How to arm your business with organisational resilience

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How to arm your business with organisational resilience

Your personal resilience and the resilience of your business are not the same.

If you’re keen to develop your individual coping strategies and better understand how to power up your personal resilience, read this free business advice article, shared by Team Transmit.

When we look at how ready a company is to respond to unpredictable market trends, ever-changing customer behaviours and national or global crises - that’s Organisational Resilience.

Are you ready for whatever comes next?

Resilience refers to your ability to respond to adverse events - not just after they’ve happened but before and during as well.

Organisational Resilience has been the subject of a considerable amount of research since Covid forced some fundamental questions about how we run our businesses. Questions like “how many staff do I actually need?” and “could we operate from a much smaller premises?”, which bosses may never have thought to ask if we hadn’t worked through multiple lockdowns. 

Now, as we wait to see whether our country will officially enter a period of recession (on top of the energy crisis and rising cost-of-living), it’s time to ask ourselves some of those difficult questions again. 

Where are you on the resilience ladder?

We’re not suggesting that you plan for every possible worst case scenario. But thinking through how you’d handle some of the tough stuff will help you respond in an informed and decisive way when you need to.

Consistency

What do you need to keep doing the same?

To keep your business ticking over, there will be a few essential things that you need to keep doing no matter what, in order to keep trading.

This is known as business continuity.

Think about what the core purpose of your business is, and the reason you set it up in the first place. What’s the problem that you’re solving for your customers and what’s the minimum that they expect from you? In other words, which of your business activities are “mission critical”? 

If you can strengthen your core business activities, you’ll have a better chance of maintaining that critical output at a consistent level, even when the recession (or any other adverse situation) is in full force. 

Do you know where your weakest link is?

Anticipating potential threats is key to becoming a resilient business. Big or small, resilient organisations are good at identifying their blindspots and their vulnerabilities. 

As an example, let’s consider an e-commerce business selling homeware products. Here are some tricky questions our experts might be asking if this was your business:

  • Are your suppliers reliable, or do they sometimes let you down? 

  • Which of your current suppliers might be most likely to fold under financial pressure and how quickly could you find an alternative if that happened? 

  • What’s the minimum number of products you need to have available on your website for customers to have an enjoyable browsing experience?

  • What’s the minimum number of each product you need to keep in stock to meet expected delivery times?

Whether you’re selling products or services, maintaining the core function of your business is vital to survive a crisis and thrive on the other side of it. 

Flexibility

What could you do differently?

Once you’ve nailed down which core business activities you need to keep consistent and removed some of the risk factors that could negatively affect them, it’s time to look at other short or long-term changes that will help you over the coming months.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and out of the pandemic came a huge number of innovative new ways of working.

This is your chance to rise to the challenge of the recession and explore which aspects of your business can be stretched, flexed and squeeeeeeeezed as the country tightens its belt.

By adapting and creating new, more efficient ways of doing things, you could reduce your outgoings and even put some cash aside for a leaner trading period.

We previously shared some advice from our co-founder Richard Myers on how to prepare your business for a recession. 

Tips from Rich include:

  • Downsize your office, workshop or retail unit 

What some super-smart people say about resilience

Research interviews conducted by Cranfield University’s School of Management identified a number of things that organisations need to do in order to strengthen their resilience and look forward to long-term success. 

You can read the academic literature online, which explains the importance of organisational resilience in business strategy. But to save you time, we’ve selected our top 3 To Do’s:

  1. Decide what’s essential

  2. Take a financial stress test

  3. Talk about future failure

Decide what’s essential

To boost your organisational resilience, knowing which outcomes are essential can help you plan how you’ll continue to meet customers’ minimum expectations, even when ‘business as usual’ gets disrupted. Your essential outcomes come from your mission critical activities - the ones that really need future-proofing.

Example: Mo’s mobile coffee shop

Mo’s regular customers and passers-by delight in a hot cup of caffeine on their walk to work. She parks her van in her usual spot and as a queue form, she discovers - to her horror - that her fancy bean-to-cup machine won’t heat up. 

