Unilever and Scopernia, reinventing strategy development in times of Corona

2020 will be in our history books as the year in which our modern society came to a (temporary) standstill because of the black swan that no-one saw coming: the Corona-virus. Countries went in lockdown and businesses struggled to stay afloat. All activities became focused on one thing: sitting out this crisis in the best possible way.

2020 will be in our history books as the year in which our society came to a standstill

Creating a vision for tomorrow

After the initial shock of social distancing, public life coming to a stand-still and working from home (oh, those kids!), companies start to ask crucial questions. How long will this last? What will the world look like the day after Corona? Will we have changed forever, both as businesses and society?

One of these visionary companies is Unilever and they asked us to help them create a plan for tomorrow, for the day after Corona.

Future-proof companies succeed in working at different horizons at the same time, whatever the crisis. One of these visionary companies is Unilever and they asked us to help them create a plan for tomorrow, for the day after Corona.

"qualitative, sharp output that will help shape our business going forward", Kris Michiels, Unilever.

Strategy development, the new way

But how do you do that when you can't physically meet? Unilever and Scopernia experimented successfully by running 100% virtual inspiration and strategy sessions: keynotes and surveys for over 60 people, workshops and brainstorming in parallel break-out sessions for decision-makers, voting, prioritizations, the whole shebang. All done remotely, all done online, dozens of people all in different locations, actively working on one outcome: a strategic vision and plan for tomorrow. This new style of consulting requires new skills, new tools, a new technology set-up. And that is one of the positive things of Corona: the rapid deployment and acceptance of new ways of working, throughout the entire ecosystem.

Unilever and Scopernia experimented successfully by going 100% virtual, doing everything remote.

The Outcome

Although this approach is very experimental and needs many adaptations compared with real-world sessions, the results are very promising. We let our client's response speak for itself.

"an inspiring and exciting session including keynotes, collaboration & even split sessions in subgroups", Griet Demasure, Unilever.

Griet Demasure, Marketing Director Foods & Digital Transformation at Unilever Belgium found it "an inspiring and exciting session including keynotes, collaboration & even split sessions in subgroups, all virtually. With nice video backgrounds & ‘on hold’ music as a plus ?? In these particular times of short term thinking & actioning, a welcome change of scope! Thanks Scopernia team for learning together."

"amazing to see how we came to such qualitative, sharp output that will help shape our business going forward", Kris Michiels, Unilever.

“It was amazing to see how we came to such qualitative, sharp output that will help shape our business going forward", says Kris Michiels, Category & Marketing Director Refreshment for Unilever Belux. He continues that "the virtual approach made it time-efficient and people – despite what you might think – felt more engaged with and focused on the content. A fast track solution with clear and exciting deliverables”

"a fast track solution with clear and exciting deliverables"

What's Next?

Scopernia has over a decade of experience with transformational challenges, working for many clients in different industries, across Europe and the Middle-East. Since last year, we started broadening our transformational perspective, as it is not enough to understand how digital is disrupting industries. We believe that forward-looking organisations also have to deal with societal changes like the future of work, living, mobility, healthcare, education, sustainability and so on. This is based on the ideas from our latest book The World Is Round and on the soon to be published book Metasystems.

We think that the impact of Corona will accelerate many of our concepts creating a new normal. We believe that the job can be done in new digital and remote ways, without the traditional overhead that comes with meetings, commuting, physical sessions and so on. Yes, of course, we want the world to go back to where it was just a couple of months ago, go out, meet people, be social. But when that will be the case, we will likely have permanently embraced many new ways and habits.

For us at Scopernia, this will be highly effective, remote and virtual advice.

If you are looking to develop a strategic vision and plan for a world after Corona, then contact us. We can help you, also in times of lockdown and social distancing.