Risk is the enemy. Or is it?
If you wish to continue on as you are, or were, to repeat the successes of the past, and the failures, then you will need to conduct business as you have in the past. Business as Usual (BAU). This is a low risk option. Or is it?
If the markets are different, if the supply chain is different, if the regulations are different, if your staffing is different, then how do you conduct BAU?
You may ask yourself “Are they really all different?”
If you do conduct BAU then the risk is that you will not be getting as much new business as you did before. Then again how do you conduct BAU when nothing is as it was before so there is no such thing as usual. You then have nothing to fall back on.
You will need to create a new business as usual, which I will call NBAU.
NBAU does not come at low risk, it is in my opinion just lower risk than doing BAU. If you do decide on BAU then you will create expenditure with reduced income. Net income may then be zero or less – then what?
I have been to several workshops, business meetings and informal get-togethers lately where the participants, business owners, were thrilled with the prospect of getting back to BAU. They spoke of how they were all going to be back where they were 12 months ago without a care in the world. They each convinced each other that their thinking was sound and the world would suddenly snap back to where it was 12 months prior.
- Are they right?
- Are the ways of the past, that is BAU, a perfect model to conduct business in the future?
- Is New Business as Usual needed?
- Can businesses all emerge from this global meltdown by wishing for the past?
These are interesting questions that we each must answer for our own businesses.
“Risk is the enemy,” you might say. I disagree –
Failure to take Risk is the enemy.
