Was COVID-19 a Real VUCA For You?

You have probably heard the acronym VUCA. It is based on the management theories of ProfessorsWarren Bennis and Burt Nanus and was used in American military training to describe the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of the world after the Cold War. For many organisations post COVID-19, the situation in which they are now placed has most if not all of the characteristics.

For a large number of organisations in this position, the sad truth is that it should not be so. This situation was predictable and could have been prepared for more effectively.

Communication is key in this situation and any reader of the Clue train manifesto published 21 years ago knows that the digital communications revolution was well understood and documented. But many businesses have been painfully slow to respond to the changing world and carried on with the tools of a bygone era. For these businesses digital transformation is now happening at warp speed.

E-consultancy and Marketing Week’s most recent Covid-19 Business Impact Survey indicates that 19% of large organisations are increasing or adding new spend for ‘strategic initiatives such as digital transformation or restructuring,’ 23% are increasing spend on technology and infrastructure and 54% of large organisations have a new messaging emphasis on digital services.  This is a great opportunity for in-house PR and communications professionals

So, an underlying theme in both PR and marketing is a rapid catch-up on digital investment. Unfortunately, many marketing and PR budgets are being cut at the same time.  There is not much data available on the impacts on internal communications but here the changes are even more profound. Working remotely has become the way for many to keep their businesses going. Given the apparent success of this will make it difficult to deny requests for flexible working when the coronavirus crisis is over. In the meantime, internal communications teams who were lagging behind the digital curve are also on catch-up.

The New Normal

This phrase has become commonplace. It expresses the feelings of many who have swiftly adjusted to circumstances and adapted to new ways of working. That so many have done so successfully is a tribute to their flexibility. However, this begs the question of whether it is the new normal or a temporary state. When the COVID-19 lockdown finishes will these changes remain or will we swiftly revert to the old normal.

Communications has gained more importance since the Coronavirus crisis started with many communicators and marketers reporting feeling more valued. This is normal in the early stages of a crisis where rapid and sure stakeholder communications is vital. Will it turn into a longer term trend?

For internal communicators in particular, there could be culture shifts ahead. Will people empowered by home-working want to transit back to an office-hours, commuting life-style?  Organisations which regarded new ways of working as impossible or unacceptable will likely have demonstrated that they are achievable.

Equally, customers who have seen your service translate to on-line, may not want to change back or will value the choice of channels of communication. We will need to re-examine and redraw our customer journey maps

The Way Ahead

As the lockdown eases and we can return to life as we knew it, there are some areas that we need to consider. Here is a short checklist:

Examine your crisis planning and business continuity plan to see if they helped you to prepare adequately for what happened during the Coronavirus crisis. If they did not, what do you need to do to improve?

As businesses adjust to the new situation, can you prove that your channel approach works? If you have not adequately invested in sound measurement and analysis and cannot prove a healthy Return On Investment then get moving because revenue-impaired businesses are likely to reduce communications and marketing budgets to maintain viability in the short to medium term.

Invest in training and development to repair any skills gaps that you met during the crisis or find in the path to business recovery.

At AZTech, we have a wide range of courses to help you to adjust to the new normal. Here are three that you will find particularly useful:

Developing & Implementing Strategic Marketing Plans

Gaining Deep Understanding of Customers and How to Serve Them

Marketing, gives a deep understanding of what customers want, what they value and are willing to pay for. As the marketplace and customer needs change, marketing helps the rest of the organisation understand how to change. Strategic marketing is the overarching framework that knits marketing activities to the wider business needs, at the same time helping operational teams become customer-centric. It provides deep understanding of customers and how to serve them.

Over five days participants will develop understanding of how to create a strategic marketing plan; returning to their desks with the outline of a plan tailored to their organisation.

Public Relations and Successful Campaigns

This course covers the practice of Public Relations and in the 2020s. PR and Communications are at the heart of business performance. Modern methods, tools and channels have greatly increased the speed in which communications can be experienced, from local to global. Sustained public relations campaigns can help build public perceptions, develop reputation with key stakeholders and drive strategic organisational change. Well planned and executed campaigns are a cost-effective means of changing perceptions and increasing stakeholder value for an organisation. By closely fitting the campaign to core business priorities as well as project objectives campaign design reinforces key messages and organisational strategy. Participants will develop the skills to design, plan, cost, deliver and evaluate campaigns using the full range of PR media and channels.

Managing Customers for Competitive Advantage

The ability to find, satisfy and retain customers is at the very core of business success and the key to driving profitability. It has been estimated that it costs five to seven times more to gain a new customer than it does to retain an existing one.  As if that were not enough, in an age of price comparison and peer-review websites, giving existing customers an excellent experience is now the key strategic battleground.  Despite this, although many organizations are skilled at marketing to find and convert new prospects, far fewer understand how to make their customers loyal and keep them coming back year after year. In this course you will learn how to find and use the right information to understand what your customers want and what will delight themThis workshop explores precisely what is happening in the mind of the customer to inspire loyalty, trust and the purchase decision. When you know what drives loyalty and precisely what ‘Quality and Value’ mean to the customer, the key to success is in rigorously providing what they want and looking for any changers in needs and expectations.

Finally, in VUCA situations we need to adopt certain behaviours to succeed. These share the same acronym – but with a different emphasis:Customer insight will help show the way:

We need to think hard about the customer’s convenience, access to products and services that might not have been available in the same way before and new habits around socialising.

 Listening to customers will tell us about people’s, needs and what they expect in the future.

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