Move your business from adaptive to growth mode to take the lead in your industry.

The only thing worse than making a bad decision is no making a decision at all. However, when it comes to difficult situations there are many things that make us doubt on whether we should be making that one decision start moving forward.

One of the key deterrents for decision-making is uncertainty, we know there are things that we don't know, yet we don't know what they are. In other words, the things we don't know we don't know.

In a context where we are still trying to navigate this new realm there is obviously many things we can't foresee. However, there are some things you can do to feel in a better position to make decisions.

First, Establish Your Position.

Forrester research shows that, in the current context, companies out there are falling in one of these three modes:

• Survival mode. The current lockdown and restrictions on personal movement have massively disrupted many sectors: Mainly travel, hospitality, and retail. They have already experienced significant revenue contractions — often by more than 50%. Operational costs (salaries, rental fees, supply chain costs) are eating up their cash reserves and hey are forced to lay off a significant part of their workforce. Those in survival mode know (hope) their business will return, but they must focus first on maintaining cash and liquidity, even while maintaining relationships with their loyal customers. 
• Adaptive mode. Suffering severe disruption to their existing operational processes, but other parts may only see minor disruption or even an uptick in business: Think most industrial manufacturers, financial services, and professional services firms. Those that build products may see their supply chains disrupted and thus find it difficult to produce or deliver at scale. However, industries like retail banking, are struggling to align their traditional working environments to work-from-home scenarios. While revenues are declining, those in adaptive mode have few liquidity and cash concerns (so far) and have more flexibility when looking at cost containment or even areas where they may want to invest. 
• Growth mode. Even as their business is under stress, the current crisis offers new business opportunities and revenue growth because their products and services are critical to dealing with the current situation: Think healthcare and pharma, grocery, logistics, and education. These firms are even looking to add people to their workforce and may be seeing a payback from previous investments in digital technology, such as tele-medicine, digital commerce, and online learning. Continued technology innovation and talent acquisition are critical to maintaining this lead. Key concerns are speed and the ability to scale production and delivery.

You probably already know where your business is by now.

The key lays in uncovering the opportunities hidden in the midst of all this havoc.

According to Forrester, digital transformation will accelerate almost every industry, (Forrester’s April 2020 Service Provider Pulse Survey).

What does this mean?

The pandemic-caused recession will shift priorities in every industry toward digital engagement and moving the cloud: 67% of service providers report that clients see digital transformation as a growing priority.

The cloud is a growing priority, with the resilience, scale, cost structures, and capability available over the cloud coming into full view at this challenging time. We are seeing this in the growing demand for our CRM Transformation services to optimise operations using Saas platforms like Salesforce, SugarCRM or Zendesk.

Service providers also report changing demand for business capabilities, saying that clients are accelerating remote work, digital customer experience, and customer service but slowing down investments in marketing, sales, and product development.

The Pandemic Recession Will Result In Disruption In Every Industry. No company or service provider will come out of the pandemic recession unchanged.

I think is safe to say that if a business thinks that things will eventually "go back to normal", that business is already dead. We can already see that business and technology priorities in every industry will shift towards creating more resilient structures with operational models that are more lean and efficient.

Business Service firms see huge disruption from the pandemic but agree that transformation, cloud, and innovation are still the way forward. These virtual engagement, contact-less service, and remote work are a backdrop to a wave of vast transformation that will lead the focus of the next two years.

Adaptive product evolution play a massive part in taking the lead; however organisations need to focus in checking their culture to empower every employee to be not only part, but also a driver, of that transformation. I have seen how companies like Acuris and Inspired Energy Plc have been able to understand how to create competitive advantage through digital capabilities along with a focus on the customer to drive transformation efforts successfully, thus to be in a better position to take growth opportunities in these critical moments.

How well aware is your business leadership of these shifts? Will your company be able to adapt and innovate to lead your industry? Does your company have the know-how to drive this change forward?