There are lots of old sayings about disruption. “Opportunity lies in crisis.” “A door closes, a window opens,” and a favorite from Marie Antoinette, “In times of crisis it is of utmost importance to keep one’s head.”
All these old saws are true and, as Madame Antoinette is an example, it’s inevitable that some of us will lose our heads. The pandemic has led to great business opportunity and tragic business loss. Those successes and failures are sometimes just plain luck. If you make conferencing software or have a strong online retail sales presence, chances are you’re making bank. If you run a movie theater or a sports bar, things don’t look so good. Despite the collected advice of scholars, experts and pundits, there’s no strategic potion that creates resiliency and guarantees success. And we’re not gonna tell you there is.
But in looking at the successes and failures of a number of businesses and weighing the research, the experience of experts and the opinions of pundits, we found some commonalities among the businesses that managed to turn things around. There is clarity of vision and value, the communication that enables change, and the agility to build on core tenets and think laterally.
The question, of course, is how to get from here to there. Among the pages that follow, we respectfully submit a few suggestions. Let us know what you think and what you’d like to add.
