Masters students
from Northumbria University, Newcastle, are helping businesses in Cumbria respond
to the challenges of Covid-19 by drawing on lessons learned from flood recovery.
Cumbria was hit hard
by flooding in 2009 and in 2015, leaving many businesses and organisations
struggling to survive. Now a group of Masters students from Northumbria’s
Newcastle Business School has been using the experiences of these devastating floods
to help businesses in the region recover from the current Covid-19 epidemic. The
students are from The Business Clinic, an innovative educational programme offering
a free student-led consultancy service to real clients. Operating as teams,
they have focused largely on the hospitality and supply chain sectors in the
region.
Dr Les Tickner, Associate Lecturer at
Northumbria and former Flood Recovery Manager for Cockermouth, was among the
academics supervising the students working on the project. He said: “Cumbria
has been hit by devastating floods twice in the past decade and many businesses
were forced to close as a result. There was fantastic resilience from these
businesses and valuable lessons learned about coping with such massive business
interruption and how to develop effective response strategies. The work our
students have undertaken through their consultancy has shown how these lessons
are directly transferrable to today’s pandemic, and how they can be used by
businesses to recover and re-grow their operations. Feedback we have received
from organisations including the Cockermouth & District Chamber of Trade
has been incredibly positive – citing real benefits for local businesses.”
Included in the
student teams was W.T.E.A Consultants, which looked specifically at the
hospitality and tourism sector within the Cockermouth area. By analysing the
impact from and responses to previous flood events,the four students in W.T.E.A
were able to recommend actions local businesses could take to bounce back from the
financial damage of Covid-19.
In another
example a team called Genie Consultancy interviewed a range of businesses in
the supply chain sector to understand how the resilience they developed during
the floods can now be applied to Civid-19 recovery plans. Their research found
the main challenges faced were a lack of cash flow, losing customers and a fear
of stopping the business permanently. Investigation also revealed that the
businesses to suffer the most from the pandemic are often the ones that are the
least digitalised.
In its report Genie Consultancy said: “The
biggest global epidemic since the last century has had an irreparable impact, dramatically
disrupting the business environment and pushingthe majority of companies to
rethink themselves. Just like the flooding, Covid-19 has stopped activities
suddenly, preventing businesses interacting directly with their customers. The
only real method to rely on has been digital technology and to think about a
business model transformation or innovation. Our recommendations have therefore
included improving digitalisationand, based on our findings, we have been to
offer advice relating to business model transformations, local supply chain and
remote working.
“From our interviews
and data gathering with businesses who recovered from the floods and are now
fighting back from the pandemic we have developed a strategy to help other
UK-based SMEs torecover from this pandemic.Our project is about analysing the
crisis management andthe ability to recover from a crisis. We show the
different impacts of Covid-19 and floods, using businesses in Cockermouthas our
focus.”
Andrew Marshall,
chairman of Cockermouth & District Chamber of Trade added: “Managing the
impact of Covid-19 is challenging for everyone, but businesses here have shown how
they can bounce back in the past and will do so again. The consultancy work
from Northumbria’s students has helped shine a light on how the resilience shown
by businesses hit by flooding can help shape strategic responses now. The
points they make, particularly in relation to getting a greater online presence
and being prepared for the practicalities, make really interesting reading and
I hope businesses here will take them on board. Thanks to Les and the students
for getting us involved.”
Nigel
Coates, Director of The Business Clinic at Northumbria, said: “Newcastle
Business School established the business clinic in 2013. Since then, the
total value of the students’ free consultancy advice and reports – given to
more than 400 clients – has been estimated to exceed £2.2m. This is a superb
achievement for a programme that both enhances the learning experience of our
students and delivers considerable benefits for clients.”