As customers start twitching and looking at their watches, Mo is getting seriously stressed. She’s got no backup plan for this situation, because she never asked the question “what if the coffee machine breaks?”

She might still sell a few sarnies, but she’s unable to deliver the one thing that’s mission critical for a coffee shop: coffee.

To build organisational resilience into Mo’s business, she needs to work through the “What Ifs” and plan how she’d respond if those situations arose.

An emergency pot of instant coffee could make all the difference on the day her machine goes down. It won’t be quite as fancy, but she’ll still deliver her essential outcome: the customer gets their coffee. 

To ease Mo’s headache a bit more, a stash of ready-made vouchers for a half-price coffee the next day would help keep customers onside.

And to be really resilient, Mo could also take out small business insurance for her most essential piece of kit. With a policy to cover her coffee machine, Mo wouldn’t be left picking up the bill for a replacement if disaster struck again.

Take a financial stress test 

When small business owners apply for a Start Up Loan, our expert Business Advisors carry out a stress test on their finances to make sure they could meet their loan repayments if their business income dropped off. 

There’s a heap of free financial advice available on the Smarta platform, from how to manage your expenses like a pro, to the importance of keeping financial records.

We also like the look of Smart Up: screening for business health. You can take an online ‘Business Healthcheck’ quiz which generates a free report on the current risk levels across your business. 

And if you’re looking for ways to fund the next stage of your growth plan, talk to Team Transmit.

Talk about future failure

No one looks forward to difficult conversations. But resilient businesses make plans for “what if things go wrong?” - and they do it while everything’s still fine.  

When Mo’s coffee machine failed she lost a lot of sales and probably some trust. But no one got hurt and she didn’t lose her trading license. In business, other failures can be a bit more serious…

What if someone filed a lawsuit against you? 

Getting the right small business insurance can protect you from financial losses. Whatever sector you operate in, there’s always a risk that someone or something could suffer some damage.

A customer could trip over in your shop, you could accidentally drop something on a client’s computer, or you might post something online without realising you’re breaching confidentiality.

Public liability insurance can cover your legal expenses if a third party decides to sue you. And if you’re required to pay them compensation, your insurance can cover that too.

If you publish content online as part of your business, media liability insurance is designed to protect you from IP infringement and social media fails.

Check out Superscript, Smarta’s insurance partner who specialises in cover for small businesses.

Seek other people’s perspectives on the tough stuff

A great way to start helpful conversations about the scary “What ifs” of business ownership, is to get yourself hooked up with a business coach or mentor. 

There will always be something that you haven’t thought of, and there’s usually another way of looking at a potential problem.

Whether it’s rising energy costs, reduced customer spending or issues with suppliers that are stressing you out, our experts can support you to talk about the failures your business could experience in the future, and build in strategies to ensure you’ll sail through the recession as a small, but resilient, organisation.

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The notice may change from time to time so please check for updates.

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Smarta is a trading name of Transmit Start-Ups Ltd which is a Limited Company registered in England. (referred to as “Smarta” “Transmit”, “we”, “our” or “us” in this notice).

Our registered number is 08702257.

Our registered office is Northern Design Centre, Baltic Business Quarter, Abbott's Hill, Gateshead, NE8 3DF.

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We collect and process your data in the following circumstances:

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Smarta may collect the following information about you:

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  • Your ethnicity, qualification levels and employment status

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  • Your device’s IP address

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  • Information about your business

This list is not exhaustive, and, in specific instances, we may need to collect additional data for the purposes set out in this notice. Some of the above personal data is collected directly, for example when you engage with us. Other personal data is collected indirectly, for example your browsing activity. We may also collect personal data from third parties who have your consent to pass your details to us, or from publicly available sources.

Why do we collect and process your personal information?

We only collect and process the information needed to effectively provide our services to you, as well as for contact and communication purposes.

We will use your personal information as part of our internal reporting processes.

How is your personal information used?

