Overcoming 2020: Three ways to get your business strategy back on track

December is typically the time where we look ahead and create a plan for the coming year. As the holidays close in, it’s the perfect opportunity to assess what has worked over the course of the last 12 months and what created the most value. It’s also a chance to assess what business changes are afoot and how your organization can compensate accordingly.

2020 was a most tumultuous year, however, with the only certainty an absolute inability to predict what was coming. That can make it a daunting prospect – even hubris – to try and plan for the year ahead. What will business look like next year? Will certain industries continue to feel the pandemic pinch? Will others experience disruption off of the long tail impact? Will customer service, partner engagement and even employee relations go back to ‘normal’ or will we stay socially distanced for a good part of the year?

There are many unanswerable questions, but if we peel back the layer of uncertainty there is an opportunity to return to business fundamentals and build a strategy even amidst the unknown. As you prepare to drive forward into the future, now is the perfect time to assess the impact of the past year and heed the signs that will ensure your business stays on track for the year ahead.

Focus on the doable

It is so easy to see only roadblocks when you’re trying to navigate unfamiliar territory. Most businesses were affected on some level by the pandemic and subsequent lockdown, including government restrictions that severely impacted the ability to do business at all. In these moments it can be hard to see anything but the obstacles ahead, a view which can stymie even the most seasoned business leaders. This is why we always counsel our customers to focus on what can be controlled.

This requires embracing the reality of the situation and finding workable solutions within that reality. Restaurants were a great example of this during the pandemic. In most places, restaurants have been required to close their doors to the public – often for months at a time. Rather than completely shut down, restaurants found ways to innovate – shoring up their takeout services, offering new services like delivery, or taking advantage of warmer months to serve patrons outdoors. While certainly not ideal circumstances, restaurants took what they could control and what they could offer their customers – an enjoyable meal, service and experience – and found a way to bring it to them in new and unconventional ways.

So what is doable for you in 2021? If your plans were waylaid by the pandemic, can you pick them back up again in the new year, or do you need to start over with new ideas? How are you engaging with customers and are there new ways you can explore? Do your marketing efforts need to adjust to accommodate the many changes of the past year? Remember, focus on what is possible and you’ll find there are plenty of exciting opportunities for change and growth ahead.

Create a strategy for the long term, but evaluate success in the short term

It’s impossible to run a business focused solely on the quarter ahead or even the year ahead. To be successful, you need to think about a long term vision. However, looking too hard at the long term can make the short term go off the rails quickly, especially when faced with the disruptions we’ve seen over the last 12 months. This is why we recommend a continued focus on the strategies that will help you meet your long term goals, but with the ability to quickly – and often – evaluate how your company is faring daily, monthly or quarterly.

StrategyBlocks makes this particularly easy, by creating a visual dashboard of strategic initiatives broken down by blocks, which allow you to put shorter-term activities within a series of cascading blocks and quickly see progress at-a-glance. The reason we designed strategy planning in this way was to make it easier for companies to manage short-term chaos while maintaining progress toward meeting the long-term vision. This is especially critical during times of upheaval or uncertainty, as it can help ground executives and key team leaders, keeping them focused on broader goals and the activities that will help achieve those goals.

Evaluate your digital transformation progress 

Digital transformation has been a watchword across industries for years, but the pandemic highlighted that companies weren’t as prepared as they had assumed. Many organizations have been forced to manage remote teams and business processes, and that may well extend even after the threat of the pandemic is over.

Your digital transformation journey should be about much more than just replacing manual processes with technology. To be effective, it needs to extend inward to your employee policies and procedures and outward through the customer journey. Data can be a powerful byproduct of digital transformation, which is why it is critical to be candid in assessing where your company needs to better prioritize its digital transformation journey and how that can create greater success.

Before embarking on significant change or new opportunities, consider how prepared you are to meet your business and customer needs and how technology might help you achieve better results.

StrategyBlocks can be a highly effective resource in helping you plan both your short term strategy and long term vision. Schedule a demo with us today and let us assist you in navigating the road ahead with the greatest insight possible.