“Never Waste A Crisis” 6 Winston Churchill questions for the COVID-19 era

As we hunker down and take admirable precautions globally in response to the threat of COVID-19 sometimes it pays to look back in history.

Open declaration of personal beliefs and principles:

1. No matter how bad this gets I believe this will pass.
2. When it does the rebound is likely fast and hard.
3. Global governments learned a lot from the financial recession of 2008-2011
4. Companies that manage through this well will capture significant long term competitive advantage, those that don’t wont and may not survive
5. You cannot do everything, you have to pick and choose where to focus.

So as a bit of a history buff way before Rahm Emanual said “Never Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste” Winston Churchill is said to have made the same statement.

Winston’s idea was that when a ‘system’ goes into flux it means something is fundamentally wrong and needs fixing.   (His system in flux was the almost inevitable meltdown of the prior world order most obviously indicated by the rise of Adolf Hitler and Mussolini and the but not exclusively .. read “The Gathering Storm” for more).  And when the system melts down a new order will take its place and those who are prepared for that will thrive and those that aren’t prepared to change will barely survive if  they survive at all. (He believed Britain was not truly prepared culturally or operationally and was living too much in the past model.. unlike the USA that had little international past and was positioned to capitalize on the new world order.)

So as a British born USA resident individual here are the 5 questions I believe Winston would be asking business leaders ask themselves today in the era of COVID-19.

1. What is broken that caused this or more importantly caused the impact to be so severe ?
2. What are you doing today to strengthen your relationships today and to ensure they are solid for the upturn?   Especially how you treat  your most loyal customers, most valuable employees and best partners.
3. What do your stakeholder audiences think of what you are doing and how you are treating them ? Especially intensifying your Voice of Customer, Voice of Employee and Voice of Partner feedback and communications systems.
4. What are three things you can do in 30-45 days to improve your operating model? Like can you get help to quickly be more effective in a virtual world, to provide better service in a virtual, remote world for employees and customers.
5. What are three things that will be different tomorrow  than yesterday?  For example many companies are finding they have all the technology to conduct business remotely and virtually and I suspect it will be a long time before we are all flying quite as much as we were and probably never needed to be .. sorry Delta?
6. While reacting to the current crisis how can you ensure you are prepared to be a winner in the next phase?