During these weeks I have been writing about the preparation during confinement and the definition of the strategy to get out of the crisis:
Companies with a strong brand purpose will emerge stronger from the coronavirus crisis : where I talked about the paradox of purpose beyond sales (companies see it as necessary, but do not implement it), I left you a definition and brought it into the current context (the article is from 03/15/2020).
It's time to redefine who or what you want to be : in this article I discuss the need for companies to look in the mirror and think about what we want our company (or ourselves) to be like after the crisis. This involves redefining the marketing strategy for the new context (03/24/20).
Do we have reasons to be slightly sample indonesia mobile number optimistic after the coronavirus? : in this case, I analysed the first data on market behaviour in China at the beginning of its de-escalation, the changes in consumer
habits and gave the first guidelines on how to redefine our marketing (01/04/2020).
Marketing guide in times of coronavirus : and finally I left you with a guide on the marketing and business guidelines to follow to prepare ourselves during confinement and to try to emerge stronger from the crisis (04/06/2020).
I have been silent for a few weeks (I will soon be able to tell you why), but I recently found a post by Federico Linares ( President of EY Spain ) on LinkedIn that particularly caught my attention. In it, he shares the 10 main reflections that he shared with other executives in a debate organized by Thinking Heads and in other meetings with executives of the stature of Kike Sarasola and Belén Barreiro.
The vision of such powerful people has helped me to delve deeper into things that I have already commented on in my previous articles and to reflect on new topics:
1. People first: employees, customers and suppliers
“People always come first in a company. The health and safety of employees, customers and suppliers take priority over any other consideration.”
I like to describe the process of defining a strategy with a phrase that supports this first reflection:
Marketing from the inside out, and from less to more
I think it is something that is always applicable, but even more so in the situation we find ourselves in. We have to protect and strengthen the heart of the company, out of common sense and because by doing so the results will be shown in the following layers: customers, suppliers and I would add community.
2. Constant and transparent communication
“Communication and transparency in complex decisions are essential. When dealing with a crisis, you can never communicate too much and you can never be too transparent.”
When we are in a crisis, it is essential that all teams are up to date with the latest information, and that the facts are presented with complete transparency.
These are difficult times when doubt, uncertainty and, why not, fear are looming over the company. For this reason, all members of the company must move forward at the same time, have things clear and trust in the management.
Perhaps Federico Linares is assuming this at this point, but I would emphasize that transmitting confidence to employees must be one of the cornerstones of recovery.
Of course, difficult decisions will have to be made, there may be major changes and layoffs, but if we respect the principles of constant and transparent communication, and also give our employees confidence, they will do a better job (and also think more about the good of the company than about their professional future).
3. Radical uncertainty
“We live in times of radical uncertainty. Agility, flexibility and adaptability are critical strengths of any company. And humility is an essential attitude to be able to observe, listen, ask, learn and make good decisions.”
Points 3 and 4 are closely linked. This point talks more about the attitude to take now, and the next one talks about how to prepare the company for future crises.
Preconceived ideas are particularly dangerous right now. We need to look at our company's situation with fresh eyes. We have our experience, of course, but we must not fall into the trap of known solutions. If we are in a new context for everyone, how do we expect pre-crisis recipes to work?
4. Resilience in the face of an unpredictable future
“This pandemic will pass. But we will not be immune to new global threats. We must learn from this and build greater personal, business, economic and social resilience to face an unpredictable future.”
Companies must review their processes, define scenarios and prepare for the different probable alternatives (since there are too many possible ones). And do so with the aim of increasing our company's ability to adapt to overcome crises.
Here I would like to add the concept of antifragility. If resilience speaks of our ability to return to our natural state after a crisis (it shows our ability to recover), antifragility is the ability to benefit from crises.
To understand the concept of antifragility, it is best to do so in contrast to fragility. Let's start with an example. On the one hand, we have a fragile object, a porcelain vase for example. This is an object that we will place in a part of the house where it has less risk of breaking, because we know that at the slightest thing there can be an accident and it can break. This type of object (or organization in our case) seeks calm environments, avoids randomness, uncertainty, etc. They avoid stressful agents (stressors). On the other hand, we find an object (or company) that is antifragile. It is a company that seeks randomness, seeks those shocks that shake it, because with each blow it is capable of improving.