Crises are opportunities. It’s time to generate ideas and get creating.

Something as small as a virus has turned our world upside down and forced us to adapt, to be resilient, to pivot, and innovate.  It is important to have a sense of agency, of our own ability to overcome difficulty and strive for the best.  Truly, instead of focusing on the negative, the difficult, the doomsday scenarios, let’s turn towards and join those who are seeing in the current situation an opportunity to emerge renewed, to adopt business models that favour the circular economy, that are carbon neutral, that support better ways of working, relating, learning, creating and exchanging value.

I want to put a ding in the Universe.

 

Reality bites.  A survey of 5,800 small businesses in the USA revealed the fragility of the sector, as the median business, with monthly expenses of over $10,000 had just over two weeks’ worth of cash on hand.  43% of surveyed businesses had closed (at least temporarily), citing slow or no consumer demand and concerns over staff health as the primary causes in the first few weeks of the pandemic.  In the UK, the indicators released by the Office for National Statistics on 10th September revealed that 41% of small businesses surveyed had cash reserves to last them less than six months, and 4% had no reserves at all.  However, amidst the doom and gloom the UK’s HMRC reports that in August, there was an average of 3,836 company incorporations per working day.   Although job adverts had decreased up to 55% comparing year-on-year figures, some sectors such as legal services and customer services had record numbers of open jobs.

Whilst most business sectors are down, and consumer spending has fallen, it is true that consumers are still spending money, albeit more carefully. In order to have a share of their wallet, businesses need to adapt to the current circumstances. Anticipate their needs, wants and requirements, and have the ability to spot trends. Not all businesses are equipped with these abilities to ‘read’ customers, but their front-line staff or online shops already have valuable data that can be gathered, analysed and interpreted to gain insights into these challenges.