In the year In 2019 I was running a successful global business providing customer experience technology solutions to the hospitality industry. I never thought that two years later my company would be in the contact center business. I recently read the work of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a New York Times bestselling author who coined the phrase “antifragile” to describe a business that strengthens in the face of stress. So let me tell you what changes I have made in light of the challenges I have faced in the past two years and the strategies that have helped my company survive and grow.
When the pandemic hit, my business had to downsize quickly to survive. Our team has shrunk as our revenue has dropped by over 60%. In my mid-career, I entered a new strategic partnership that pushed me from a path serving the edge of an organization (hotel front desk) to the core of the business (contact center). They grew the team by 30% over a few years into the transformation and I see new product revenue growing 500% YoY by 2021.
Today, businesses are tightening their wallets in anticipation of an economic downturn. But if I’ve learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that surviving uncertain times requires certain strategies. Here are three lessons I learned about resilience that are applicable to today’s rapidly changing economic environment:
Lesson #1: You can’t be efficient without an open mind.
Looking back at the uncertainty of the pandemic and evaluating why we succeeded where others failed highlights how important company culture is in times of crisis. At my company, we hire and value team members with low egos, who leave their baggage at the door and own good ideas regardless of who brings them. A key trait I look for is an open-minded spirit.
I remember in the year At the start of 2020, as my team and I reviewed the remarkable pivot in our company’s product, advisors told us to stay the course and stay focused even in the hospitality industry’s downturn. If I had heeded that advice, I’m sure I wouldn’t have survived the years that followed in the hospitality industry. The inquisitive nature of my team allowed me to recognize a new (and stressful) opportunity in what seemed to be a near vertical and ripe for disruption.
Lesson #2: Hail Mary
As a leader, it’s hard to accept when we don’t have all the answers. During the outbreak, it was time to throw some ideas around to see if anyone would stick. Many of the product ideas failed but luckily one stuck. This experience taught me that you can’t be afraid to try something different. You need to find team members and business partners who are equally unafraid in uncertain environments, or as we say in our company, “sad.”
Once I saw we had an early pull, I had to make a tough decision. Do I go all out to make this new product a success or hedge our bets on the prospect of an eventual recovery of the hospitality industry? The idea of placing all of our bets on a lackluster contact center industry run by on-premise technology, entrenched ex-players and agents in faraway lands seemed daunting. Although the momentum was strong, it was still in its early stages, so I had very limited information to make decisions.
A key factor that pushed me into the new business strategy was the strength of my partnership with a large technology company. Their belief in our product, their willingness to sell the product globally and help with early wins helps me believe that “Hail Mary” is an educated risk.
Lesson #3: Think beyond the short term
In emergency situations, there is a lot of pressure to make decisions immediately. The advantage of the current cloud-computing environment is that it is relatively easy to spin up new projects and has the ability to scale up and down as the business demands. It allows you to think long term while being able to act on short term needs.
When you’re in trouble, it’s all too easy to look for the quick way out or a short-term one-shot. In those moments, I thought I was making the right call, trading short-term gains for long-term gains. In retrospect, my calls to keep the long-term strategy in mind keep us moving forward, while some quick wins distract the company from its goals.
With war raging in Europe, inflation and energy costs soaring, and the pandemic still causing chronic labor shortages, the key question executives must now ask themselves is how to create a business that thrives under stress. On my journey, it gave us an open mind, Hail Mary and long term thinking. Antifragile We need business to prosper.
