What An Opportunity For The Taking

When drastic change occurs, opportunity abounds. 

What a business opportunity this pandemic can be… 

I’ll let that statement soak in for a moment, seeping down into your guarded thoughts asunder.  Because it’s a simple truth that seems to pass this world right on by like wind through our fingertips. 

And I’m not talking about the fallacious people trumpeting that the stock market is on sale or online price gougers ripping off innocent consumers because of a predatory scarcity play.  No, this isn’t that at all.  I’m referring to something deeper, groundbreaking and atavistic.  Don’t think about it in the profit and loss sense, think about it in the stakeholder and mission-driven sense. 

Yes, now you get it.  I’m talking about real, transcendent business change, that rare gleaming opportunity that only comes around once in a lifetime. 

You don’t realize when it happens, but you definitely know once it is gone. 

Is this that time? 

I think it is.  I think we’re on the precipice staring over the edge and there will never be another opportunity quite like this one during my numbered days.  However, even with electricity in the air, I’m not optimistic companies can adapt.  I wish I could be, but I’ve just seen too much waste over my career to have any confidence that corporate America can get this one right. 

Let’s take my company for example. 

If you are a talented, productive and challenge-seeking employee, then you couldn’t be more frustrated with the egg management has laid over the past several years.  Gone are the glory days when we were a company to be respected and feared, and misstep after misstep has paved the way to an ambivalent mediocrity that haunts the hallways with the ghosts of what once was. 

So here we sit at a crossroads.  COVID-19 can either be the spark that ignites monumental change or be the final straw that pulls you down into a grave of your own digging.  Fear, or inspiration, can be the next determinant.  The choice is up to you. 

How will you react?  How will you respond?  What better time than now?  Because it’ll be the shapers, the crafters of thoughtful intention who reimagine the next frontier. 

Sounds pretty epic, doesn’t it?  You’re ready to go grab a sword and slay a dragon.  Yeah you fucking are!  Hahaha. 

Well, for me personally, during the past few months my department has been on the brink, just itching to get back on track.  Here everyone was, never more attentive, focused or ready to face resolve.  Regardless of past differences, we were united to fight this invisible and common foe.  We were humans and we would respond forcefully and with a vengeance.  And the only way to do that was to succeed at we had previously been doing.  But not just succeed, blow the top off it, crush it!  The virus would not threaten our business and livelihood.  We would rise above, transcend and become the dynamic capitalistic machine that we had always dreamed we could be! 

Yes, we would become the heroes of yesteryear’s lore… true ascendants. 

And the opportunity had never been riper for the taking.  My department could have re-organized responsibilities and streamlined decision-making to allow increased productivity.  New goals could have been set with improved metrics.  Clearly defined priorities laid out with a fresh fervor for collaboration in order to build a foundation of trust and motivated teamwork.  Weekly communication targets implemented so that no one felt isolated or alone with all this sudden change and imbalance surrounding us. 

But no, that would be asking to use logic in the face of reason. 

Instead I watched as our struggling department only fell into further disarray.  Priorities shift daily, resources are drained, coworkers feel more isolated than ever, left on ambiguous islands to fend for themselves while severe burnout lurks around the corner.  All we care about is conserving cash with no plan in place or long-term goal.  Leadership is absent, leaving only followers who encompass the emotional intelligence of a two-year-old.  It’s the blind leading the blind over their favorite ledge of incompetence while believing that doing the same thing repeatedly will lead to different results. 

It’s literally fucking mind-blowing.  You can’t make this shit up. 

I even had a conversation with one higher up the other day, telling him how we never do postmortems on our projects, so our models and numbers have been way off, which translates to we’re not acknowledging our mistakes so we can’t learn from them to improve.  I further told him this needs to change.  But his answer to me was the usual one you would expect from a struggling company: “we need to be better.”  That was it.  No plan to improve.  No steps to find and address the problem.  No admittance that maybe our systems and structure should be reevaluated. 

Nope. 

Just a simple, “we need to be better.”  Those are the words of a dying dinosaur my friends, about to become extinct.  Zero accountability met with its lifelong partner of denial.  If you want to make sure a company doesn’t succeed and drive away its top talent, follow this path. 

Alright, so I’ve beaten big brother to death, but how about the small business plight?  Are they immune to this, or is the room for change just as ripe for the picking? 

Well, I’m glad you asked, because I have an answer for you. 

Some people might not like to hear this, but when a recession hits, there is no better time to clean house.  Thin that herd.  You have the perfect excuse to drop dead weight and reshape your department/company.  However, for some, this is much harder to practice than in theory. 

When I look at the dental office my wife works at, the Doctor was handed a golden fucking ticket, a pure Godsend but he couldn’t’ see it for what it was.  He was plagued by a terrible staff, countless HR problems and a failing business plan.  Debt, poor planning and a self-inflicted scheduling debacle were staring him in the face, just daring him to act.  And what an opportunity this Pandemic could have been to turn all of this around.  He could have sat down, looked his business in the mirror and changed everything.  He could have overhauled his staff and cleaned house – wiped the slate clean and do what needed to be done. 

Because let’s face it, this pandemic is about one thing: survival.  And if you couldn’t operate at an efficient, high level in the old world, you aren’t going to make it in the new world.  Because that’s what we’re facing… a brand-new world. 

Yet, unfortunately what I’ve seen so far is that companies who have struggled prior to the pandemic, have only continued to deteriorate and fare even worse.  Because if you can’t manage a company during normal times, how the fuck are you going to do it during a crisis? 

But that’s how it goes, time keeps flowing like the immortal river that it is.  Kingdoms will rise and fall.  The Earth will keep on turning.  We make what mark we can with the miniscule speck of time we call existence. 

But in a business sense, I have no doubt that this could be one of the greatest learning experiences of the century.  Real innovation and the challenging environment will force the winners to adapt and the losers to implode.  Unprecedented times lead to extraordinary developments. 

Like I said at the beginning, when drastic change occurs, opportunity abounds. 

The cauldron’s bubbling, the brew-master is brewing.  Where will you leap next? 

And what an opportunity for the taking… 

-Q-FI 

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P.S. What kind of opportunity has this pandemic been for you?  For those still working, how have your companies handled the pandemic so far?  What grade would you give them?