Ask yourself the right questions
A recent conversation with someone about the potential impacts of them relying on a single supplier for a key product could soon be a business reality if the supplier finds themselves in a localised Covid lockdown. Are your underlying business assumptions being challenged, too?
As I highlighted in my last blog, intuition is not necessarily the most reliable basis for decision making. You need good evidence and data to help you, starting with a long, hard look at the business environment you are facing now.
With Covid lockdowns starting to ease, there is still little sign of a stable business environment for many, as companies face difficulties, and lockdowns are extended or re-imposed.
To help you ensure your business strategy is flexible and adaptable, try answering the following questions about your organisation, market, customers, stakeholders and competitors. Feel free, of course, to add other categories that work for your business.
What is unchanged?
What might change?
What has temporarily changed?
What has permanently changed?
Then starts the work of planning how to adapt to these new assumptions.