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BUSINESS<br />
Management<br />
Three critical keys to a successful strategy<br />
to recover from COVID-19<br />
In the current uncertain environment, DAVE WAKEMAN advises how<br />
business owners can assess and adapt their management strategy.<br />
Like most folks, I’m still unsure of what<br />
stage of the pandemic we are in.<br />
Are we hitting the end of this? Are we in<br />
the rough middle stages?<br />
Is there some big twist that will push us<br />
back to the beginning?<br />
I’m not sure.<br />
What I do know is that this period of time<br />
definitely fits the definition of what many<br />
strategists term a ‘VUCA environment’<br />
– volatile, uncertain, complex, and<br />
ambiguous.<br />
Assisting business owners to think<br />
through dealing with this time has kept<br />
my mind off where we are in the stages<br />
of recovery, or dealing with the pandemic<br />
– for the better, I hope.<br />
All of this thinking over the last few<br />
months has enabled me to put together<br />
a few ideas on managing your business<br />
strategy through this particular<br />
VUCA environment.<br />
Don’t be afraid of choice<br />
Now, more than ever, we should all be<br />
willing to embrace the choices that are<br />
available to us.<br />
We keep hearing about ‘the Great<br />
Resignation’ of employees, particularly<br />
in the US.<br />
That is a reflection of people making a<br />
choice about their lives, their careers,<br />
and what is important to them.<br />
What the research shows us is that<br />
people’s feelings on value have changed;<br />
what they want has changed, and what<br />
they are willing to invest their time,<br />
money, and attention in, has changed.<br />
It is important that you think about this<br />
in the context of yourself, your business,<br />
and your staff.<br />
Expecting that the things that were<br />
certain before the pandemic started will<br />
remain the same is a dangerous bet.<br />
This means that you must embrace<br />
choice and be willing to have the courage<br />
Decision-making can be challenging when times are uncertain.<br />
to make new decisions, adjusting your<br />
strategy if that is what the world around<br />
you – the market, your staff, your<br />
customers – demands.<br />
Know your position<br />
There are only two positioning choices<br />
you can make as a business – a choice<br />
related to your competition, and a choice<br />
related to the nature of your business.<br />
For example, if you decide to use<br />
service as your selling point, you<br />
could say to customers, “Our service<br />
is great,” or alternatively, “You don’t<br />
have to deal with bad service when<br />
you choose us.”<br />
The first one is about your business, the<br />
second is about your competition.<br />
The problem is that too many business<br />
owners attempt to do both and as<br />
a result, get stuck in the middle<br />
of nowhere and end up seeing no<br />
improvement in sales.<br />
As we enter a stage of recovery where<br />
the idea of ‘normal’ or ‘new normal’ is<br />
thrown around – with no context and,<br />
often, no basis in reality – it is important<br />
to understand why people will choose<br />
to work with you, or shop with you, over<br />
your competition.<br />
As French marketing expert Louis<br />
Even in the<br />
best of times,<br />
strategic<br />
decisions<br />
shouldn’t be<br />
things you are<br />
shackled to<br />
for life. The<br />
reality is that<br />
all strategies<br />
eventually stop<br />
working<br />
Grenier says, “Not standing out is the<br />
dangerous path.”<br />
All of us need to understand why folks<br />
are going to pick us and what that says<br />
about how we position ourselves in the<br />
market.<br />
Know this and deal with it.<br />
Be flexible<br />
Even in the best of times, strategic<br />
decisions shouldn’t be things you are<br />
shackled to for life.<br />
The reality is that all strategies<br />
eventually stop working.<br />
As a business owner, it is your job<br />
to understand that you are going to<br />
need to consistently update your<br />
strategy based on new research, new<br />
market conditions and challenges, or<br />
new concepts of value creation.<br />
In a VUCA environment, these ‘inflection<br />
points’ happen much more quickly,<br />
consistently, and radically.<br />
This means that all of us need to<br />
recognise that we must monitor our<br />
environment for signs of change, new<br />
ideas and opportunities, and new<br />
possibilities, more frequently than we<br />
otherwise might.<br />
One of the key ideas that I try to teach<br />
in my strategy work is that the best<br />
approach to being flexible isn’t to make<br />
your decision-making process ‘all or<br />
nothing’.<br />
Rather, it is about recognising the<br />
possibilities so that you can embrace<br />
the one that will give you the best<br />
likelihood of success.<br />
That’s smart in normal times – and,<br />
I’d argue, even smarter now.<br />
DAVE WAKEMAN is a consultant,<br />
writer, and teacher who believes in<br />
profits, not promises. His firm advises<br />
businesses on creating focused<br />
strategies that lead to profitable growth.<br />
Visit: www.davewakeman.com<br />
<strong>November</strong> <strong>2021</strong> | 77
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