The #newnormal
If you are anything like the author, you have had enough of the hashtags and cliché dropping intended to excuse poor performance. I often catch myself just before I visibly express my disdain when I hear “new normal”, “unprecedented times” or “all in this together”. While much of the base sentiment is true, it should not be given as a reason to perform poorly in a business.
This is not to suggest that COVID-19 and its various restrictions do not affect businesses. Many state and local governments have instituted measures that make operating a business more difficult. Employee absence is a real issue. Sometimes, these make running a business more costly. But it is management’s responsibility to figure out a way to provide products and services in spite of these restrictions.
Businesses that operate in an environment with local competition have a chance in the #newnormal to gain share, especially because their local competitors are under the same constraints. Businesses that compete against those in other states or localities, those with less restrictive environments, may still be able to gain share given the turbulent nature of the marketplace.
Simply put, most organizations do not tolerate change well. Processes, org charts and culture tend to stabilize organizations. To meaningfully change an organization, two or more of these must change. Try changing an org chart without other changes and see what happens!
Since the entire economy is in flux, change is inevitable. Most of the change in the economy is outside the control of participants. But the impact of those changes can be mitigated or even exploited by those that refuse to use the current conditions as an excuse. Those organizations will make the necessary adjustments in their business to leverage the situation in their favor.
Title 2 Business Services has been working with a client since just after COVID restrictions began. This client went to great lengths to mitigate COVID exposure and stay within CDC guidelines immediately after the shutdowns started. In the early stages, before we knew much about transmission, they had Tyvek coveralls, gloves, masks and face shields in addition to workplace distancing. While their competition was shut down, this client continued to ship.
Over a few weeks, their order volume exploded. They were taking share from their competition at an unbelievable rate. Between the reduced capacity they experienced with COVID workplace rules and the increased volume, they fell behind in order fulfillment. The principal there knew he had to change his processes, org chart and culture.
We helped the business design an operating model that would meet their demand without increasing headcount, something that would have served them well prior to COVID restrictions. They quickly increased capacity to beyond their pre-COVID levels. They were able to maintain distancing between employees and meet the current CDC guidelines for other protections. Within a couple of weeks, the business was back to meeting their service proposition of shipping within 24 hours of receiving the order. And their business is booming.
For this business, the #newnormal is a more agile operating model, an employee base with a higher level of job satisfaction, a better service proposition than any competitor and record revenues. Those record revenues started in the first month of the project and continued until this writing. The client’s volume is up 65%. Given that market spending on their product is contracting, we believe they now hold almost double the market share they had pre-COVID.
How does a business survive the #newnormal? Maybe survival isn’t the goal. The work required to survive may be more than the work required to grab share. Never let a crisis go to waste……