Don’t do nothing, reimagine your business strategy now

In terms of handling a health crisis, Australia has been exemplary. There is an economic crisis looming large, how will you weather that storm?

Neil Parker, BridgePoint Group’s Managing Director, challenges you to take advantage of the opportunity to rethink your business.

The Eye of the Storm

It’s clear that we have been sheltered by the Federal Government spending over the past two months. The ‘life-raft’ provided by the Morrison Government has been invaluable for keeping heads above water for many Australians. Crucially, it’s allowed us as business owners to get some oxygen back into our lungs.

The truth is though, the majority are living a lie, propped up by JobKeeper and JobSeeker programs. This is the quintessential ‘calm before the storm’.

MYOB chief executive Greg Ellis warns Australia. “…because of the necessary government stimulus, you’ve actually got an artificial economy at the moment. It’s pretty much a public supported economy”.

Well, most of the stimulus packages and protections for slow payers, no payers and never-will payers will be wound up at the end of September 2020. The economic ‘eye’ of this COVID storm will pass. Then what? Back to normal? Hardly…

Opportunities

Kurt Lewin’s 3 stage Change Model describes the process as unfreezing, changing & refreezing. Whack! The unfreeze just happened!

The world has changed! And you can cry in the corner about the good old days or you can get on with winning. And yes, there will be winners and so by definition, there will be losers. I just don’t want you to be one of them.

Now is the time to decide what your business is going to look like ‘out the other side’. I urge you to take the wheel and make it happen. Be the driver.

I have never seen an opportunity like this one. The opportunity for so many of our clients is to reflect on all parts of their business and if bold enough, to hit the reset button. Reimagine your business. For goodness sake, give the people what they want!

The ‘why’ has been taken out of every change you make. Consumers, stakeholders, customers, staff and shareholders alike know why you are changing. They already get it and they are expecting change!

But you must act now because this period under the Government shelter will pass. A new storm is coming, ready or not. This is ‘new norm’ forming time.

At BridgePoint Group, we are asking our clients;

• What is your mindset right now?
• Have you noticed that ‘we can’ has replaced ‘we can’t’?
• Have you noticed that your team has given you ‘permission’ to lead?
• Have you reimagined your business?
• In what ways will you revise your strategy and execution under the ‘new normal’?
• What implications does that have for resourcing?
• How do you adapt systems to new audiences, new ways of supply, new ways of working?
• Do you need help?

Take the time to think

Noted strategist Mark Pollard says ‘you have to make time to play, not just run’. The ‘play’ time means your subconscious has the time to process and develop ideas based on the mashup of your daily thoughts. That ‘play’ is thinking time.

The infinite possibilities of a start-up is a great example. Lots of ‘play time’ is what attracts entrepreneurial types to the concept they have for a new business. Similarly, the chance to sit with a blank piece of paper and a new box of crayons will excite most kids.

Yet, when you constantly run, and your decisions have been made on-the-run, you may have ended up with a business that wasn’t what you had in mind when you started. A bit like Sydney vs Melbourne. Planned vs unplanned. Most likely you have ended up painting yourself into a corner. Well, out you come!

COVID-19 allows you – no, requires you – to question all the assumptions that you have long believed to be true.  Are they still relevant for a post-COVID-19 market? If not, change. Make the most of the chance you have now to have a think, a reset and a revalue of where your business is going and what you want it to achieve.

Risk and learning to swim

Once the air goes out of the Government’s life raft, which is only months away, pockets of the economy will be a sea of red.

The biggest risk to any business is standing still over the next 4 months. Being lulled into a false sense of security that everything is going to be alright. That if we leave it to chance, ScoMo or chance itself will take of us.

Nuh. Now is the time to take some deep breaths and get ready to start swimming. Steel yourself to take the plunge and change your business. Be smart and embrace the opportunities that present themselves. If not make them happen.

The thinking that leads to changes in your business has to happen now. Plan ahead. Learn to swim.

Strike while the iron is hot. It is easier to shape your business, staff, customers and stakeholders while the mood of change is so prevalent.

Change your business to what you want it to be. Not what you have inherited or built

Are we all in this together anymore? No, pretty soon it becomes survival of the smartest.

If you need advice on improving your business systems and future-proofing your business now, please reach out to the team at BridgePoint Group.