With COVID-19 being a force for disruption and instability for the past nine months, businesses facing fatigue and uncertainty have done their utmost to weather the storm and ensure survival, until life returns to some semblance of normality, or the so called new normal.

When COVID-19 hit Malta, thousands of businesses found themselves with a desperate need to update their operations to meet the mammoth shift in the way Malta and the rest of the world conduct business. This led to countless discussions and articles by people seeking to advise organisations on the steps to take in order to survive.

Enter Silvan Mifsud, a seasoned professional who is currently engaged as a Director at EMCS, where he is responsible for areas related to general business advice ranging from business strategy, operations or financial advice, with a special focus on SMEs & Family Businesses.

He holds a degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Malta and an MBA from the University of Reading, with specialisation electives in corporate finance and leadership in management.

Silvan’s larger-than-life personality, professional experience and ability to cut through the noise has played an important role in terms of advising businesses, especially those that are family-owned, on how to put their best foot forward and survive the COVID-19 storm.

His academic experience, together with his professional experience, were the perfect ingredients for Silvan’s blog, Business Insights, to shine. With a sharp eye towards developments in the East, Silvan launched his blog mid-February 2020. Just a month later, Malta found itself with the first cases of the virus and a pungent stench of change wafting through the air.

Silvan’s blog covers a wide range of issues faced by businesses large and small, while his keen interest into the inner workings of family businesses is evident from the number of articles penned by the business advisor on family set-ups.

Apart from family businesses being of particular interest to Silvan, tackling issues pertaining to such businesses remains highly relevant, as shown by a Government survey carried out in 2019 which found that 75 per cent of registered businesses in Malta are family-owned.

Speaking to WhosWho.mt about his blog and the kind of insight he provides, Silvan shares that he has been working in business advisory for many years.

“When COVID arrived, everything changed in a matter of days,” he says.

“Businesses quickly realised that a lot of issues previously swept under the carpet for years came to the surface. Issues emerged with corporate governance, strategic direction, internal control mechanisms, organisational structure and areas as basic as proper corporate communication.

“Many businesses found themselves in situations where these areas within their business were either rudimental, or non-existent.”

Silvan adds that such businesses suddenly realised that all he has just described are not just pretty corporate words, “but they are real tools to serve a real purpose”.

Going through Silvan’s blog, common themes quickly emerge. With issues of the need for independent voices within family-owned businesses, the importance of e-commerce in this pandemic-stricken world, change management and business re-engineering, fatigue and mental health all featuring prominently throughout the past nine months.

In terms of issues related to family businesses, one striking element which Silvan has found to be common is the prevalence of micro-management.

“Everyone is a micromanager, but without proper business strategists and leaders, micromanagement becomes a huge issue.”

“The main issues, especially when it comes to SMEs and family businesses, is that decision-takers are normally focused on what I call the engine room,” says Silvan.

By engine room, he is referring to the internal day-to-day operations of a business, with owners and directors focussed on the intricate details that go with the running of a business.

Silvan paints a picture to illustrate his point. “A business is like a ship, and family-owners and leadership teams are always in the engine room, shifting coal and making sure the engine is running efficiently, with no one ever going up on the bridge to see where this ship is heading (strategic direction) and if it is going to hit any iceberg.”

When it comes to strategy, change management, independent persons on the Board, planning, budgeting and digitalisation, Silvan adds, ‘big picture’ changes completely escape some decision makers, or are carried out in an unprofessional manner.

Beyond the problems this approach causes under business-as-usual conditions, consequences of mismanagement quickly rear their ugly head in the COVID-19 era, he stresses.

“This is because businesses were faced with a sudden drop in turnover, a business operating model that had to be changed completely and quickly, a dire need for businesses to digitalise themselves swiftly, while family members found themselves unable to deal with such a difficult situation as they lacked internal structures and control mechanism they could rely on to make the change happen. Many are not used to leading under times of crisis or are simply not trained to do so.

“The fact that these businesses did not have someone to guide them, like an independent Board of Director, or a consultant, created big issues for navigating the road ahead.”

Here, Silvan mentions that a positive outcome of the pandemic has been that businesses have realised that having an external business consultant to help shape up a business on professional lines is indeed a necessity.

Between updating his blog with new items every few days, people in the business community discussing issues they are facing and clients needing his assistance, he has spent the year with a telephone glued to his ear, as businesses quickly realised, they needed to shape up.