We use your personal data:

  • To provide services to you

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  • Test new systems and check upgrades to existing systems to improve our service delivery

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Certain types of personal information, such as gender and ethnicity, are used only as part of our contractual reporting requirements, for the purposes of monitoring and promoting equal opportunities.

The lawful basis for processing your personal information

Legitimate interest

We may collect, hold, and process your personal data on the basis of legitimate interest where it is necessary in order for us to fulfil our needs as a business and to be able to provide you with our services, including, but not limited to:

  • To send you information about your loan

  • To provide details of the benefits available as part of the loan agreement

  • Protecting customers, employees and other individuals and maintaining their safety, health, and welfare

  • Promoting, marketing, and advertising our products and services

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  • Complying with our legal and regulatory obligations

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  • Handling customer contacts, queries, complaints, or disputes

  • Protecting Transmit Start-Ups Ltd., its employees, and customers, by taking appropriate legal action against third parties who have committed criminal acts or are in breach of legal obligations to us and our staff

  • Effectively handling any legal claims or regulatory enforcement actions taken against us

  • Fulfilling our duties and obligations to our customers, staff, colleagues, shareholders, and other stakeholders.

Consent

We collect, hold, and process your personal data on the basis that you give us consent when you accept this Privacy Notice.

We will seek your consent to hold and process your data when you sign up to our mailing list or we need to ask for any sensitive data as part of the application process. If you chose not to sign up to our mailing list, we will still communicate with you when necessary as part of our contractual obligations.

You remain in control of the personal data you share with Transmit. You can change your preferences at any time, by choosing whether you want to give consent to your data being processed for specific types of communication and / or communication channels.

Vital interest

We may use your personal information to contact you if we reasonably believe that the processing of your personal data will prevent or reduce any potential harm to you. This type of notification is in your vital interest.

Legal Obligation

We may use and process your personal data to comply with our legal obligations such as HMRC requirements, if it is genuinely needed for law enforcement, to identify you as an individual if you contact us, or to verify the accuracy of your data.

Who we share your personal information with

Our service providers and suppliers

In order to make certain services available to you, we may need to share your personal data with some of our service partners. These include HMRC, cloud storage and IT providers.

Transmit only allows its service providers to handle your personal data when we have confirmed that they apply appropriate data protection and security controls. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers relating to data protection and security, which mean they can only use your data to provide services to Transmit and to you, and for no other purposes.

Where your personal information is stored

Your information is stored on dedicated hardware used by Transmit Startups and all data is held and backed up within the UK or EU or is covered by the  EU-US Privacy Shield Framework .

The data is stored within a MariaDB database in a secure hosting environment. The only way to access the database is via a server console or via SSH. 

User data is also synced into Hubspot – a cloud-based Customer Relationship Management system.

Images & Assets are securely hosted on a service called S3 - which is an Amazon Web Service (AWS) service. Only authenticated users within the site have access to push files to this location. 

Where you communicate with us by email, we may store copies of the emails. Our email service is provided through  Google G Suite .

How we keep your personal information secure

We are committed to keeping your personal data safe and secure.

Our security measures include:

  • Encryption of sensitive data

  • Back up of data

  • Password management

  • Implementing risk management and data impact assessment analysis

  • Regular cyber security assessments of all service providers who may handle your personal data

  • Security controls which protect our IT infrastructure from external attack and unauthorised access

  • Internal policies setting out our data security approach and training for staff.

Only authorised and trained personnel can access your personal information if required to do so as part of their legitimate job role.

How long we keep your personal information

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this notice. As long as you wish to be a customer of Smarta or be displayed in our directory we will retain your data for that purpose.

Your personal data stored in the website’s database will be automatically deleted from here after five years. You can request the amendment or deletion of your data at any time.

Automated decision making, including profiling

We may retain some data for reporting and statistical purposes however this will only occur after removing all personal information that would allow an individual to be identified. This is called anonymisation.

Transmit do not engage in any profiling activity.

When do we collect your information?

