‘We need to empower our teams to think long-term too,’ Lawrence Zammit advises leaders

Looking back at how 2022 has panned out so far, MISCO Founding Partner and Director Lawrence Zammit describes the year as “challenging and fraught”. As the world emerged from COVID restrictions, war at the periphery of Europe’s boarders brought with it new economic realities that necessitated leaders to recalibrate their business plans and forecasts.

And, whilst trying to stay positive and hopeful, Mr Zammit can’t help but envisage “an economic downturn for the next economic cycle”.

So, how does one get through this? The first thing to do, according to Mr Zammit, is to learn from the challenges. The main lesson that 2022 taught him, for example, is that “even the best plans can be disrupted by events totally outside one’s control.” In such cases, it’s up to the individual whether to choose to sink or swim.

Drawing on this thought, Mr Zammit emphasises the importance for business owners across the board (and everyone else really) “to plan ahead for the longer term”. Gone are the days of simply reacting to the day-to-day issues that we encounter. This past year has taught us that, even when we think that things can’t get any worse, they do.

As business leaders “we need to empower our teams to think long-term too”, Mr Zammit adds.

This is the only way in which we can motivate and engage our members of staff “to be more value centred. In turn, this will transpire in the products and services that we offer too.”

“Business-wise, we need to be sober as we move into 2023”, Mr Zammit advises. The current economic situation makes it very difficult to predict what next year could look like. As an Economist, he feels that “the increasing rate of inflation and the consequential increase in interest rates, the disruptions in the supply chain that have not been solved, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine with its risks to global security” are the major threats for the next economic cycle.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Mr Zammit also feels that with the right attitude and a good level “of sobriety in our economy,” businesses should still manage to pull through.