The World Changed, Have You?
Background
There is a story about world war plane engineers who examined planes that came back from the battlefields and noticed that some parts of the plane got more bullet holes than others.
Some engineers suggested that they should strengthen the parts where there were no bullet holes and it seemed logical. However, one engineer made the best recommendation and his theory was that since the parts that were being hit were liable to more attack it was important to strengthen those parts instead.
Living in Denial
We noticed that many SME Owners live in a world where it's still safe and the way we did it before is the same way it should work even if it takes more money or time we shall put in more.
Nothing will ever be the same again
The reality is that the world changed and there is a "New Normal" everything we once knew about business has changed from disrupted supply chains, business models, how we work, who gets employed, where we work and some industries have disappeared altogether.
Redesigning Process flows
Case Study of the Import and Trade Processflow Business Model
The old process of Import and Trade was successful for a long time, but now its beginning to witness disruption in an unprecedented way creating risks that were previously never anticipated or known to exist in the eco-system.
The old process must change as "DISRUPTION" has created a number of Risks.
When Airports close down a trader cant travel to buy his stock and must rely on either an existing relationship if they deal with specialist goods or they have to take the risk of transacting with a local Chinese agent whom they haven't dealt with before and risk losing their money on a bogus transaction which eventually leads to the collapse of their business.
Case Study - Re-aligning Import and Trade Business Models
The focus of this re-alignment is based on Payment and Delivery Risk inherent in the old business process as it heavily relied on the trader flying and selecting his goods. This will still be a limitation as this direct interaction is being replaced by email, websites, and WhatsApp messages.
By re-aligning the process-flow through risk mitigation the import and trade business can get back on track assuming that we don't have another wave of lockdowns in china and the shipping lines are not disrupted again.
Perhaps its time to say Goodbye
We have interacted with an importer who was conned when he imported 2 containers of hoes - paid via TT and they were at least shipped but each and every one of them broke into two parts when clasped in the hands. He lost the property that he had pledged to the bank struggled for 10 years to recover his business and is a sworn advocate of Letters of Credit insisting on even a transaction of $10,000 luckily his volumes are over $250,000 per transaction today.
If this seems too much perhaps its time to say Goodbye to the Import and Trade business otherwise the risk of loss will only increase if we use the old way of doing things.
How We Add Value
Save My SME supports SME businesses to Map, Align, and Co-create their businesses to address the new disruptions in their eco-system.
Contact Us
Email: talktous@savemysme.com
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