How this Buddhist principle helps to build agile and thriving businesses.

Over 10 years ago I left the security of a monthly pay cheque and entered the business ‘school of hard knocks’. For me, business provided a fast track (on steroids) to some of life’s important lessons, especially around unhealthy and costly attachments. Looking at our journey, I can see clearly how the first Buddhist principle inspired us in the development of our remote workforce ventures in the healthcare and medical sector. ‘Life is suffering’; the principle that everything is transient, and suffering arises from attachment to things.

One insight that continues to be a driving force for us was learnt early on in my career, during the 2007 global financial crisis and just after I completed a month’s meditation in silence in a Buddhist monastery. I was working in Mayfair, UK, for a real estate fund with some of the highest office rents in London. I witnessed countless businesses fail with devastating outcomes for the founders, stakeholders, and staff. Many could have survived if only they were more agile and not locked into high-cost permanent contracts, preventing them from adapting swiftly to the crumbling market conditions.

Driven to create a future-proof business model, we integrated strategies enabling a business to easily detach, adapt and maintain flexibility; just one of our rational applications to the Buddhists belief, ‘attachments cause suffering’.

Reduce high fixed permanent overheads to stay agile.

The businesses we later established were built on this very premise. Not only in our own ethos but in the service we deliver to our clients. For us that simply meant;

• Keep permanent employee contracts for key staff.
  Our workforce is engaged under flexible work agreements, giving us and our clients the ability to adjust their remote team quickly and easily. Our clients use a hybrid workforce strategy, employing a mix of office and home-based workers. Their remote team provide administration support to in-house employees, freeing up their front desk to deliver an exceptional face to face experience to the customer.
• No fixed long-term service contracts.
  This can apply across various types of service agreements, from software to equipment hire. For our clients, this means they have the flexibility to downscale their remote team at any time, with only one month’s notice and no termination costs. We don’t believe in locking clients into long-term contracts. We let our service speak for itself.
• No fixed office leases.
  Office occupancy costs per seat represent a high cost for any business. All our staff work remotely under a decentralised system, with each home workstation regularly audited and fully secured. This low-cost approach and not being locked into a commercial lease, removes one of the largest and often riskiest expenses from the books. Our clients can’t completely avoid fixed rents given that clinics and many businesses are location bound; however, they can reduce their office space requirements via adopting a hybrid workforce approach.

These three measures have helped us to remain nimble, minimise our liabilities and reduce our costs, which we then pass on for the benefit of our clients.

We’ve had our share of challenges; show me a business of over 7 years that hasn’t. As a remote workforce partner, our clients can leverage from our experience and implement a new way of operating to best navigate the complex challenges of this high inflationary, and unpredictable business environment. If you haven’t embraced the remote workforce paradigm yet, now is the time to start. According to the third annual “Future Workforce Report” from Upwork, 73% of all teams will have remote workers by 2028. Businesses will be well positioned to thrive if they meet the ever-changing workforce needs and can adapt swiftly to all market conditions.

Are you ready to join one of the greatest workplace revolutions of our times?

Follow us on Linkedin (Allied Orbit) ; Linkedin (Eliza Gilbertson) to stay connected.
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About Allied Orbit

Allied Orbit is a healthcare operational advisory helping practices across Australia and New Zealand build sustainable capacity through the right blend of workflow redesign, Human-in-the-Loop AI, and specialist remote professionals. We diagnose before we prescribe because the right answer looks different for every practice, and clarity should always come before implementation.

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