FORT SMITH, Arkansas — There is no question the COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on businesses. For more than a year, they had to take extra safety and cleaning precautions, contend with regulations limiting the number of customers and at times shut their doors.
And they had to meet customer needs while alleviating the fears and resentment of the public.
Still, even with all the trials and hardships, many Fort Smith businesses saw success, during a year when success was not necessarily the norm.
A group of University of Arkansas at Fort Smith students spent the last few months studying why. What they learned was that as many in the city are fond of saying, Fort Smithians have grit.
“This pandemic has challenged all leaders to be creative, flexible, and resilient. We came to the determination that the success of the businesses was based on the leadership’s response to the pandemic instead of what industry they were in. The businesses that saw the least decline in sales had leaders that saw opportunity in the challenges, pivoted, and turned the challenges that they faced into positive opportunities for the businesses. The business leaders that were not creative in how they adapted to the challenges of the pandemic ended up either temporarily or permanently closing or having to lay-off employees,” a report submitted by a group of students in the Collaborative Capstone Class at UAFS states.
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