In this podcast segment, Francis Wade reads his Jamaica Gleaner article that challenges executives and board members to reconsider their strategic plans in light of the COVID‑19 pandemic. He argues that the crisis has created a "new normal" that may render existing assumptions obsolete, using a funeral‑parlor owner in New York as a vivid illustration of how unexpected demand can upend expectations. Wade proposes a three‑step process for leaders: (1) Enumerate the disruptions by listing obvious changes and probing deeper with repeated "Why?" questions, then grouping findings into new strategic themes; (2) Tear down the old plan by ruthlessly identifying assumptions that have been violated—whether customer expectations, emerging technologies, or competitive dynamics—and reaching a consensus on gaps; (3) Assess the plan’s viability, deciding whether to adjust, accelerate, or completely rebuild the strategy, with examples such as immediate remote‑service adoption and extending planning horizons. He stresses the urgency of acting quickly, positioning the pandemic as a rare, high‑impact event that can create a narrow but lasting opportunity for firms that move faster than competitors. The segment concludes with a call to mobilize top talent to understand the new normal and craft a fresh, forward‑looking strategy rather than attempting to revert to pre‑COVID operations.
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Hello and welcome back to the Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle podcast. This is Francis Wade, and here's the article I wrote for the Jamaica Gleaner. It's entitled, "What if COVID-19 has ruined your perfect strategic plan?" While your company awaits a return to business as usual, should your leadership be thinking about revisiting its strategy. Does the current pandemic mean that you should start the process all over again? To say that the coronavirus has disrupted business is an understatement. Even if you are still operating at this time of lockdowns and curfews, you are probably doing so under duress. Nevertheless, you must look ahead. At some point in the future, employees will have returned to their jobs. Continuing to work in the old way. However, it would be a mistake to put your effort into returning things to normal. Chances are there is a new normal, and you should adjust to it rather than seek to drag your business back to an obsolete state. For example, take the case of an owner of a funeral parlor in New York City. As an essential service, the company has not closed down. In fact, like many morticians who are willing to deal with COVID casualties, the owner is overwhelmed by the volume of deceased persons being brought in. While this could be treated as a windfall, the long-term question is, what does this mean for business? In other words, is there an assumption that needs to be reexamined now that funerals are being conducted so quickly? In small groups without a service in large numbers. Like this company, it might be time for your team to re-examine the assumptions behind the strategic plan. Here are 3 steps for engaging your executives and board members. Part 1: Enumerate the disruptions. Start by making a list of the most obvious changes. When the big-ticket items are out of the way, look for the ones that are harder to see but may be just as important. One method is to begin with a single pronounced item but then ask "Why?" to determine the reasons things have changed. Then repeat the process, asking "Why?" 5 more times until no more answers can be found. Leave room to add other big items as you continue. But pull them together into new strategic themes before the next step. Part 2: Tear down the old plan. Here you are looking for concrete reasons why the current plan won't work. Use the results of the prior exercise if needed, but in this phase you should be ruthless. Identify the assumptions—unstated or unimagined—which have been violated by the new normal. At this point, you need to bring your team to a consensus point of view regarding the plan's gaps, seeking to go as deep as possible into long-term changes. For example, have your customers come to expect a higher standard that you never predicted? Has a new technology been introduced that you can simply no longer ignore? Have you fallen behind a nimble competitor? Part 3: Assess the plan's viability. In this final step, you decide whether or not the current plan needs to be changed and to what degree. In some cases, your plan may have anticipated the disruptions which are underway as a result of COVID-19. For example, perhaps you contemplated that within 5 years you would be delivering service to customers remotely using a tool like Zoom or WhatsApp. Now you realize you need to do so immediately due just to keep up. Or you may realize that the time horizon on your old plan was too short, a common occurrence. The changes that you see happening in the next year are so dramatic they render your plan obsolete. A brand new long-term destination is needed. However you assess your current strategy, the final step is to conduct a joint activity to bring it up to date. This may mean starting from ground zero. If you believe you can escape this kind of re-examination or leave it up to the CEO or chair to do it alone, think again. Consider that this global disruption might be the single most impactful event in your lifetime. The fact is, some assumptions in your industry have been unfrozen. Consequently, your firm has the chance to stick a wedge into a sliver of opportunity and turn it into a crack that will never be closed. If you move quickly, you can be the first and only company to capitalize. The only difference is that these things usually happen slowly over a decade or more. Now, for a change, they are happening with lightning speed. The ideal way for your team to respond is not to sit back, wait, and see what happens next. Instead, pull together your best minds to understand the entirety of the new normal so that you can craft a fresh strategy.
