In a recent article, “Nine traits of future-ready companies“, McKinsey emphasizes the importance of defining “Who we are”, “How do we operate”, and “How do we grow” as essential to sustainability. Having well-defined values and vision are important, not just when companies struggle, but also to avoid the growth paradox.
Recent times have taught us that besides these fundamentals, it is also important for companies to anticipate the unanticipated. While organizations (hopefully) have a business continuity plan, it is often at the operational level. The pandemic, political and social upheavals, and workforce interruptions have required organizations to pivot strategically and redefine business and revenue models. Many adapted with moving to work-from-home practices, adopting e-business processes, or pivoting to new products or services. In hindsight, some organizations are finding out that some of these reactions are beneficial and plan to maintain them even after return to normalcy. As lessons learned, it may be beneficial to add “What are our survival strategies” to the list of questions to be defined for sustainability.
In strategically thinking about survival, organizations can build and embed dynamic capabilities of micro-resilience in several processes and practices. This may go against the wisdom of going “lean”, but maybe building slack will increase chances of survival…
