"The biggest threat to any company is to lose sight of the why".

This also one of the biggest external threats that ultimately leads to sector disruption.

As an international retail brand and business consultant I constantly see brands/companies distracted, fixated with logos, mission statements, AI, VR, tech projects, and other such activity - all of which distracts from the real reason the company/brand is struggling.

If the foundations are crumbling you need to fix that first.

Companies looking for transformation have two good options: an entrepreneurial CEO or a powerful chief entrepreneur.

The first alternative to this approach is to hire an entrepreneurial CEO — a leader who is actively involved in developing and managing a portfolio of new ventures. 

While most leaders understand that they need to both manage the current business and explore future opportunities, an entrepreneurial CEO spends a substantial amount of their time — typically over one-third — leading innovation.

We are all consumers of someone else's business, every day we make an unconscious bias in our decision to shop with one company/brand over another. 

Prior to agreeing to get involved with 'Health on the Move' company 'Vitacheck' my day job was/is to help businesses that have stalled, stagnated, or worse still in rapid decline.

What I mean by this is that every single business I've been called into when dealing with a turnaround were on a race to the bottom because they lost focus on the core reason 'why' consumers previously chose to shop with them over a competitor.

Of course this pandemic has altered the retail landscape forever, but this is merely an acceleration of consumer change that was happening long before this global crisis. 

Too often, companies have heads of innovation who report to a senior vice president, who in turn reports to a C-level executive like a chief technology officer. This is sufficient for optimising a company’s current business model, but it’s not enough for a company seeking radical reinvention.

Innovation thrives when it has power and status within an organisation. 

To enable real innovative growth — and rapid response in the face of such crises such as Covid-19 — boards and company leaders must structure top organisational roles to give innovative efforts the resources and attention they need.

It also seems it pays to be connected via social media, especially if you're running a multi-billion dollar company.

A study by the Edelman Trust Barometer found that 67% of consumers trust “company technical experts,” while only 43% trust CEOs. Employee generated content is often more authentic than company-produced content. 

Therefore, consumers are more likely to trust what individuals have to say over any corporate communication.

Matching content with a face helps brands gain consumer trust.

I've found that leaders generally fall into 2 key areas when it comes to 'change';

1. At a logical level they fully understand and accept that for things to move on change needs to happen - this view is initially is driven by the leadership team.
2. At an emotional level is where most of the resistance to that change occurs - this is also driven by the leadership team, and filters down.

So what you are faced with are the people who are charged with that 'change strategy' understand the logic, but constrain themselves and the company with the emotional elements associated with that change.

We see far too many CEO's who still think that 'social media' is something for the family, or is ran by the girl with the tattoo, or the guy with the beard in marketing.

Transformation isn't about digital, channels, tech, Apps, websites, or other fixed mindset stuff, it's totally about being consumer centric.

Always, always, work back from the customer working out how you can best solve their needs and add value by leveraging what you have to build the transformation bridges to the new future.