This chart from Julia Janks of trends.co caught our attention this morning:
In many ways, it represents what we all want to be true – a v-shaped recovery, with steady growth once the economy fully and successfully reopens. However, it comes with both a fundamental truth and a caveat.
The fundamental truth: This won’t be the results for everyone. Have you made a strategic pivot in 2020? COVID-19 wreaked havoc with everyone’s short-term strategy, necessitating sharp cuts, new ways to reach customers, and rapid digital transformation. To even have a chance at achieving this success, making these changes now – to adapt to the “new normal” – is essential.
The caveat: For those who do survive, disregard most of your “year over year” data and charts in 2021. In a recovery, your sales team, marketing team, consultants, and others will, unsurprisingly, report huge successes year-over-year in 2021 on those KPI dashboards you’re used to reviewing. And this is why setting your strategy for 2025 is critical. Any company whose charts aren’t up and to the right for 2021 probably isn’t going to be alive much longer. Success year-over-year in 2021 is simply a testimonial to your resilience and ability to rebound. It’s measuring that progress toward where you want to be in 2025 that will let you know if, slow and steady, you can win this race.
We’ve been working with all our customers on their 2025 strategies – after assessing where they are now, what changes to make immediately to improve the digital customer experience. 2025 strategy takes a deeper look at what forward-looking trends in workplaces, lifestyles and consumer expectations mean for companies and how they can thrive in a rebounding economy with new rules and changing expectations. If you have questions about your long-term strategy and where to get started, contact us to learn more.