The economic downturn is here, and it’s not going away anytime soon. You can’t ignore it and assume that things will get back to normal eventually; you have to start acting now.

In this article, we’ll show you how to survive the economic downturn by using a few basic business principles that have been around for years but are just as relevant today as they were then:

Prioritise your topline

• Focus on what’s most important.
• Prioritise your top line.
• Remember that everyone can’t be number one in everything.
• Focus on what you can control, not the external factors that are beyond your control (and don’t matter).

Innovate and create new things

Innovation is the key to survival. It doesn’t matter if you’re a business or an individual, innovation is something that will help you get through these tough economic times. Innovation does not only mean technology; it can also be in the form of new products and services or even business models.

Innovation is a continuous process that starts from within yourself and then moves to your team members and then finally outside into the marketplace. It’s not just about creating something new; it’s also about making your existing business processes more efficient so they run faster while still meeting customer needs at an affordable price point (if possible).

Put your people first

Your people are the most important asset of your company. They are your brand, culture, customers, investors and even your future. In this economy, you can’t afford to be without them.

Because everyone is looking for new job opportunities or leaving their current ones behind in search of greener pastures (or just because they don’t have a choice), it’s more important than ever that you keep your best employees around and make sure they’re happy with their jobs so they stay put and convince other people to join too!

It’s also crucial that you focus on building an amazing team that will do great things together as one unit rather than trying to accomplish everything yourself by yourself all day every day with no help from anyone else at all except maybe some interns who showed up last minute because they saw the job posting online late at night while drunk browsing sites like Monster or Zillow after having spent hours playing video games instead of studying for finals like normal college students should’ve done but didn’t because life sucks sometimes so why bother doing anything productive when there’s Netflix available 24/7 waiting for us?

Use technology to your advantage

• Use technology to your advantage.
• Improve efficiency, communication and security in your business.
• Create an improved customer experience.

Optimise your spending, but not at the cost of innovation

The most obvious way to survive the recession is to optimise your spending. In this case, “optimise” means that you focus on spending money on the things that matter the most and give up spending any on those that don’t.

Also Read: Winter for tech startups is here? Here’s how to deal with it

For example, if you’re a restaurant owner and you notice that your profit margins are declining, then it would make sense for you to cut back on advertising or marketing efforts until business improves again.

However, there’s another side of this equation as well, in order to optimise your spending and keep costs in check while still being able to grow during these difficult times, you need innovation.

The key here is understanding where exactly your company stands right now and what exactly it needs at this point in time. You should look at all expenditures as investments; much like with investing funds into stocks or bonds (or whatever), it’s important not only when but how much money gets invested into something before determining whether or not those investments were worthwhile ones!

So think carefully about how valuable each dollar spent actually was! If a particular expenditure didn’t deliver results out of proportion with its cost then maybe we shouldn’t have spent so much money there after all.

Focus on cash flow and balance sheet management

• Focus on cash flow and balance sheet management
• Manage cash flow and inventory
• Use technology to improve cash flow
• Use technology to improve inventory management
• Use technology to improve your financial reporting
• Use technology to improve your credit management

Do what you can do the best to survive the economic downturn

• Focus on your strengths
• Have a strong team
• Keep your costs down
• Be flexible in the face of change and uncertainty; if you don’t know what to do, just keep doing what you’re doing for now (or go back to school)
• Have a plan for when things get better again

Final thoughts

To sum up, the only way to survive an economic downturn is to focus on your strengths and do what you do best.

If you’re an expert at something, make sure that your company does it well. If you have good people working for you, keep them happy and productive. Remember that just because times are hard doesn’t mean they always will be, so don’t give up on your dreams!

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Singapore-based impact investor Circulate Capital has announced the third close of Circulate Capital Ocean Fund I-B (CCOF I-B), bringing its total commitments to US$53 million.

International Finance Corporation invested US$10 million in CCOF I-B , while Proparco, a subsidiary of Agence Française de Développement (AFD) devoted to private-sector financing, injected US$5.6 million. IFC’s investment includes an equity commitment of US$5 million from the Finland-IFC Blended Finance for Climate Change Program.

The latest close brings Circulate Capital’s total assets under management to US$165 million. This comes more than seven months after it announced a US$25 million second close of CCOF I-B. The fund was launched in June 2021.

