Culture needs a strategy to feed on
Right through COVID-19 lockdowns, established, proactive business has been morphing into new versions of itself. At the same time, start-ups have been making huge noise. Individuals and groups of entrepreneurs are re-starting, re-surging, re-energising and finding new ways to grab attention and grab business.
And now we have the holidays when everything stops again.
Companies who have struggled to trade, or haven’t found a new way to trade, will have to come out of their imposed exiles with the same job to do again – to restart, re-surge and re-energise.
Culture needs a strategy to feed on
The stop/start nature of many market sectors over the last couple of years has taken a toll. Clearly the logical response is to pick up where we left off as soon as possible.
Maybe, however, there’s another option.
The oft-quoted Peter Drucker is reported to have said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – and it’s true.
What’s also true is that, for this to be the case, culture needs a strategy to feed on. No-one wants an empty breakfast plate – so the two things go together.
Unfortunately, with vastly reduced incomes, businesses that have been forced to stall some of their creative operations are now being asked to resurge and the inclination (for the money people at least) is to retrench, conserve, trim, cut, slim down…
When you need to push forward, the guys in suits are the people to tell you to survive. Culturally, a battle is being played out in boardrooms where a fourth or fifth COVID wave is being experienced and where, now, we’re getting used to plan for the next re-opening.
Don’t trim too much
In business, it’s hard to avoid the temptation to trim away parts of an organisation when tough times loom. Typically, training gets canned, marketing budgets are an easy target, and even sales resource comes under pressure while the suits play God.
Resist the impulse. Good sense and pragmatism are just as useful in times of trouble as they are during periods of growth.
If you’re trying to get back to a version of your normal, please take another look at your options. You may need to change more than you realise and we’re here to help.
Future thinking. Future proofing. It’s what we do – and have done since 2014.