"The horizon being blocked doesn't mean there is nothing to contemplate."
Etienne Klein
Planning is more critical than ever. Questioning the future just requires a broader range of detailed scenario.
Planning the journey Back on Stage is not an easy thing because nobody knows what is going to happen. Whatever the organization at stake there are some key components to consider in designing possible future scenario.
We have described some lighthouses, buoys and beacons to inform your navigation chart in the troubled Covid ocean.
N°6 : A marketing and cultural challenge ( and more...)
Back on stage journey involves everyone in and around the company. All functions and departments are at stake to collaborate further with more intensity and openness than they did before the crisis.
Leadership teams have a great responsibility to overcome the silos and to adopt a lean mindset..
Companies are not equal. Culture, industry, B2B, B2C, market position, IP, digital adoption, competitive advantage, Business model...there are so many specificities.
Whatever the business, chances are high that managing the corona impact will keep management busy for the next 18 to 24 month.
Coming back into the game requires a double dynamic, in terms of production and demand. It is necessary both to reduce the superfluous to minimize losses while pivoting and adjusting its offering. Achieving this in the same tempo requires a lot of skill.
The return to play requires gaining motion both in production and demand.
In such context when the business engine is gaining power, there are lots of challenges to face from outside/in and vice versa. Marketing should be used as a pivot as it stands at the internal and external strategic crossroad. Other functions such as HR, Sales, Communications and Ops can position themselves as a nerve center around marketing to make sense for the business.
Together, fast and agile, they should invest in capabilities such as reading demand signals or anticipating supply bottlenecks to determine where and how customers are shifting their spending or what to do with the capacity adjustment in the ecosystem.
Trying more of the same is the wrong way forward. An old pattern has already been pushed to its limits and is destroying value. In hard times accompanied by structural breaks, you must rethink the way you manage.
It is a cultural change that is required here. And the best way to proceed is like correcting the attitude of an aircraft: with care and determination.
The most obvious and powerful vehicle to express the essence and purpose of the cultural change to all audiences is the brand. It should be used as the reference point in the midst of the crisis.
In the long journey Back on Stage, leverage marketing and branding is key to develop three critical resilience values: Confidence, Agility and Empathy.
PS: After the Corona Bomb, shall we expect Business as Usual or Business as Un-usual ?
What should go back to standard and what should change?
Each business is specific. Let's have a conversation in a 15mn call
Let me know how you feel with this idea
Stephane
+33 6 11 81 03 12
stephane.munier@tbmsmarketing.com