Also Read: Lack of visibility, track record deter VCs from investing in firms combating plastic pollution: Rob Kaplan of Circulate Capital

CCOF I-B invests in companies across the plastic recycling and waste-management value chains. It also supports early-stage firms working on new delivery models, advanced recycling technologies, and new alternatives to single-use plastic.

“The race to unlock the investment potential of the circular economy is heating up,” said Rob Kaplan, CEO and Founder of Circulate Capital. “With institutional investors like IFC and Proparco jumping in alongside global corporations, foundations, and family offices, and several of our portfolio companies achieving significant milestones, it’s clear that the time to invest in the circular economy is now.”

CCOF I-B is also backed by a number of international investors, including Align Impact, Builders Vision, Benjamin Duncan Group, DF Impact Capital, Eden Impact, Huang Chen Foundation, Jebsen & Jessen, Minderoo Foundation, Rumah Group, North-East Family Office, SK2 Fund, Twynam Investments, the Woodcock Foundation, and Neil Yeoh of OnePointFive.

In April 2022, Circulate Capital announced an expected commitment to be made later this year by the European Investment Bank (EIB), which will invest up to US$20 million in CCOF I-B.

Also Read: Climate tech is in a chicken-and-egg situation in Southeast Asia

William Sonneborn, IFC’s Senior Director of Disruptive Technologies and Funds, said: “The fund will help address plastic pollution and climate change through critical investments in recycling, waste management, and innovations in alternate materials and advanced recycling technologies. It will also increase access to much-needed capital for the small and medium-sized enterprises delivering these important solutions.”

Circulate Capital aims to deploy catalytic capital in partnership with leading corporations and investors to scale solutions that advance the circular economy and prevent the flow of plastic waste into the ocean in South and Southeast Asia. Launched in October 2018, the impact VC firm formed Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF) with US$106 million raised from several large corporate partners and Limited Partners, including PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Danone, Dow, P&G, and Unilever, and backed by USAID.

Circulate Capital has invested more than US$50 million in over a dozen companies, including Tridi Oasis, ACE Green Recycling, and Reciki.

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With supply chain disruption set to continue, harnessing technology is crucial in ensuring results-oriented risk management. In the Asia Pacific, at least 66 per cent of CEOs are concerned about their supply chains and rank it as their top threat to business growth.

For the region’s businesses, these hurdles can be overcome with effective investments and holistic management in technologies that improve traceability, develop collaboration and ensure faster, more cost-effective product delivery.

Overcoming risks via transparency

Blockchain is a secure decentralised database that has become a vital tool to ensure critical and sensitive data is protected. This unique network enhances accountability and trust among partners as data stored on the blockchain is immutable, which means it cannot be controlled or managed by a single source.

A shining example of its real-world use case would be its deployment in Thailand’s food and agriculture sectors. With digitalisation high on its agenda, the Thai government adopted blockchain technology to support, TraceThai.

The national traceability system was developed to ensure that organic foods were traded sustainably and transparently. Encrypted by blockchain to maintain data privacy and falsification, consumer confidence in the nation’s organic food sectors.

Enhanced visibility for decision making

Decision-makers need to access real-time information to assess their approach to service levels and demand.  The need to know about the current state of a business supply chain is critical especially when disruptions are happening in the market. Having the right data at their disposal allows for accurate and effective decisions that help manoeuvre unexpected situations.

Also Read: Asia-led global supply chain needs to reinvent itself to address climate change

For instance, the supply chain that is set to be revamped by blockchain is the food supply chain, especially the distribution of fresh produce. One of the costliest parts of food distribution is the recalls and it has been a major burden for the industry.

However, with the use of blockchain, businesses can use to increase the visibility and traceability of their products. For instance, animal feed supply chains can be tracked with blockchain from farm to store in real-time. Besides that, its function can also be used to monitor and control the spread of diseases in the animal feed which will reduce the financial impact of recalls.

Customer-centric supply chain

For businesses today, success hinges on effective supply chain management. The customer-facing downstream supply chain demand is now edging upwards, which forces upstream players like distributors, manufacturers and shippers to play catch up with the demand downstream.

Today, logistics has evolved into an important element of the overall brand experience and making it a more efficient and transparent process is imperative. Consumer demands for faster delivery and high availability have resulted in a greater focus on consumer-facing experiences in supply chain management.

