Abstract
The economic and social change generated by SARS-CoV-2 is leading to a new geopolitical system dominated by China and the need for higher levels of investment in R&D and innovation, especially in the health system. The world is very vulnerable to global pandemics. This chapter aims to set up several innovation-based and lateral thinking business strategies to make firms rooted in chaordism perform better in disruptive situations. In this chapter, the author will show some mixed managerial-marketing techniques to generate ideas. These pages have an eminently practical application in the firm, regardless of its size and the corporate culture applied in its daily operations.
TopIntroduction
Firms worldwide are undergoing significant changes due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic that began by ending 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Due to the Chinese authorities’ opacity, it is difficult to pin down the exact date and, above all, why this pandemic began. The propagation process was very fast because it coincided with the Chinese New Year, when the number of journeys through that great country is most significant, both in national and international trips. Due to the rapid spread, on January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern,” to later name Covid-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020.
The economic and social change generated by SARS-CoV-2 leads to a new geopolitical system dominated by China and the need for higher levels of investment in R&D and innovation, especially in the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries. Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are especially vulnerable during the current crises because they have minimal resources and weak supply chain and business-to-business (B2B)/business-to-consumers (B2C)’ relationships (Caballero-Morales, 2021). The world is very vulnerable to global pandemics given the intense degree of global interconnectedness of countries. For that reason, the world must be prepared to fight against future pandemics.
Throughout this change process caused by SARS-CoV-2, human resources and technology through the firm’s digitalization play a fundamental role. However, given the growing power of customers’ choice, as they move in global environments and increase online purchases, marketing plays an even more critical role in attracting and retaining the best customers. A few clients guarantee a minimum income stream necessary for the organization’s survival during and after SARS-CoV-2. Hence, firms (chaordic and not chaordic ones) need to be prepared to achieve this goal.
This chapter aims to suggest some managerial and marketing tools to reduce chaordism in firms to maximize business efficiency, efficacy, and profit. The goal is to set up several innovation-based and lateral thinking business strategies to make firms rooted in caordism perform better in disruptive situations. Some mixed managerial-marketing techniques will be shown in the chapter to achieve this goal. These pages have an eminently practical application in the company, regardless of its size and the corporate culture applied in its daily operations.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Chaordism: It is the combination of chaos and orderism in organizations.
Intrapreneurship: It appears when self-motivated and proactive employees act as entrepreneurs when proposing strategies to improve their productivity, reduce waste, and diminish efforts made by workers laboring in the firm.
Economies of Scope: They are minor modifications made to the product to reach broader market niches.
Scale Economics: They are defined as reducing production costs from making and selling goods in large quantities.
Dynamic Capabilities: A sort of capabilities that enable organizations to create, modify, and reconfigure their available human and economic resources to compete in challenging market environments.
STEM: Acronym of Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics; it determines the future professions, especially in developed countries.
GPTW: Acronym of Great Place to Work, it is a seal granted by an organization dedicated to conducting surveys of the intellectual capital that works in companies to find out employees’ opinion and, where appropriate, promote continuous improvement of companies.
Absorptive Capacities: They are the organizational ability to value and apply new knowledge and strategic policies for improving organizational learning.