Going through some photos yesterday, I found one that I took earlier this year in my home town, Geelong (see background image or click here to see it clearly). It shows the sun rising over our waterfront, with the Geelong to Melbourne ferry in the left foreground and the silhouette of the waterfront Carousel building on the right. I don’t take many photos and so I was pretty pleased to create one this good!
It got me thinking though … for many businesses, a new dawn is approaching. The start of a new post-COVID-19 era. The opportunity to completely transform how they operate. The once-in-a-lifetime chance to re-establish their business with an innovative approach that is based on a “what if we started again” mindset. The opportunity to create an organisation that really meets the changed needs and expectations of their customers, employees and shareholders.
Don’t underestimate this opportunity. We truly hope that it IS once-in-a-lifetime.
You might think that the safe approach is to go back to what you were doing before. If you were absolutely 100% satisfied with how things were before the unavoidable disruption took place, there might be some merit in returning to that exact same model. But that was then – this is now. The world has changed and therefore, the expectation that things that worked before will work again is risky. If they weren’t working 100% perfectly before, why would returning to the old ways make any sense at all?
My take on it is very different and, dare I say it, untypical. Now is the time to be thinking innovatively. Now is the time to not just be thinking outside of the box, but to recognise that the box has had its day and get rid of it. It is time for some Transformagination.
But this is not going to happen overnight – like any strategy, you need the right people, with the right mindset and the right amount of time to plan this transformagination. You need to decide when you are going to open for your new business as usual. You need to define what your new business as usual is going to be. You need to work out how you are going to get to that new business as usual.
And all of this takes time, energy and the right mindset. Identify the people who can deliver the results you need and create a Business Re-establishment Team (SPOILER ALERT: They are unlikely to be the usual suspects – they need to be people who can take your business forward and not drag it back to the old ways). Give them a realistic time frame to deliver that new business as usual.
When do you want your sun rise to be? At the start of the new financial year? That’s only three weeks away … you’ve left your run too late. Start of the second quarter in September – that’s more realistic, but it needs immediate action with the right people and the right mandate.
Looking for some direction, some ideas, some guidance, some encouragement? Please go to www.untypical.com.au/calendar and choose some time in my diary to kick off a conversation. Don’t let the sunrise over the same old business as usual – the world has changed like never before.