OWP liVe Report

24 How to take your company from victim to victor Q & A

ARNAUD CHEVALLIER IMD Professor of Strategy

Prioritize effectiveness over efficiency, Professor Chevallier advises leaders navigating the pandemic. Because theCOVID-19 pandemic presents a complex range of challenges, there is no singleway forward for organizations. But by adopting a range of strategicmeasures, businesses can stay afloat in these unpredictable times. Many organizations are paralyzed amid today’s extremeuncertainty.What is the first step to creating a strategy that will take a company fromvictimto victor? The first step to regainingmomentum is to identify the range of possible universes in a relevant and specific time horizon. That might be 12months, or evenmore. Now, imagine not just one possible future, but rather expand it fromworst- to best-case scenario. What does current and future success look like for anorganization? COVID-19 is affecting different organizations in different ways – some

are doingwell, while others are suffering tremendously. The point is that you can have success irrespective of the future that unfolds. Even if a perfect stormappears, you can weather it bymaking the best out of what’s happening to your organization. Success exists even in theworst case:maybe that’s simply avoiding bankruptcy, for example.

Roll out several plans of action initially, but asmore data becomes available and it becomes clearer that some versions of the futurewon’t pan out, adapt. Remove these unnecessary or irrelevant action plans from your arsenal. By narrowing down these possible scenarios, your action planwill becomemore efficient. Youmentioneffectiveness and efficiency. Are these two terms at oddswitheach other? Theremust be a balance between effectiveness and efficiency. Effectiveness is being prepared forwhichever scenario might unfold; it requires thinking broadly and having plans of action for each scenario. However, to be efficient, you would have only one plan andwouldn’t waste resources using others. But as the future, especially in these times, is highly uncertain, you should aimfor effectiveness rather than efficiency – at least at the onset. You knowsomething now, but you’ll know more later, so youmust continuously update your thinking.

Howcan companies respond to the forces that shape the future? Fromamong the plethora of forces out there, you should identify the two or three that are influencing your future themost. Then look at those forces to determine their intensity and inwhich direction they are pushing you.