I like water parks, but I wouldn’t want to actually live in one.
If you’ve been to a waterpark, you’ve probably seen the rides where at some point you find yourself in a big doughnut shape pool, going round and round and ending up disappearing helplessly down a chute in the middle, destination unknown.
This is mildly scarey to some, the first time. Once I saw someone actually trying to get out to avoid the drop. Bless.
Why mention this, I hear you ask?
Well, doesn’t 2022 so far feel like living in a doughnut pool? Since back in 2020 we haven’t been able to control our direction of travel very easily, a little disorientated; now we have inflation and, in April, energy bills will rocket, knocking-on prices for everything else. That's the bad news.
At the same time the economy is recovering strongly and the pandemic looks set to exit stage left. And Johnson allegedly plans to create a high wage economy, (probably just as well….)
By May-time, just like going down the drop-chute in the middle of our waterpark pool, the economy will be in unknown territory. And it could be fun, or frightening, or even a bit of both.
So, given what I do I’m bound to ask: How sure are you that your 2022 strategy – something you probably put together last autumn – is betting on the right horses?
Seriously, I’d like to know. Did you model different possible scenarios, back in ‘21, while choosing your business aims, post-coronavirus?
Or are you maybe finding your first responses, to the new conditions in 2020, have held up okay since then?
Most of all are you confident you are clear about how your customers see your marketplace and their options? Can you flex what you do, to talk to them in that market?
Or is ‘flexible strategy’, for your company, really just about predicting/responding to different P&L?
Answers on a postcard.