And now what?

A lot has been said, talked and wrote about how Covid-19 affected our world and what are the new lasting impacts on how we live/work framed in a new vocabulary of buzzwords amongst which the most famous 'New normal'. The outcome has in fact left most of us more anxious than reassured as what this all means.

Meanwhile government in most developed countries are injecting massive amounts of liquidity and subsidies to absorb the shock on the economy, secure jobs continuity and try reboot them. While this was a very important step in helping the most vulnerable segment of the population and businesses, it as well allow for some key questions:

• Are we saving companies that don't actually deserve to live? given their lack of sound fundamentals. Shouldn't only the ones who are fit to survive allowed & helped to do so?
• Do we want to rebuild the economy to its past glory form? its structural inequality, wild capitalism, job exploitation without creative skills building, profit at any cost, depleting our natural ressources in pursuit of savage growth?

If the answer is yes, then we would "let a good crisis goes to waste" as W. Churchill once said to never do. I personally think it is a unique moment for humanity to stop & reflect on what it needs to Start doing, Stop doing & Sustain doing. Cascading this thought process at every level of our lives wether its personal, family, social or work.

Now I want to talk how all the above unfolds in the business aspect and specifically in my home country Lebanon in an attempt to give my two cents and help in the thinking as to what companies ought to do to stay relevant. Lebanon is going through one of its most serious political & economical crisis. GDP has been cut down by almost 30% and some even say half. It will take few good years at the very least before it regains its past level.

So how can companies survive & grow when the economy is deflating as such speed? the answer is simple: They can't.

It will be vain and unrealistic to think companies, when subjected to such a severe & game-changing inflicting point, can grow again using last century's business mindset, models & tools. Yet this is what most of them are attempting to do by replicating and maintaining what they know instead of building new knowledge and allowing their staff to experiment new ways even if some will fail. why?

Because 'what got you here won't get you in the future' is an irreversible universal truth! would you use today a horse-carriage to travel cross countries or you would use an airplane and tomorrow a hyper loop train propelling you at more than 500km/h (being developed by Tesla & the like). This is a basic example that illustrate the point.

Now that the point is made, practically hereafter few tips that would get you starting:

• Create business eco-systems: look at open collaboration with 3rd parties, complementary services and even competitors as opportunities to learn, acquire new skills & create new value propositions instead of trying to vertically integrate & control every aspect of the value-chain. ( think Apple with its App Store and iTunes Store, open software developers, crowd sourcing, etc.)
• Focus on value creation not sales: revise your business models, understand your customers JTBD & co-create with them. They should not be people you 'sell to' but put them at the centre of everything you do.
• Innovate: Stop copying what your competitor is doing but rather look at how other industries are solving similar problems and come up with innovative offerings that people would love to buy and that position your firm in a unique way.
• Drop the 'not invented here syndrome': Seek knowledge building from inside & outside your organization & pay dearly for it, for without it your team will simply continue doing 'what got you here'.
• Test & learn: successful companies do hundreds of experimentations per year. some will fail (why you never heard of them) others will succeed and become a multi-million dollars business. Failure as a learning process is an investment in your future & its success.
• Care for the environment: reduce unnecessary waste and packaging, avoid polluting and increase sustainable initiatives. Gen-Z customers favors trading with purpose-led companies and future generations will thank you for it.

We hope that companies will do their own Stop/Start/Sustain exercise and apply nature's common sense to build new business practices as they seek to create their future state. We know that acquiring new skills isn't easy so do let us know if we can help in any way. We'd love to just have a chat about it.