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From Surviving To Thriving: Reimagining The post-COVID-19 Return
From Surviving To Thriving: Reimagining The post-COVID-19 Return
thriving: Reimagining
the post-COVID-19 return
For many, the toughest leadership test is now looming: how to
bring a business back in an environment where a vaccine has yet
to be found and economies are still reeling.
© Maskot/Getty Images
May 2020
The 1966 World Cup marked a low point for 1.Rapidly recover revenue.
Brazilian soccer. Although the winner of the Speed matters: it will not be enough for companies
previous two tournaments, the team was eliminated to recover revenues gradually as the crisis abates.
in the first round, and its star player, Pelé, failed They will need to fundamentally rethink their
to perform. Fouled frequently and flagrantly, he revenue profile, to position themselves for the long
threatened never to return to the World Cup. Many term and to get ahead of the competition. To do this
wondered if Brazil’s glory days were over. Four years companies must SHAPE up.
later, however, Brazil won again, with such grace and
style that the 1970 team is not only widely regarded Start-up mindset. This favors action over
as the best team ever to take the pitch but also as research, and testing over analysis. Establish
the most beautiful. And Pelé was named the player a brisk cadence to encourage agility and
of the tournament. accountability: daily team check-ins, weekly
30-minute CEO reviews, and twice-a-month
Making this turnaround required innovation, in 60-minute reviews.
particular, the creation of a unique attacking style
of soccer. It required building a cohesive team, even Human at the core. Companies will need to
as most of the roster changed. And it required rethink their operating model based on how their
leadership, both in management and on the field. people work best. Sixty percent of businesses
The result: by reimagining everything, Brazil came surveyed by McKinsey in early April said that
back stronger. their new remote sales models were proving as
much (29 percent) or more effective (31 percent)
As businesses around the world consider how than traditional channels.
they can return from the torment inflicted by the
coronavirus, Brazil’s journey from failure to triumph Acceleration of digital, tech, and analytics.
provides food for thought. In a previous article, It’s already a cliché: the COVID-19 crisis has
McKinsey described five qualities that will be critical accelerated the shift to digital. But the best
for business leaders to find their way to the next companies are going further, by enhancing
normal: resolve, resilience, return, reimagination, and expanding their digital channels. They’re
and reform. We noted that there would likely be successfully using advanced analytics to
overlap among these stages, and the order might combine new sources of data, such as satellite
differ, depending on the business, the sector, and imaging, with their own insights to make better
the country. and faster decisions and strengthen their links
to customers.
In this article, we suggest that in order to come
back stronger, companies should reimagine their Purpose-driven customer playbook. Companies
business model as they return to full speed. The need to understand what customers will value,
moment is not to be lost: those who step up their post-COVID-19, and develop new use cases and
game will be better off and far more ready to tailored experiences based on those insights.
confront the challenges—and opportunities—of the
next normal than those who do not. Ecosystems and adaptability. Given crisis-
related disruptions in supply chains and
There are four strategic areas to focus on: channels, adaptability is essential. That will
recovering revenue, rebuilding operations, mean changing the ecosystem and considering
rethinking the organization, and accelerating the nontraditional collaborations with partners up
adoption of digital solutions. and down the supply chain.
Exhibit
Recovering revenues is an important element of reimagining the return.
Matrix for prioritizing measures for rapid revenue recovery, illustrative
Sales
M&A
restructuring
moves Revenue-growth
management
E-commerce
analytics
Customer
Impact on experience,
earnings safety
before interest Marketing
and taxes efficiency
Assortment, range,
sizing, packaging Demand
planning
E-commerce
features
LOW
SLOW Time to impact FAST
empty, company leaders didn’t just stew. Instead, supported by the right processes and governance.
they reacted like a start-up. They invested in Agile sales organizations, for example, continuously
micro–customer segmentation and social listening prioritize accounts and deals, and decide quickly
to guide personalization. This led them to develop where to invest. But this is effective only if there is a
new use cases. They discovered, for example, that clear growth plan that sets out how to win each type
many tech firms were telling employees not to use of customer. Similarly, fast decision making between
public transportation. The car-rental company used local sales and global business units and the rapid
this insight to experiment with and refine targeted reallocation of resources between them require a
campaigns. They also called first-time customers stable sales-pipeline-management process.
who had cancelled orders to reassure them of the
various safety steps the company had taken, such
as “no touch” car pickup. To manage the program, 2. Rebuilding operations.
they pulled together three agile teams with cross- The coronavirus pandemic has radically changed
functional skills and designed a recovery dashboard demand patterns for products and services
to track progress. Before the crisis, the company across sectors, while exposing points of fragility
took up to three weeks to launch a campaign; that in global supply chains and service networks. At
is now down to two to three days. Within seven the same time, it has been striking how fast many
weeks, the company had recovered 90 percent of companies have adapted, creating radical new
its business, year on year—almost twice the rate of levels of visibility, agility, productivity, and end-
its chief competitor. customer connectivity. Now leaders are asking
themselves: How can we sustain this performance?
Develop an agile operating model. Driven by urgency, As operations leaders seek to reinvent the way they
marketing and sales leaders are increasingly willing work and thus position themselves for the next
to embrace agile methods; they are getting used normal, five themes are emerging.
to jumping on quick videoconferences to solve
problems and give remote teams more decision- Building operations resilience. Successful
making authority. It’s also important, of course, for companies will redesign their operations and supply
cross-functional teams not to lose sight of the long chains to protect against a wider and more acute
term and to avoid panic reactions. range of potential shocks. In addition, they will act
quickly to rebalance their global asset base and
In this sense, “agile” means putting in place a new supplier mix. The once-prevalent global-sourcing
operating model built around the customer and model in product-driven value chains has steadily
How we work. Many leaders are reflecting on How to grow. Coming out of the crisis, organizations
how small, nimble teams built in a hurry to deal must answer important questions about growth and
with the COVID-19 emergency made important scalability. Three factors will matter most: the ability
decisions faster and better. What companies have to embed data and analytics in decision making;
learned cannot be unlearned—namely, that a flatter the creation of learning platforms that support
organization that delegates decision making down to both individual and institutional experimentation
Kevin Sneader, the global managing partner of McKinsey, is based in McKinsey’s Hong Kong office. Bob Sternfels is a senior
partner in the San Francisco office.