The Speed of change = Success
Running any business does mean dealing with multiple challenges. As a business grows it will encounter many opportunities and challenges, and each will demand a different resolution.
Covid-19 is one crises that no one could predict, compared to other crises that are more common. Such as changes in market trends, losing key employees, fire, flooding, data breach and many more.
Reacting, developing and adopting change has not been a choice in the last two years; it has been a necessity to survive. Some have excelled by embracing it to continue to achieve their goals whilst others have either been reluctant to change or struggled to know how.
It’s important to understand that some industries have seen greater challenges than others, but the key issue is how each business has reacted by direct comparison with their competitors. The restaurant that quickly created outdoor seating, online ordering/delivery and takeaway options, may have prospered compared to those that simply folded their arms and shut up shop. Those that developed new skills for ‘virtual’ selling via Zoom, will have done better than those that waited for face to face contact to return.
The one thing Covid-19 has taught us is that the speed of change can impact how successful you will be when dealing with a challenging time.
The speed of change could have been moving your business online.
Gyms and health centres:
Whilst Joe Wicks may have grabbed all the headlines, many gyms and health centres converted onsite training into online workouts. The classes themselves were also adapted to equipment people may have and can use at home. Some clients saw memberships rise as those in enforced lockdown sought interaction with others and craved exercise and distraction.
Retailers:
When all non-essential retailers were forced to close in lock down, Currys reformed their shopping experience to online and called it ShopLive. Currys in store experience offers experts in fields you can talk to about a product or product range they hold. ShopLive allows you to speak to their in store experts online by video call to give their customers the same buying as experience (or as close to) as if they were in the shop.
The speed of change could have been changing your business model to delivery.
Restaurants and cafes:
To avoid the complete shutdown of business some restaurants and cafes decided quickly to continue to deliver a dining-out experience through a delivery service to simply survive. The demand was there as for their customers enjoying their favourite food on a Friday or Saturday night helped to break up the weeks in lock down. Now that they are re-open some are still offering deliveries due to the popular demand. One London Pizza chain moved to selling online kits with a baking stone, ingredients and links to YouTube tutorials.
The speed of change could have been changing the workplace and technology.
Offices:
In the height of the pandemic office workers were forced to work from home. This meant businesses had to adopt (if they hadn’t already) laptops and online communication software like Microsoft Teams and Zoom to allow their employees to work remotely. The technology has been around for a while but Covid-19 forced businesses to adopt this new way of working. In our own business we implemented new software to produce paperless accounts files and have already removed a dozen redundant filing cabinets, speeded up the process, and made remote working possible. The reduction in paper, print and confidential waste disposal has also been enormous.
The speed of change could have been repurposing products and services to new markets:
One client has a great business manufacturing industrial sized pressure washers. Some minor adaptations and they then had a machine capable of spraying disinfectant in public areas to combat Covid. The demand was huge. Another business had an established market making curtains to contain welding sparks, which adapted to making plastic curtains for flexible Covid partitioning. Again, a short term boost to replace a fall in orders for core products.
There is a critical point to learn from all these examples. If you are in business, you will almost certainly experience some form of crisis at some point. Whilst a worldwide pandemic may be the most extreme example, economic impacts of a recession, regulatory changes such as limiting carbon emissions, or technology impacts (new developments or the inability to get chips for your products!) or even issues specific to your business such as a loss of a key team member or customer, can all have a profound impact.
Whatever the crisis, the difference between a passive ‘wait and see’ approach and a ‘assess/plan/act’ approach, may be the difference between survival and failure. I may seem flippant to say, but anyone can run an OK business in the good times. Running a great business that is resilient to change and challenge, is not quite so easy.
We use the following quote far too often, but it is so applicable now that we have no choice. To paraphrase Darwin, it is not the strongest that survive, but those that are most adaptable to change.