2020 was a rollercoaster, but not the way you think

At the beginning of the year 2020, we sat in the seat of a rollercoaster called 2020, looking ahead of all the excitement it will bring. How little did we knew.

We can say that 2020 was a crisis. It is also said that a crisis presents an opportunity, which is particularly true today. Still, according to McKinsey (Innovation in Crisis, 2020) many companies are deprioritizing innovation to concentrate on four things: shoring up their core business, pursuing known opportunity spaces, conserving cash and minimizing risk, and waiting until “there is more clarity.” Historical data shows that companies that innovate in times of crisis are successful in the short and long term. 

2020 - the year of opportunities for the bold

2020 has been a year of opportunity for some technology companies and a bad break for traditional industries if they did not react. Some companies already had the right product for Covid times, like Zoom. But what is less known are traditional businesses that were able to transform by focusing on customers and having agile mindsets and methods of doing business. One example of a winner in digital transformation in 2020 was Bed Bath & Beyond (yes, you read it right, and it is that big-box retail company).  

Bed Bath & Beyond was already struggling before Covid-19 but has proven this year that a mall-era brand can compete in a modern retail landscape. Like any success, it required hard work, dedication, perseverance, and — a little bit of luck. Mark Tritton was appointed as CEO in October 2019 to turn the company around. His turnaround plan was based on the 2019 holiday season’s shortcomings, like lack of support for online purchases and pickups in stores with non-competitive pricing. 2020 the company is spending roughly half of its capital expenditures on going digital, which is only half of the story. They also introduced BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick In Store) to use physical retail locations to support digital transformation. In October, Bed Bath & Beyond released the financial results of the second quarter., which ended on August 29th. Their sales benefited from significantly strong growth in digital channels of approximately 89%, partially offset by a roughly 12% decline in comparable store sales. Year on Year growth of adjusted EBITDA was 36%. Not a bad result for a retail company in 2020 when the industry average has been 5.61% More importantly, the result was their own making by seizing the opportunity, not just a windfall.

After a lot of loops and hoops, we feel that we are in precisely the same spot we started from.

All of us can not report as good results for 2020. And today, a year after we stepped into this rollercoaster called 2020, many of us are still sitting in the same cart. After a lot of loops and hoops, we feel that we are in precisely the same spot we started from. You might think that you have been walking on Penrose Stairs this year instead of creating success. We should remind ourselves that it has never been only about reaching a destination but also about the journey, and we must take our learnings from 2020. Not only to avoid making the same mistakes again, but also to how change can drive us to succeed without waiting for another crisis to move us. So we can say that 2020 was not a total waste; I bet that most of us have learned more from this year than in any previous years.

But let’s all agree that we do not need another 2020...

Originally published at https://www.avaloncx.com on December 31, 2020.