Website forms

Our website has forms built-in to allow the user to create an account and interact with the site via the submission of data. When you use our forms, the information submitted is securely stored in the website’s database. Your personal data stored in the website’s database will be automatically deleted from here after five years. Your personal data is encrypted by the website.

The website is built using a framework called Laravel (it is an open-source PHP MVC framework for bespoke platform development). 

The forms are built within this stack using VueJS, form data is submitted via Axios (AJAX HTTP requests) to a controller that parsers the data and stores in within a data store. 

Sensitive data and passwords are encrypted using OpenSSL and the AES-256-CBC cipher. 

Mailing list

If you opt-in to our newsletter when registering we collect your email address and name so that we can correspond with you. Your personal data will be stored on the website and Hubspot, which we use to send our newsletters. You can request to be removed anytime by clicking ‘unsubscribe’ in any newsletter/mailout or by contacting us.

Online data management (analytics and security)

When someone visits our website, we use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns.

We collect information about your computer and about your visits to and use of this website (including your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, length of visit, entry and exit points and the number of page views).

We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site.

This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone.

We do not make and do not permit Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website.

If we do ever want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be upfront about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

Website security and backups

Our website has HTTPS encryption via a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate to ensure any data passed between your browser and the web server (where this website is hosted) is encrypted. When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear on the bottom of web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.

This website and its database are automatically backed up every day via our hosting provider AWS (Amazon Web Services). Backups are stored for 90 days in the EU Region.

Links to Other Web Sites

This Privacy Notice does not cover the links within our site linking to other websites. Those sites are not governed by this Privacy Notice, and if you have questions about how a site uses your information, you will need to check that site’s privacy information.

Cookies

Like most websites, the Smarta website uses cookies to collect information. Cookies are small data files which store information on your browser, your computer, or other connected devices (such as smart phones or tablets). Cookies allow us to recognise that you have visited our website previously.

Cookies are essential for the effective operation of our website; they make it easier for you to maintain your preferences on our website and improve your web browsing experience.

The cookies stored on your browser, computer, or other device when you access our websites are designed by Smarta, or on behalf of us, and are necessary to improve your use of our site.

Some cookies collect information about browsing behaviour when you access this website via the same browser, computer, or device. This includes information about pages viewed and your journey around a website. We do not use cookies to collect or record information on your name, address or other contact details.

A cookie often includes a randomly generated number which is stored on your device. Many cookies are automatically deleted after you finish using the website.

Use of Cookies

This website does not store any information that would, on its own, allow us to identify individual users of this service without their permission. Any cookies that may be used on this website are used either solely on a per session basis or to maintain user preferences. Cookies are not shared with any third parties.

The main purposes for which cookies are used are:

  • For technical purposes essential to effective operation of our websites, particularly in relation to site navigation.

  • To enable us to collect information about your browsing patterns, including to monitor the success of conveying our information to you.

Types of cookies that may be used during your visit to the website are listed below:

Cookie Name

Expiration Time

What It Does

smartabusinessdirectory_session

1 Day

Session cookies are a way of storing the user information across multiple user requests via secure encrypted cookies. This cookie will be deleted after the current session is finished.

XSRF-TOKEN

1 Day

CSRF "token" for each active user session managed by the application. This token is used to verify that the authenticated user is the one making the requests to the application.

_ga

2 Years

Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.

_gid

1 Day

Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.

_gat

1 Day

Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate.

_fbp

3 Months

This cookie is used to measure, track, and retarget with Facebook ads.

How do I disable cookies?

Most browsers allow you to reject all cookies, whilst some browsers allow you to reject just third-party cookies. For example, in Chrome, you can block or allow all cookies by default. On your computer, open Chrome. At the top right, click ‘More Settings’, then under 'Privacy and security', click Cookies and other site data and select an option.

How you can do this will depend on the browser you use. Further details on how to disable cookies for the most popular browsers are set out below. Please be aware that blocking all cookies will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites, including ours.