A joint report by Facebook and Bain & Co. revealed that this was a key factor in customer retention for 32 per cent of the region’s consumers. These trends point to the fact that businesses cannot afford to neglect their customers and should build a customer-first supply chain.

How, then, should businesses, especially upstream supply chain players, adapt accordingly?

The answer lies in digitisation, specifically, harnessing blockchain to do away with unnecessary manual processes that impede traceability and transactions more generally.

With solutions that automatically collect data from multiple tiers of the supplier network, blockchain streamlines communication and validation between supply chain parties. This enables customer needs to be met in a timely fashion and ensures businesses are lean and cost-efficient by ensuring real-time assessment throughout the supply chain.

With the authentication of multi-party transactions crucial in the age of complex supply chains and disruption, dynamism and agility are business’ best bet for the future.

As the Asia Pacific continues down the path of digitalisation, it is high time that the region’s ports and shippers, too, embrace these efforts. Simply put, traditional supply chain management does not cut it, due to its limitations on simultaneous transportation of information with goods.

On the other hand, digitising trade via disruptive technology like blockchain will simplify procurement by streamlining data to save costs, reduce the working capital cycle and manage risk more effectively and efficiently.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

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Singapore-based fintech startup SuperAtom has raised US$22 million in Series C financing led by Malaysia-based digital investment fund Nue 3 Capital.

The startup will use the funding to expand its global digital banking and credit products, starting with Mexico and the greater Latin America region.

Scarlett Xiao, Founder and CEO of SuperAtom, said: “In the coming months, we will begin establishing a local presence in these countries by hiring local talent, applying for local financial licenses, and focusing on new product development.”

Also Read: ‘Asia’s BNPL sector has great potential’, says Akulaku CEO William Li

Founded in 2018 by Cheetah Mobile Co-Founder Scarlett Xiao, SuperAtom has developed UangMe, a credit platform providing access to low-cost financing in Indonesia. UangMe claims to have attracted millions of users and disbursed hundreds of millions of dollars in loans since launching in 2018.

In addition to this, SuperAtom also offers a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) feature.

SuperAtom sees comprehensive financial services for emerging market users as an essential move to win market share. It said that its lending and BNPL businesses have paved the way to serve consumers better and build trust with commercial partners, while other add-on features would gain significant consumer adoption.

In the future, the firm plans to introduce wealthtech products.

In September 2019, SuperAtom raised US$24 million from Gobi Partners and a consortium of investors.

According to research by Bain & Company, over six in ten Southeast Asians remain underbanked or unbanked today with limited access to credit, and an even larger portion of the population is unfamiliar with wealth management.

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DART, a Manila-based quick commerce startup, has announced a pre-seed funding round of US$1.3 million led by Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. and existing investor Kaya Founders.

The startup, which currently serves Makati and Mandaluyong, will use the funds to expand to new cities shortly.

DART was founded in early 2022 by Harm-Julian Schumacher (CEO) and Tommy Campos (COO).

Schumacher was formerly deputy GM (Germany) European Q-commerce major Gorillas and previously worked with Bain & Company and Rocket Internet. Campos has built up his operational expertise at delivery behemoths Uber and Postmates.

DART promises grocery delivery within 15 minutes of placing an order. It provides various goods, including popular snacks, drinks, fresh produce, dry and frozen goods, and local partnership brands.

Also Read: The future of social and quick commerce for developing countries

The firm plans to tap the underserved online grocery market to grow its presence in the Philippines. With its 110 million people and an annual grocery spend of above US$50 billion, the country represents one of the most attractive markets in Southeast Asia for quick delivery service companies, it said.

The Q-commerce firm has also entered into an operational and supply partnership with Robinsons Supermarket. “This partnership provides an extreme value to our business, from the access to a large assortment, advantageous prices as well as leveraging Robinsons existing supply chain infrastructure,” Schumacher said.

Campos added, “We have tested many orders in the last months to understand our customers and operations better and fine-tune our offering. We have seen that 99 per cent of our orders are getting delivered within 15 minutes and are now confident to scale our business to more customers.

According to the e-Conomy study by Google, Bain & Company and Temasek, the penetration level is only 2 per cent compared to 25 per cent in the non-grocery space.

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