The current economic dislocation is as much a challenge as any before it, but also will not last forever, and it will present opportunities for Australian manufacturers who are prepared to adapt to accelerated change in the emerging post-Covid-19 world, writes Brent Whyte.
Never has the axiom ‘Change is inevitable’ been more relevant to manufacturers than in the emerging post-Covid era, when Australian industry is being reshaped by tectonic events.We already know supply chains will change, automate and truncate to become more rapidly responsive to domestic and international events. The way we work, communicate and engineer the future will also change.
The degree to which countries must be more self-sufficient in key areas may emerge as a national priority. Technologies focused on flexible manufacturing, health, hygiene, energy, infrastructure, defence, construction, sustainability and environmental risk management will all be among the winners from change. Some of the changes will be new; some will be an acceleration of trends that were already underway; and some will kill off old practices that were already on life support before Covid-19 struck.
And while no-one has a clear chart to the future (that would be like having tomorrow’s race results or share prices) we do know there will be challenges and opportunities; and there will be winners and losers, depending on how they see the future.
So, while most of us right new are focused on survival – and rightly so – it might also be time to look over the parapet to the world ahead and position ourselves for change.
Ask yourself, is it time now to get out and get your abilities known? To position yourself early as a master of change in the area in which you operate? To present yourself as an authority with a vision of the future – as someone who sees challenges and change as a time of opportunity, a positive thinker?
Or do you do nothing and believe your old reputation will carry you through?
That might work for some, if their corporate vision is clearly understood by the people who sit down to make choices about who gets considered for work, or who is selected for tender lists. But it can be a risk to presume that everyone knows your company and the full extent of your capabilities. The fact is they often don’t.
Based on our decades of experience in the B2B business here at Whyte PR, we find it mostly falls into three categories:
- Some customers will have a strong idea of who you are and what you do, because they deal with you frequently.
- Others will have a less clear idea – they may know that you do one thing well, but they may not understand that you are good at other things as well.
- And others just won’t have a clue, because some reputations are rooted firmly in the past and will die out with their old customer base, or they depend too much on one sector – even one large customer – and tie their fortunes to them.
Failure to communicate your business’ advantages is surrendering your future to someone else – because business is based on constant renewal and clear and systematic communication of who you are and what you do.
It is fundamental to understand that all businesses have a reputation in the marketplace. Your choice, really, is not whether you have a reputation, but whether you choose to define that reputation – or choose to let others do it for you (often competitors).
So how do you get yourself known without paying a fortune (before you have generated a fortune)?
My first tip would be to join in some of the forums and events sponsored by AMTIL, to help find out from your peers who is a dud and who can actually understand what you are talking about.
Have a chat with the people at AMTIL – about membership, editorial, advertising, events – and with the same cohort of people in other print and electronic media that are respected in the vertical markets you focus upon. These are the people working on the front line, sorting fact from fiction and credibility from waffle. Some of the tales they will tell you will be well worth learning in advance, because there are traps for new players (and indeed for some big companies whose heads are so elevated into marketing clichés, they may be alienating the down-to-earth, engineering-oriented audience that forms their key audience).
Above all, they have to be self-starters – after all, you don’t buy a working dog and bark too. And when you do find the right people to talk to (naturally our company is happy to talk), enter a discussion that should be without obligation, and with an eye to a shared future.
It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive, but those who can best manage change.
Brent Whyte is Managing Director of Whyte Public Relations, working alongside Senior Consultant Jack Mallen-Cooper, who joined the company in 2012. Whyte Public Relations works with local and international companies operating throughout Australasia, South Asia, Europe, America and China.