Let me get straight to the point. Don’t expect things to revert back to “normal,” and don’t count on any business model surviving intact.
Yesterday I passed by my favorite food outlet. Seemingly overnight, out of grim necessity, the owner has converted this fine-dining restaurant into a “last-minute” takeaway store. With chairs and tables stacked sadly in the corner, this space seemed desperate to host a romantic evening. Instead, the special ambiance has succumbed to more pressing demands: survival mode, in overdrive.
“What’s your plan once the restaurant opens again?” I asked the owner. He told me he hadn’t had time to think about it. He was too busy getting through one day at a time, keeping his people employed, and paying his vendors.
But in our current paralysis — partly hibernating, partly frantic — we can’t afford to neglect the future. We need to work on finding the answer to that simple question: “What’s your plan?”
Tim Lowe, president of Lowes Foods, recently revealed to me: “Those people who won’t fundamentally change their business model as they exit the other side of COVID-19 — they just didn’t get the message. We all have to change”. Confronted by our current crisis, Lowes has completely changed its business model in just six weeks. Ironically, that’s something that had taken them six years in the past to do.
He is not alone. Intertek, the world’s leading global quality assurance company, a 45,000-people-strong organization. Under the pressure of COVID-19, Intertek just did the same thing as Lowes, introducing a completely new business model in just three weeks.
Andre Lacroix, the CEO of Intertek, asked his team: “How are our customers going to change post-COVID-19, and how can we help them?” Just three weeks later they introduced ProTek, a brand-new company that trains staff in cleanliness, certifies buildings, airline cabins, and hotel rooms, and verifies it with a special seal for guests, passengers, and the world to see.
Turn the global challenge of coronavirus into an opportunity
While waiting for my pasta at my restaurant, I challenged the owner over a quick brainstorming session. Let’s assume the government requires at least six feet of space between each table in your restaurant and no more than 20 guests at any one time. The consequences will be severe: fewer customers, less income. How could you play this not as a fatal disaster, but as an opportunity?
By reintroducing “the show.” Cooking at the table, preparing a delicious Irish coffee in front of the guests, conducting an exciting flambé show, rolling the trollies around in the restaurant. All this wasn’t possible in pre-COVID-19 days. “But your restaurant will have the space and staff to do it now,” I suggested.
He smiled, and the very next day he assigned all his waiters a task: to each create and rehearse their own signature show in the lead-up to the restaurant’s re-opening.
As the world opens up again, your business will face a dramatically new reality. It’s going to require you to ask: Which elements in your business model need to fundamentally change? If you answer, “Nothing at all, we’ll get right back to business and nothing will have changed,” then I suggest that you didn’t get COVID-19’s message.
Free Download of Buyology – for a Coronavirus World.
I’d like to share the book with you – free of charge. (It is a little gift from me). No obligations – except my hope that you’ll read it. It is a thought provoking, easy read – offering business owners a new take on the virus and how to navigate the aftermath.
Free Download: https://www.martinlindstrom.com/buyology-pocketbook-partners/
Contact WSB to book Martin Linstrom: https://www.wsb.com/speakers/martin-lindstrom/
For a customized list of speakers, contact WSB today:
