A Concrete Block is not AGILE.

Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to all who read the first article and to those who commented and reached out. The feedback is much appreciated.

As we expand further on the topic of concrete blocks, we will dig into one of the major traits of a concrete block, its rigidity. Once set, it will take a huge amount of effort to move a concrete block and it is difficult to alter the shape or form which the block takes once it is set.

One of the famous quotes from Charles Darwin says, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Concrete blocks clearly do not meet the survival test in this regard.

The Covid-19 pandemic became one of the most significant seismic events which we will see in our lifetime, the world order was altered and what we used to know as normal was washed away. Many companies failed to recover from the pandemic, some barely survived, but others grew. The ones who grew were not those who had the biggest balance sheet, but those who were fluid enough and fast enough to adapt.

One such company was Amazon, who reported a 44% jump in sales in the first three months of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, as shopping shifted to being online. Revenue from merchants listing items on Amazon and using Amazon’s warehouses grew by 77% in the same period.

Amazon were quick out of the block to pivot on their core capabilities and infrastructure during the start the pandemic. The number of items which Amazon sold grew by 44%, but the cost of fulfilling those orders only grew by 31%. Amazon pivoted on their infrastructure and adapted to the pandemic the fastest.

Another company which demonstrated the agility and the strength of pivoting during a crisis was Emirates, one of the leading airlines in the world. Faced with lockdowns and uncertainties around air travel, a huge staff contingent and a fleet of hundreds of wide body aircrafts, Emirates had to be quick off the block to pivot and adapt to the uncertainty. Two key decisions stood out, firstly, the repurposing of some of the passenger planes into cargo planes. Emirates quickly realized that whilst people were not traveling, there was still a demand to move cargo.

Secondly, Emirates focused on the pandemic itself and became the key transporter of vaccines around the world. This kept the airline in the sky and retaining key talent across all areas of the airline. This pivot further allowed Emirates to be ready when air travel started the rebound with markets and countries coming out of lockdown.

Contrast this to airlines who had one business model, passenger, and who had to ground their entire fleet of aircrafts. These airlines had to receive bailouts from home governments when lockdowns were lifted for them to return to the skies.

This brings us to one key enabler for the business, a live and continually adjustable and adaptable business plan. It is one thing to have a business plan and to start the business and follow the laid down plan, it is however another to have the tools to look at that plan and adjust it as you navigate the business environment.

A static business plan is akin to the concrete block, it does not assess the journey traveled and does not look to the road ahead. A live business plan allows you to calibrate the business to the environment based on experience, and at the same time gives you ample information to forecast what the next stage may look like and in turn allows you to be agile enough to adjust course when needed.

The lesson, have a strategic plan for your business and ensure this is a live document which is amended to suit the business landscape, and which is consistently challenged to assess relevance to the market.