. Capacity-building will remain as an activity, but the methods of conducting training will have to be changed to observe social distancing and less proximity to prevent infection.

The response to this reality is the use of virtual meeting apps. Group chat and skype have been the standard tool in the past. However these tools were overshadowed by new apps like Zoom, with its very simple operating procedures and more people to participate.

Second is financial inclusion. Promoting savings and prudent use of cash and credit will also have to be virtual. Same with the purchase of basic commodities where payment is through digital wallet and courier services for delivery. It is expected that our partner institutions will migrate to digital platforms to ensure they cope with the new environment.

Technology is at the center of these changes and we have to familiarize ourselves with the latest tools in the market.  The training on Zoom is just one of our initiatives to grapple with this new reality and everybody is encouraged to exert efforts to understand and acquire knowledge and skills on digital systems that we can use in our consulting work.

First published at ACCESS Advisory Newsletter, June 15, 2020