Over that last few weeks, I have been talking with dozens of people in Europe and North America. Of course, everybody’s talking about the pandemic and, as most of the people in my network are positive upbeat people they have been talking about the inevitable recovery. And as part of my network, I assume you too are thinking about the recovery.
You may not know this, but I have an honors degree in English and thus, for me, words are very, very important. So, starting now can we all please start talking about the Rebound?
Why Rebound? You see, recovery suggests that we will be returning to some previous state. Well, that simply isn’t going to happen! Where we were is gone, and the future will be radically different. Those that use this time to gather their energies, marshal their forces and imagine the future will do well. For all those others who are hoping simply to ‘recover’, the future is a lot less rosy.
I’m old enough to know from experience that any sort of disruption small or large (like this one) will create opportunities – your challenge is to have the courage to invest the time and energy to position yourself for that Rebound.
Let’s be clear, this is not a grand strategy approach – we are not attempting the equivalent of restructuring the North American steel industry with a KPMG-sized budget. No, we are going to move fast and light. We are looking for opportunities that we can pounce on quickly and ride the waves of change that we have identified.
To help you KCL has created The 5-Step Rebound Plan ©
The 5-Step Rebound Plan Outline
To varying degrees, we have all taken a hit with the measures that have been put in place to deal with COVID-19. So, how are you doing? We need to assess your current status, as that is the baseline from which you can move on. We will assess many areas including:
1. Team - 6s and 9s – who’s on the bus?
2. Culture positive, negative, adaptive
3. Current product/service competencies
4. Physical plant
5. Customer relationships
6. Channel relationships
7. Brand strength
The world as we knew it is changing – some aspect will be changing radically, some very little, some changes are fast and will continue to be so, other much slower. What are those and how will they affect you? Many of you will know about PESTLE analysis that helps us to make working assumptions about the future; whereas formerly we could take reasonable ‘guesses’ about what the future would look like, there is now much more uncertainty. And therein lies the opportunity – the future is ours to create.
1. Politics
2. Economy
3. Social
4. Technology
5. Legal
6. Environment
Business Processes
Now it’s time to look at which processes that your business has traditionally depended on and that now have to be reinvented. Some we have identified include:
1. Marketing
2. Buying and selling
3. Logisitcs
4. Financial
5. Communications
§ High bandwidth at home, on-site, in the office
§ Can you hear me, Can you see me – can no longer be accepted questions
§ File transfer, file share, confidentiality – know it or lose it.
Business Relationships
Which relationships have become unglued? So many traditional pairings and groupings have become unstable and are open to new ways of working. Again, here are some of our examples:
1. Banking
2. International trust
3. Social / Corporate Charity
4. Political leadership
5. Corporate trust (VS Core purpose)
And finally, feelings and emotions. All decisions are emotional and supported to varying degrees by logic. What is different? How do people feel now? Some ideas:
1. Is it really over
2. I need to protect myself
3. Who can I trust – no backup.
4. I can trust people (human scale business)
Step 5 – Innovate
Now that you have identified the changes and cracks in the old way of doing things, it’s time to explore how to play in the new environment.
What will you do differently? Either your product or service will change, your customer base or the mindset of your existing customers will change, the way you get your product or service to market will change – your supply chain, your competitors will change. Within the resources you have, what are you going to pick to work on first?
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To benefit from this 5-Step Rebound Plan you will of course need to take action. You’ll need to organize and inspire your team to work towards your new objectives.
In these interesting times it is important to help each other as best we can. We are consultants so that is how we help. We want to help you Rebound. Here’s how:
We are providing free 5-Step Rebound workshops to management teams as time permits. The workshops will be held on our Zoom conference network. If you are interested in a workshop or simply want to discuss your Rebound please contact me personally ([email protected]) If there are others who you think would benefit, please forward this to them but remember, we are looking for companies that want to Rebound – not simply recover!
Keep your distance, wash your hands and stay well!
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