“If you are going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill*
As we write this post, it is our sincere hope this message finds both you and your loved ones safe and well. With COVID-19, the entire world is in a situation of public health and economic disruption of a global scale and magnitude most of us have never experienced. If you are leading an organization and others are looking to you, you must put energy into the uncertainty to come out stronger on the other side of this disruption.
In discussing how best we could serve others and provide value at this time, focus and clarity draws from the real-world experiences of our Advisory Team. To help support organizations, over the coming weeks, The Innovation Garage® will offer a series of 30-minute webinars.
During these sessions we will share in real-time, the advice, guidance, models, tools, and methods we are using to support our clients. Helping them put energy into the uncertainty. We are hopeful, as well, to include some organizational leaders and colleagues as guests in those sessions to share insights on how they too, are putting energy into the uncertainty.
Many of our Advisory Team have deep supply chain and operations experience as practitioners within small, medium, and corporate organizations. We’ve experienced many supply chain disruptions that required business continuity development and recovery plans.
We’ve been scraped and bruised with the best of them. Our team has experienced the Dot-Com Bust, Y2K, September 11th, 2008 Financial Crisis, Tsumani’s in Japan, the corresponding Fukushima nuclear disaster, and it’s related factory fires, supplier bankruptcies, labor strikes, supplier product design failures and may other situations.
What each of these situations have in common, is not necessarily what happens around you or to you, but rather, how you will respond, recover and lead others through it. In each of these scenarios, we’ve always found the collective mindset and most successful results when you do the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing to pull through it.
You must learn how to innovate under stress AND execute well. You must focus Supply Chain Resiliency with R&D and Innovation. When we focus on these items, you can then recover from these disruptions. Once you double down to innovate and execute your way out, your teams and organization become stronger and more resilient as a result.
So get ready. You will need to innovate under stress to solve problems. You will need to mitigate supply chain disruptions for your organizations, your customers and even your suppliers. Then, strategically focus your cash reserves and execute like you never have before. As we are actively working and advising our clients on what can be done to weather the storm, you’ll find the first steps below.
To get started, here are 5 basic steps to ensure your organization comes out on the other side, stronger, faster, with a more resilient supply chain and most importantly, more innovative.
Here are 5 key steps to take a look at:
- Protect Employees – Follow the guidance of your state and local officials on what to do and how to do it.
- Set Up A Cross-Functional Response Team. Focus on Scenario and Business Continuity Planning and communication.
- Manage Cash and ensure access to liquidity
- Model your Sales Cycle, Stabilize the Supply Chain, then double down on your R&D and Innovation Efforts.
- Help the Community.
After each webinar, you’ll receive a link to downloadable content intended to help build your Business Continuity Planning (BCP) playbook. Our first session is Thursday, April 2nd, 12:15 PM ET. To join the full series, REGISTER HERE.
We’ve included our most recent session with our education partners at Baldwin Wallace University in Cleveland, Ohio.
By the end of the series, you will have experience in the ride along with us, to build and shape your very own Business Continuity and Supply Chain Resiliency Playbook for your organization.
So, ride along with us to learn. You’ll get to work on learning methods to create the capability needed for your organization’s long term growth.
Can’t attend? No worries.
The sessions have been recorded and available for playback at a time convenient for you.
Until we connect again, stay safe and be well!
#mindset #grit #emotionalintelligence #strategy #leadership #innovation #growth #theinnovationgarage
*This is one of those quotes, that is most often attributed to Winston Churchill, but cannot, for some reason be validated. Regardless of not being able to validate, it’s a damn fine quote. It clearly defines the mindset necessary of what you must do to carry on.*
We help organizations grow!
We build strategy. We build ideas and coach the innovation capability of teams.
We design products, services and supply chains. We guide leaders from non-profit, government, startup and the Global Fortune 500 to intentionally self-disrupt their offerings and organizations.
We provide world-class education, tools, and technology on how to craft growth operating systems focused on the long- term.
To learn more visit us here, check out our calendar of events, or reach out to us and discuss a private program for your organization.