COVID19 is Your Permission To Shift To The Future.
The world post-COVID19 will be very different from we just left a few weeks back!
Each crisis has brought dramatic changes in consumer, business and social behavior. At the time, some of the changes accelerated what was already in motion. Other entirely unanticipated.
Whatever changes this crisis will wrought will take time to play out. However, there will be no return to business-as-usual.
We Are All Changing Right Now!
Consumers, employees and businesses are adopting to this our new reality at speed. We have no choice.
As consumers we are adjusting behaviors to protect ourselves, to help our children continue their schooling, to shop for the basics, to be productive at work. Out of necessity, more consumers are purchasing groceries and health supplies online for the first time. For many consumers this new habit will stick. For any consumer company, not having e-commerce channels is a huge miss.
Entire industries are being decimated — Travel, entertainment, bars, restaurants, traditional retail to name a few. Many of these entities will die, others severely wounded. All will be changed.
This crisis will forever change how companies operate from diversifying supply chains, to streamlining and digitizing business operations, to financial planning and enabling employees to be productive in any environment. Companies with an existing customer-serving digital infrastructure are adjusting much easier to this change. The rest are scrambling. They are learning that the transition to a digital infrastructure is no longer optional but a necessity for survival.
Working from home is changing how companies get work done, driving transparency and revealing the deficiencies and inefficiencies of the corporate bureaucracy. What impact will this have long term? We won’t know for a while. What we do know is those companies with flat structures and simplified decision-making are more rapidly adjusting and pivoting in crisis. Could this finally spell the end of the industry-revolution era org chart?
And how will the crisis change how we treat front-lines workers? Those who are putting their health and lives on the line to keep us healthy, keep ports open, deliveries coming, shelves stocked, taxis operating, trains running, etc? Many lack protective gear they need and lack financial security. A number of companies are admirably stepping up to better protect against the threat to health and providing additional compensation. However not all companies are. How well companies embrace their responsibilities in this time will be a legacy in their future.
There will be no going back to business as usual.
The Market Is Giving You Permission. Don’t Blow It! Don’t Waste it!
If you are a publicly-traded company, your stock price has probably taken a big hit along with the general market. Yet, this is your golden opportunity to reset the narrative.
Very quickly the market will be looking for you to articulate your future direction, your learnings from this crisis and how you are re-tooling your company to win in the future.
The market will reward those companies that go on offense and redefine themselves for the future rather than the past. Don’t blow it!
Future Winners Are Making the Bold Moves
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin.
Right now, one of your competitors or a new company is view this as the opportunity to make a substantial leap and is investing forward. They are implementing the tactics to managing through the crisis AND deploying resources against future strategies.
Out of the last crisis new businesses and business models were born that reshaped entire industries. This will be no different with changing customer behaviors and greater penetration of modes of working.
What should you be doing?
Ditch the Incremental Mindset! Incremental improvements don’t result in meaningful outcomes and now your only option is meaningful outcomes. And no customer will switch for a solution that is incrementally better, they only switch for a meaningful better solution. Incrementalism is no different than failing slowly. Make the choice to be bold to win.
Anchor in Values! 20+ years ago when companies were able to operate in magnificent isolation to the needs of society. That is no longer an option. Consumers are increasingly holding companies accountable for their impact on the broader world. Expect this crisis to accelerate these demands for how well companies to serve all stakeholders and to eliminate practices for short-term stock price gain. Now is the opportunity to reset.
Commit to Winning the Future! Imagine your company five years from now. Even in a scenario where economic recovery takes a prolonged period, there is new growth to be had. Set ambitious goals, select those customer problems where you have customer permission and capabilities to win, and anchor in customers to learn how to better solve their problems.
Be Clear-Eyed! on what needs to be done to transform the company for the future. A crisis is like a receding tide, it reveals the rocks beneath the surface that were there all along. Now is the time to be decisive to strip out unnecessary organizational complexity, flatten the organization, replace silos with squads, support functions to be “in service” to the business not power brokers, and invest in the skills of your people.
Now is the time to shift to the Future!