Microsoft Internet Explorer
1. From the Tools menu, select Internet Options.
2. Click on the Privacy tab.
3. Select the appropriate settings.

Google Chrome
1. Choose Settings> Advanced
2. Under “Privacy and security,” click “Content settings”.
3. Click “Cookies”

Safari
1. Choose Preferences > Privacy
2. Click on “Remove all Website Data”

Mozilla Firefox
1. Choose the menu “tools” then “Options”
2. Click on the icon “privacy”
3. Find the menu “cookie” and select the relevant options

Opera 6.0 and further
1. Choose the menu Files”> “Preferences”
2. Privacy

International transfers

To deliver a full range of services to you, it may be necessary for us to share your data outside of the European Economic Area. This will typically occur when service providers are located outside the EEA or if you are based outside the EEA. These transfers are subject to special rules under GDPR.

If this happens, we will ensure that the transfer will be compliant with data protection law and all personal data will be secure. Our standard practice will be to use ‘standard data protection clauses’ which have been approved by the European Commission for such transfers. Those clauses can be accessed on the  European Commission website.

How you can help protect your personal information

If you are using a computing device in a public location, we recommend that you always log out and close the website browser when you complete an online session.

In addition, we recommend that you take the following security measures to enhance your online safety:

  • Keep your account passwords private. Remember, anybody who knows your password may be able to access your account.

  • When creating a password, use at least 10 characters. A combination of letters, symbols and numbers is best. Try not to use easy to guess words, your name, email address, or other personal data that can be easily obtained. We also recommend that you frequently change your passwords.

  • Avoid using the same password for multiple online accounts.

Your rights in respect of the personal information we hold

We fully support and facilitate the ability of people to exercise their rights in respect of the personal information supplied to others. See our Privacy Policy -  https://transmitgroup.co.uk/privacy-policy/

If you wish to correct, complain, object, or otherwise control the data we hold please contact us and we will respond accordingly.

Please contact us if you have any questions about how your personal information is being used or if you are unhappy about our service or anything we do. We will do our best to resolve the issue.

An overview of your different rights

You have the right to request:

  • Access to the personal information we hold about you, free of charge.

  • The correction of your personal information when incorrect, out of date or incomplete.

  • For example, when you withdraw consent, or object and we have no legitimate overriding interest, or once the purpose for which we hold the personal information has come to an end.

  • That we stop using your personal information for direct marketing (either through specific channels, or all channels).

  • That we stop any consent-based processing of your personal information after you withdraw that consent.

Your right to withdraw consent

Whenever you have given us your consent to use your personal information, you have the right to change your mind at any time and withdraw that consent.

Where we rely on our legitimate interest

In cases where we are processing your personal information based on our legitimate interest, you can ask us to stop for reasons connected to your individual situation. We must then do so unless we believe we have a legitimate overriding reason to continue processing your personal information.

Direct marketing

You have the right to stop the use of your personal information for direct marketing activity through all channels, or selected channels. We must always comply with your request.

How you can access the personal information we hold

You can access a copy of the personal information we hold by submitting a Subject Access Request to us using the contact details below.

We will respond to as soon as possible, and in any event, within one month of verifying the request. Our Subject Access Request policy can be provided on request.

To protect the confidentiality of your personal information, we will ask you to verify your identity before proceeding with any request you make under this Privacy Notice. If you have authorised a third party to submit a request on your behalf, we will ask them to prove they have your permission to act.

Getting in touch with Smarta

We can be contacted at:

Smarta,

Northern Design Centre,

Baltic Business Quarter,

Abbott's Hill,

Gateshead,

NE8 3DF

Book a call

Email:  info@transmitstartups.co.uk

The Supervisory Authority in the UK

The Supervisory Authority in the UK is the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

Transmit Start-Ups Ltd can be found on the Data Protection Register. The registration number is ZA047144.

Complaints

If you would like to make a complaint about the way your personal data has been handled by Smarta, you can contact us using the details given above. Our complaints policy can also be provided on request.

Alternatively, you can refer your complaint to the ICO -  https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/