Business Survival During & After the COVID-19 Pandemic
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has touched nearly every facet of life around the globe. Its impact is far and wide. Like it or not, your business has changed forever. To ignore this hard fact serves only to guarantee a nearly impossible road ahead, unless you start taking critical action now.
In its recent report, Workforce Strategies for post-COVID 19 Recovery, Deloitte suggests there are three phases leaders will encounter amid this significant disruption:
- Respond: How an organization deals with the present situation and manages continuity
- Recover: How an organization learns and emerges stronger
- Thrive: How an organization prepares for and shapes for the “new normal”
– Source: Deloitte, 2020
What our firm is hearing
Each week, I and our network of consultants have been working with clients to navigate the three phases outlined above. In recent weeks, I have assisted clients in holding leadership coffee chats, employee focus groups, and listening to the impact of what is evolving from a prolonged, real-time business continuity exercise into a “new normal’.
Employee needs are changing.
Customer expectations are shifting.
Leaders are proving their worth (or revealing they were not the leaders we thought they were just a few months ago).
Those of us with children are also watching this evolution through an entirely new perspective.
What your businesses needs to do to survive
By mid-April, the US Small Business Administration had disbursed billions of dollars through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Paycheck Protection Plan programs. (Source: Bloomberg.com). For many companies, this lifeline was helpful…but the reality is that for too many, it will likely prove to be an inadequate bandage on an inevitable bleedout of cash and capital. So the question remains, “what can we do NOW to save your business”?
If you have heard me speak in the past couple of years, you have likely heard me share the story of cyclist Lawson Craddock and the wild ride that was his 2018 Tour de France. The rider from team Education First crashed on Stage 1 of what was his rookie shot in the sport’s biggest spectacle. Resulting in face and shoulder injuries significant enough to sideline ANY bike rider, Craddock did the impossible. He finished ALL 21 STAGES of the 2019 Tour – a feat often denied to even healthy, uninjured riders. Sure…he earned the lanterne rouge, but along the way he did much more than that. Craddock inspired racers and cycling fans around the world & ultimately rasied over $290,000 for much needed repairs at the velodrome in Houston, TX where he first learned to race. That was not his original plan, but he was able to pivot his intentions into something much larger than himself.
Your business just had a wreck. I know I am not telling you anything you do not already know, but lets agree to call a spade a spade. Whether you closed for a few days or have been shut down for a couple of months, you got hit. HARD. What you do right now- your very next move- is to BE LIKE LAWSON.
Your new goal is now “ride again tomorrow”.
From the PPP you had to the PPPP you need
Okay, so the Paycheck Protection Plan came and went. Maybe you got some of that cash and maybe you did not. Continuing with the model shared in the Deloitte report, we concur the plan you need now is to step back and examine your purpose (why your business exists in the first place), gain an understanding of your true potential (including how your current offerings may still serve your ideal clients and what opportunities might exist if you adjusted them), and seek multiple perspectives by critically examining the true condition of your business to set the stage for a modified strategy to get to you back on the podium! [Technically, purpose, potential, perspectives and PODIUM are 4-Ps.]
How our clients are getting back in the race
The Tour de France is not just one race. In fact, it is a collection of 21 stages, each an epic race of its own. Some stages are long and flat, others packed with rigorous obstacles like navigating the narrow (sometimes cobblestone!) roads of tiny villages in the French countryside, yet others feature grueling mountain climbs to challenge even the most elite riders in the sport. Perhaps the best news, however, is that there are multiple ways to win!
Over the past few months, the team at Cooksey Connects & our Leadership Performance Group partners have developed an entirely refreshed suite of offerings help your business regain its strength and progress through the business peloton. Our aim is for you to be in position to win and bulletproof your business against whatever comes next.
We offer:
- bespoke business advisory services;
- individual and group coaching;
- on-site & live-virtual professionally facilitated workshops, and
- strategic, deep-dive ideation sprints to uncover the best of what your team has to offer, alleviate blind-spots, tune your product and service offerings, and turn anxiety into action to drive champion-level results!
You are encouraged to hear more about our thinking with this on-demand workshop, available to you ABSOLUTELY FREE. [There is an offer at the end, designed for entrepreneurs and small/medium-sized businesses to quick-start the process of fine tuning your business, but I warn you…
it is NOT for everyone!].
Watch the 1 hour program today at www.InPositionToWin.com! It’s our gift to you.
All services are able to be delivered by remote/virtual platforms and onsite – when safe to do so. From one-day to multi-year engagements, we will build a custom-tailored solution to meet your business needs. Schedule a no-obligation, exploration discussion today at www.ConnectWithCooksey.com.
