The lessons the business world learned from 2020 stack taller than the Burj Khalifa but aren’t nearly as good looking. As we round the corner to the new year, it can be tempting to assume that 2021 offers a fresh start, a chance to put our businesses back on solid ground and execute a strategic plan like the old days.
Companies, however, don’t run on hope, they run on ideas and grit, and perhaps the hardest business lesson we learned in 2020 is that the days of developing and executing a year-long plan are largely behind us. It might not be true for every brand, of course—some markets and industries have continued to hum along despite the record-breaking misfortunes and tragedies of 2020. But for many businesses in most industries, CEOs and other decision-makers have been forced to adapt everything from their remote work policies to their quarterly forecasts and earnings. By this logic, annual planning is no longer enough. It’s still a good exercise, but 2020 taught all of us that planning for November in January might not be the best way to go about growing a business or executing a strategy. We have to be thinking about growth, planning and adapting through more lenses than we did in the past. We have to put more effort and resources into looking at what the next month, quarter or half-year looks like on top of the annual big-picture goals we set for ourselves. Anything less at this point only creates more exposure for businesses and therefore more risk.
With that in mind, Red Fan is introducing a new service for any CEO or executive who wants a strategic communications adviser in their corner to help them prepare for short sprints or marathons. Not just a group of communications and brand experts, but a fresh set of eyes that can deliver an outside perspective, help brands adapt to evolving market or business conditions, and dive deep into growth planning, business strategy and brand positioning through Red Fan’s unique message mining process.
