We’re in a season of schismatic change. The Brexit vote has riven business confidence not just in the UK, but across the European Union.
Here in the U.S., the upcoming presidential election is shaping up to do the same thing – radically shake business confidence, and perhaps the underlying economy – whatever the outcome.
What History Reveals
Past times of turmoil have taught us one thing, however, which is this: for well-prepared organizations, challenging times don’t have to mean stagnation or decline – let alone failure.
Many market leaders (and some previously also-rans) can and do emerge from difficult environments further ahead of their competitors than before. Just take a look at how Alaska Airlines weathered the 2008 collapse, for example, or how Green Mountain Coffee came out of the pack during the same period to become a billion-dollar behemoth.
Here’s the question, though: How do you prepare for a time of upheaval when you don’t know what the upheaval will entail?
What’s Certain
The most worrying aspect of the current presidential race is that only one thing is certain – that we won’t know in any dependable detail how the economic environment will change, and how deeply it will be impacted, until months (maybe years) after the swearing in of the new president on January 20th.
So, given that high degree of uncertainty, how do you prepare your business to be a leader in your industry irrespective of the election outcome? If the information you need to make decisions won’t be available to you until it hits you splat on the face, how do you get a running start on everyone else, all of whom will be getting the same information at the same time?
What You Must Do
The answer? You ensure that you, your team, and your entire organization gets better at making real-time decisions than everyone else.
That skill, and that alone (assuming a reasonably good product or service and reasonably competent management) will be the sorting hat for success and failure in the next four to eight years.
We call it HQTBDM – High-Quality Team-Based Decision-Making. HQTBDM has always been the key skill required to manage any but the simplest of businesses, and never will it be more important than during the next election cycle.
The good news? Most of your competitors don’t know this, and therefore won’t be working on developing HQTBDM as a skill. The even better news? This great free resource will show you how to do it.
Get the game plan your business needs for 2017 and beyond!
