Who is in charge of thinking in your business?

We all know the idiom ‘can’t see the wood from the trees’ but it is a serious problem for lots of businesses. If the person responsible for coming up with a cohesive response to the challenges the company faces is too busy running operations to have any time to really think – then this needs to be identified and resolved.

Obviously, while responding to the changes the pandemic has thrown at us, many businesses have had to improvise, pivot, diversify – choose your change descriptor! But many will now have moved far out of scope of the strategy they wrote pre 2020.

Despite the continued lack of certainty about what ‘new normal’ is going to look like, it is vitally important to start assessing exactly where your company is and what challenges you need to address. Different industries are facing different challenges, whether its extreme shortage and price fluctuation in materials or being able to attract and retain sufficient staff, but one thing most businesses will have in common is that they have customers and employees whose behaviours, needs and motivations are changing. This needs to be given some thought.

We are all customers of many businesses, and we are all citizens who have just had a real jolt to our lives and what we previously took for granted. One thing most of us discovered, whether we like it or not, is that we are much more interconnected than we probably thought before. The precarity and uncertainty antidote was when we were shown empathy and kindness. We can all think of examples of how we were treated over lockdowns by people we know, people we do not and by businesses we use (or we work for). Who your customers are and what is important to them is changing – how much thought have you given this?

Knowing what to change, how to change it and what impact it will have on your business isn’t easy at the best of times but when you are stuck in the middle of the day-to-day whirlwind plus tackling any fires that spring up, it’s almost impossible. I have been there. My analogy was that I was being dragged along by a galloping horse and if I could just climb back into the saddle, I would be able to steer a better path. Sometimes the fear is that getting someone to help will just take up even more time you do not have – but a professional outside opinion, who can clue in quickly to the challenges you face and offer solutions can make all the difference.

I would say, give it some thought! But we have already established you probably don’t have time. Do get in touch and see if I can help.