Coronavirus: Focussing your response with the ’20-minute business model’
COVID-19, or coronavirus; it’s all-consuming at the moment. And for good reason. Companies, cities, and even entire countries are in lockdown. The first priority for companies is the health and safety of their colleagues, followed closely by concerns around cash flow, supply chain disruption and other key aspects of running a business.
However, the coronavirus is one in a chain of seismic events over the past twelve months. Trade wars, bushfires, social media bans, nuclear treaty withdrawals, Saudi-Russian oil price wars, worldwide stock market crashes, and now the coronavirus, are events and developments that are continuing to redraw the world we live and work in.
Trade wars, bushfires, social media bans, nuclear treaty withdrawals, Saudi-Russian oil price wars, worldwide stock market crashes, and now the coronavirus, are events and developments that are continuing to redraw the world we live and work in.
As a leader, what’s your approach?
The first priority during an outbreak like this is the health and safety of people. Around the globe, companies have rightfully taken immediate operational measures to shield their clients and employees from the risks of exposure to the virus; examples are working from home, providing financial or mental health support, and even the complete halting of production.
However, the current viral outbreak is also exposing structural vulnerabilities of organisations to ‘external’ events outside their control, whether they are big or small, public or private, academic or not-for-profit.
When we assist organisations with scenario planning, we start by using Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas to identify an organisation’s exposure and vulnerability to changes in the ‘external environment’. In other words, what makes up your value proposition and how susceptible is it to changes in the technological, political, economic, ecological or social environment? We usually look at longer-term trends, however the framework also lends itself well to looking at immediate vulnerabilities, in this instance the coronavirus.
… using the Business Model Canvas to identify [your] exposure and vulnerability to changes in the ‘external environment’.