Forget business as usual

Most of us can’t wait for 2020 to end. The Pandemic has brought illness and death, fear and disappointment, separation and confinement, economic loss and tremendous uncertainty. We desperately want to get back to “business as usual.”

But the reality is now setting in that the Pandemic and then its enduring after-effects will be with us for a very long time. Business will not be “usual” for the next several years, if not considerably longer.

Added to our dawning awareness of long-term change is our sudden societal reckoning with the enduring legacy of Black enslavement. We are called to sort out what our responsibilities and responses need to be if we are finally to be a country and a world of equality.

A clarion call!

Many of my blog posts are lengthy, because I am exploring fundamental concepts and opportunities related to finding a better future and getting down the road to that future.

This post is not a long treatise. It’s a short clarion call! Change is at our gates, and if we don’t address it, we are opening ourselves up to the possibilities of more loss and diminishment.

Here’s the point: Our business models, premises and strategies have been built for a pre-COVID-19, pre-Black Lives Matter world. That world is gone. Yes, it is. Let me repeat: That world is gone.

The five-month challenge

In the past three months I have taken 28 business owners, professionals and entrepreneurs through the Strategy Re-Planning Process I devised in response to the onset of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

This process has helped virtually every one (I know, most have told me) reset their business plan for the year in light of the changes imposed by the Pandemic. For some, their plan changes have had to be dramatic. For others, incremental.

While I represent the process as resetting strategy, it is actually more of an annual business plan reset. The question being addressed is, “What do I need to do now to weather the storm, pivot as possible and get through the year?”

That’s important, because the first obligation of a business leader is to protect the business from risk and to at least stay in business.

But with the realization that the storm we thought we are weathering is turning out to be a lasting, hard change in the business climate, a shorter “fix” is likely only to be the start of what the typical business will need to do to be really successful going forward.

I am suggesting that we go beyond stop-gap and short-term measures. I am suggesting that each of us take our business back to fundamentals, rethink it in light of where we are and likely are headed. I am suggesting that we address the new challenges and opportunities brought on by change and then build that reimagined business for greater success.

Here’s a six-step process for resetting your business in a time of great change.

That leads to my five-month challenge to you, to apply this process for the future success of your business. Here it is:

In August, do your homework.

Read, watch and listen to gain greater clarity on the changed environment and its direction.

Talk to others in your circle - and outside of your circle, those with other perspectives, networks, and information resources.

Consider doing some original research - ask your customers, potential customers in your target markets, others in your line of business what they are thinking, seeing, and doing.

Now’s the time to intentionally get as much insight as possible on this new world, how it is affecting customers, prospects, and businesses like yours, and where we are heading in the time ahead.

In September, redevelop your vision and strategy.

It’s time to build your strategic plan. I suggest using a streamlined planning process such as our Fast Track Strategic System.

Find a big strategic vision that acknowledges the changed environment and builds on what you learned from your research. Our research shows that more successful organizations are more likely to have a large and challenging strategic vision and/or goals. More than 70% of more successful organizations have a large and challenging strategic vision and/or goals.

Next, identify and address the strategic gaps. Look for big variances between the future in the strategic vision and where the organization is headed in these challenging times and will likely wind up without intervention. Assess how the gaps might be remedied.

Then develop your themes, goals and strategies.

• Strategy themes identify what strategic areas the related goals and strategies address (such as finance, marketing, human resources and operations).

• Strategic goals are the big things that will be achieved as the organization moves toward its vision. They are measurable. Be sure the strategic goals are SMART goals: Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.

• Strategies are high-impact activities to pursue over the 4-5 year plan timeline that will close gaps, meet the goals and move the organization toward the vision.

In October, retool your business model.

To quote Tony Hunter, former CEO and Publisher of the Chicago Tribune, “When a company makes major changes, it must carefully design every aspect of the structure required to execute the strategy. So, does that mean you have to change your structure to support the new strategy? Yes, you’re learning! How often do you change your structure? As often as you make meaningful changes to your strategy.”

DIg down into the fundamentals of your business to assure that it will work well in a world changed by the Pandemic and Black Lives Matter. See if it will support your strategies to move you to your vision. Think through who you will target and what needs you will address, with what products and/or services. Think about how you will create these products and/or services and how you will get them to your customers or clients. Think about how you generate revenue and how you price.

A good framework to use to retool your business model is the Business Model Canvas, the components of which are:

• Key activities

• Key resources

• Partner network

• Value propositions

• Customer segments

• Channels

• Customer relationships

• Cost structure

• Revenue streams

In November, create your 2021 action plan.

Next, develop next year’s strategic initiatives and action steps for implementing each strategy. This is the annual work plan for strategy implementation. For each initiative and action step, assign responsibility and develop a timeline.

That’s often where planning ends. But the best strategic plans go further. I suggest you consider these added steps:

• From your strategic goals, derive strategic objectives. These are the specific objectives that plan implementation must achieve.

• Then develop your logic model and KPIs. The logic model shows how achieving the objectives will move the organization to the vision. Key Performance Indicators identify what to measure to track attainment of the objectives.

• Finally, create your implementation plan, ideally involving communications to gain and maintain commitment to plan implementation, and using tools such as a dashboard, project management program and check-ins (monthly and quarterly suggested) to track progress.

To illustrate how all the strategic plan elements, check out this summary snapshot of a plan for an arts center.

In December, find your brand promise and build your 2021 budget.

You need two more fundamentals to enter 2021 in a stronger position: A brand promise that works with your new plan and retooled business model. And a budget that supports implementing your plan.

The brand promise and brand messaging that emerge from your branding process (ask me about my branding process if you need one) ought to be the basis of your marketing messaging going forward.

The 2021 budget that you build needs to support your action plan by directing resources to your initiatives and your planned action steps.

Be sure to budget more than financial resources: Also budget time and people. Lacking sufficient funding, dedicated time and appropriate human resources, your plan for success in these troubled times will fall short.

If you discover you cannot conjure up sufficient resources, then you will need to quickly return to your action plan or maybe even your strategies to adjust them so that they reflect the realities of your situation and yet still will let you make progress in 2021.

One last thought as you navigate to year-end: The results of the 2020 Presidential election can be expected to have a great impact on the environment in which we must operate our businesses in 2021 and going forward. Post-election, please look back at your assumptions to be sure that you have appropriately factored the results into your strategies and action plan.

Ready to weigh anchor?

I hope you take me up on the five-month challenge. I know your business will be better off in 2021 if you join in and follow through.

Otherwise, you are leaving your business fate to chance and un-addressed change. As a sailor, I know I am far more likely to make a good port when I am actively sailing the boat. Leaving my course to shifting winds is a recipe for disaster.

If you want to talk through my suggested process before leaving dock - or need a hand along the way - give me a shout. We are all better off if the fleet sails safely to a better place!