Getting Your Business Game Back on 2.0

More than a year ago, I wrote an opinion piece that appeared in Entrepreneur.com. Re-reading it now, mid-Covid pandemic, several of the ideas remain relevant. Some more so than ever.

My opening line of the article was as follows:

‘Disruption. Uncertainty. Obsolescence.’

Sounds to me like businesses scrambling in a pandemic, right? 

And the oddly resonant paragraphs that followed, describing the massive technological shifts that the world was facing in light of exponential shifts in technology (back in May 2019) could have been written this week, September 2020:

‘On an intellectual level, business leaders and entrepreneurs know that they must act, as treading water is not an option. On a practical level however, many, if not most businesses, simply don’t know where to grasp and where to let go.

The question then is: How does one identify the as-yet unknown opportunities that will inevitably emerge with the shifting tides, and what does one do to protect against the impact of (technological) disruption?’

My thoughts now, as then, are that we have, in fact, been facing disruption on a massive scale for quite a while, already. What is different now is that anyone who thought that they might escape unscathed, is very certain that that is no longer possible.

Certainly, some companies were ready and poised to capitalise on the seismic lifestyle shifts that have occurred in the last few months (think of the tech companies, the grocery stores, the delivery services, etc, who were lucky enough to be in exceptionally high demand at this time). Similarly, there have been companies that have been reduced to zero overnight, due to being in an industry that relies on convening, in person, with people who you do not live with (restaurant, bar, conferencing, wedding planning…..etc, etc, etc).

Re-reading my suggestions for entrepreneurs back in the days of innocence, when I could not possibly have anticipated the mega-disruption that was still to come, I think some of these remain worth another look. Notably:

1. Are you still clear about your core focus or your core product – based on sufficient market research and customer feedback right now (any data that is pre-Covid is no longer relevant and needs to be updated) – and are you spending enough time on that to drive it forward with focused intent?
2. Are you taking any measures to strategically (not haphazardly) identify opportunities, or mitigate the threats of our new, possibly long term, health and safety environment?
3. Are all of your resources (time, energy, money, people) working only on that one thing (core business product or service), or are you allocating an appropriate amount of resources (at least 10%, but probably more) to testing out new products or services?

Companies (and leaders) that want to survive quick and rapid change must have a mindset around constantly testing and trying out new things. It’s likely that you’ve already started doing a lot of this.

If you haven’t, better late than never. If you have…keep going, keep trying, keep testing.