Hey, happy Monday,
On Friday, a close friend on the phone was able to describe, better than anyone else, the atmosphere these days.
He told me, “There is a climate here as if everyone is waiting for the meteorite to arrive.”
I couldn’t have described it better.
Early damage
The meteorite has not yet arrived and yet the first fragments are hitting the base. And at the base are the People.
I talked about these three fundamental building blocks for any kind of activity in the first STRTGY Meeting. You can find the slides and self-assessment questionnaire by entering the STRTGY Community on Facebook, file section. Here is direct link.
The gist is this:
People working cohesively and cooperatively equip themselves with more efficient Processes to do better, faster, and reduce risk thereby enabling the creation of Products that have a better chance of competing in the marketplace.
– STRTGY Maturity Index
The stages of smart working
We are experiencing in these hours the world’s greatest experiment on the future of work.
Catalyzed by this situation, smart working, for most SMEs, is going full throttle through the three phases of the great movements, in the precise order of John Stuart Mill.
Every great movement knows three stages: first it is ridiculed, then discussed and finally adopted.
– John Stuart Mill
Step 1. Ridicularization.
Smart working is the stuff of startuppers. How can you be productive if you are at home?
Who hasn’t heard that at least once?
Stage 2. Discussion.
“In our industry it’s not possible,” they tell us. Yet we arrive at the office, put on our headphones, and email each other all day to cover our asses. In the previous newsletter I linked you to a survey that puts in black and white that at most you are focused for 2 hours a day (access the archive).
Organizations that are at this stage either put the word “smart working” only in job descriptions or use it as a reward masking cost reduction or social responsibility opportunities.
Step 3. Adoption.
As I write this smart working is not only a matter of course, it is the only way forward.
Working from home becomes not only critical for you, hours it is also critical for stakeholders. To not interrupt service. To amortize fixed costs. To prepare for the aftermath.
And people like us, who love their work because they plan for the future, do it with passion. Having cleared the table from breakfast we are in the office in 15 seconds flat, saving C02 emitted and breathed, with the concentration we haven’t had in years.
So far so good, this is only good.
As soon as you open your laptop, though, ask yourself this question. How many businesses have processes ready to be able to run remotely?
I am referring to all the people who do not have a corporate laptop. Who don’t know how to do it or don’t have the ability to access the data they need because the “of the Cloud” project is not yet finished. To the address book that is still paper because of CRM licenses that are too expensive for all employees. To faculty who use their personal skype account to lecture and their Google Drive to share slides.
And let’s look at the highest brick, that of Products. How many businesses have products or services that can continue to generate revenue under these new distribution conditions?
The “bring-at-home” wave
Take for example Esselunga, which mobilized immediately. It returned 2.5M to the community for Hospitals and Institutions committed to the frontline, in addition to groceries delivered for free for over 65s.
Esselunga was able to do this because its business will emerge stronger from this crisis, which has a peculiarity: that of allowing so many people to try disruptive behaviors for the first time, where in simple terms there is no convenience in going back.
The fear of going to the supermarket, as well as to the office, overcame the prejudices of those who had never shopped online or those who thought smart working impossible.
New behaviors = new opportunities. As consumers, by the time we come out of this crisis, we will be completely different and few businesses will be able to be ready if they don’t innovate now. If they don’t invest in People, Processes and Products that enable new business models.
Esselunga launched its e-commerce in 2001. 19 years ago.
On this you have an advantage. Esselunga’s technology today costs 10× less because of Moore’s law.
Esselunga, however, launched the Fidaty card in 1995. Its artificial intelligence, with 25 years of customer data available, could get your groceries to your door before you realized your fridge was empty and would most likely be even better at choosing seasonal foods, a balanced ratio of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, the things on offer and those with the most strawberry points perhaps saving you money.
Disclaimer: I have never worked for Esselunga, I have no information on whether Esselunga saves this data, and this is pure design-fiction, but if you know someone who works there and you think they might be interested in this newsletter, go ahead and forward it to them, I will find a way to repay you 🙂
But back to us. I researched what the companies that will benefit most from these new behaviors have in common-the common ingredient is the ability of their business model to bring-to-home the new necessities for our lives.
Here is a totally non-exhaustive list to explain the concept to you.
Examples of Bring-at-home businesses
They bring home the office
Google
Slack
Zoom
Okta
Intercom
Atlassian
They bring home the groceries
Amazon
Esselunga
Walmart
They bring home good food
Food delivery (Deliveroo & co.)
Tannic
They take home shopping
Farfetch
Shopify
Etsy
Ebay
They bring home entertainment
Spotify
Netflix
Sonos
Electronic Arts
Zynga
Take-Two Interactive
They bring home the gym
Peloton
Tecnogym
They bring home health
Online pharmacies
Remote diagnostics
- Dentists with next-generation aligners
They make the house better
Ikea
I think I am out of time. The emails are starting to arrive and it’s time to go into office mode but before I leave you I want to anticipate that I am working on the upcoming STRTGY meetings that will surely be live streamed in our Facebook group and will have important guests.
If there is a moment in history when it is most useful to exchange information and expertise to rebuild new competitive advantages in a world that will never be the same, that moment is today, and you are in the right place.
Good work!
Make yourself heard!
