Your business COUNTs!

Business resilience – maybe a new concept for many entrepreneurs, but which has already been implemented by those that became aware of the added value that a team of professionals can bring to a business.

However, let’s not overlook the fact that, over 2500 years ago, Confucius said: ’’Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall”. So, Confucius had been prompting his fellow countrymen to be resilient ever since then.

Disturbances and disasters have always been a part of the business environment. Sometimes hazard, other times human error generated life turning points for a business. Maybe this fact has never been more popularized and acknowledged then it is in the current situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although, if we are referring only to one of the causes that can give rise to a shock in society, namely the outbreak of pandemics, the outbreak of pandemics has certainly not yet been forgotten as a result of the avian influenza, swine flu, it is right, on a smaller scale than the current situation. We wonder now, how come we have learned so little from those lessons which could have prepared us for future shocks?

How many entrepreneurs have included crisis management in their strategies? How many of them have understood the importance of including resilience in their business strategy? What about public authorities? How many of these have included resilience in their strategy?

Precisely in order to avoid this lesson of the COVID-19 pandemic to pass without being learned,, the Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania (CECCAR), as a professional organization of public utility that represents professional accountants – the expert and licensed accountants – considered useful, in the public interest, the launch of the Romanian Business Resilience Network open to all stakeholders who can contribute to helping the business community to be able to respond to shocks/disasters, to recover, to reinvent itself and to persevere in the reconstruction of the business and ultimately to prosper.

In the short term, the network aims to identify and promote solutions which could mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the business and economy in Romania. In the long term, the network aims to strengthening the resilience of the business environment to future shocks/disasters.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has certainly had a negative impact for most, but has allowed all actors involved to gain invaluable experience. It is time for all stakeholders to come together and use the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to reconfigure business and operating models to the new normal, including adapting the regulatory system to it.

Because every link in the supply chains that forms the fabric on which the economy and society as a whole rest is important, we believe that it is in everyone's common interest to get involved in order to strengthen resilience in every business, so that this fabric of supply chains is as solid as possible. Thus, those with experience will have the chance to share their knowledge, good practices, and those without experience will have the chance to be better prepared for the future.

COVID-19 – A great challenge that only together can we turn into an opportunity!

We invite all of you - entrepreneurs, regulators, civil society, academics, freelancers - who share these ideals to join the network and, together, to contribute to strengthening the business resilience.

We are all aware that we have evolved from an information-based economy to a knowledge-based economy and finally to an intelligence-based one. Yes, we used information to gain new knowledge, to better understand ourselves and the systems we live in, and then to innovate. In an intelligent innovation-based economy in which not only information becomes more and more volatile, but also knowledge, how can one be a true professional if their main concern is not updating their knowledge?! The volume of data, information and knowledge is steadily growing and their complexity increases exponentially. Then what does the entrepreneur have to do? As capable as he is, he cannot keep up with this evolution in real time, but he needs to optimize access to these important resources. How? Maybe the best solution is to stop concentrating on accumulating them and focus instead on gaining access to them when you need them. Thus, you stay focused on the activities that make up the essence of the business, and for the rest you let others accumulate them, others for which this process is the main component of their activity. YES, outsource support activities. How many have come to understand that outsourcing is the key to success? Let the professionals take care of the support activities, while YOU focus on the activities related to the development of your business.