How will business change in the post-Covid period?
· Clearly, discretionary spending will
be down. Companies will operate as lean and mean as they have to, to make up
for months of reduced revenues and fixed expenses.
That means companies
that sell to other businesses must double down on their value proposition: how do you help your clients make more money?
If you can't answer that question, then your services are just another expense –
and we're all minimizing those for now.
· · Employees and bosses will remember who
helped them through the tough times, and who took advantage of them. It will be
a rare win for business leaders and companies that are thoughtful, considerate,
and genuinely put others’ interests first.
It’s never
too late for businesses to do the right thing. Go the extra mile to help your customers
during tough times. Offer extra value. Extend subscriptions without being asked.
Pay sooner, if you can afford it. Introduce people in your network to each other
if you think they can help each other. (Your network is a miracle asset: the
more you use it, the more it grows.) Be spontaneous, generous, pro-active. People
will notice it and remember.
· · Customers will be more demanding
than ever. “What have you done for me lately?” “What else can you do for me?” It’s
not personal. They're making up for lost time and lost income, and eager to
find out who their best suppliers are.
This is a
time for resilience, creativity and flexibility. How can you rebundle your projects
and services to work better and create results sooner? How can you restructure
pricing and payment terms to take these difficult times into account? Now is
not a time to stand on “We've always done it this way.” Now’s the time to ask, “How
can I help you?”
· The crisis has shifted public sentiment towards empathy, collaboration, equity, diversity and sustainability.
The best parts of our nature have been nurtured as we have seen once-trusted businesses
and institutions fail our most vulnerable – the sick, the elderly, the poor. We
have curtailed our mobility and freedom of movement to protect others – we have
become more than ever an interconnected global community.
How can your
business fit into – indeed, lead – this new culture of conscious community?
How are you making things easier, safer, healthier, more accessible for those on
the margin? This isn’t a constraint on your business – it’s a whole new opportunity
for those who see the future clearly.
As the economy
turns grim, hope and growth will come from those who turn gloom into light. Help
your customers succeed!
Share more value with your customers and watch them return
the favour, through increased orders and by creating buzz in the marketplace. Collect
these success stories and tell them over and over again. Fight fear with hope, empathy
and community.
Six weeks later, Nineteen is getting ready to launch "SafeKids," a wearable device with accompanying app that will help keep kids safe for the return to playgrounds and schools - and give parents peace of mind.
