Most things in America are changing rapidly.

Technological advances are exploding in all industries.

The American Political Landscape has not been this turbulent since the end of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s … Black Lives Matter … Blue Lives Matter … it’s an election year.

Surprise, surprise … COVID-19 is still here … many still think it’s a monumentally insignificant flu bug, and others think the pandemic is bringing us to a Doomsday ending of mankind. 

Disruption.

America is on fire right now.

Because of all the disruption, there will be winners and losers like never before in 2021 and beyond.

The Losers

The losing individuals will be those who refuse to change or adapt to the times:

• They do not take COVID-19 seriously and risk harm to themselves and their loved ones – the most blatant violators are the ones who gather carelessly in large gatherings without masks.
• They try to conduct business like it is 1970 – long, drawn out presentations, and long deliberations – calling people on the phone with lengthy introductions and discovery, and a lot of chit chat.
• They are addicted to the national news-cycle, they watch it religiously and they let the news of the day bother them and they let it impact their behaviors on a daily basis.
• They make excuses about why they are not able to achieve success – they blame it on the government, or the economy, or the pandemic or society – etc.
• They live in the past – will cite things that happened many years ago as reasons why they are not capable of success today.

The organizations who will lose:

• Will not adapt to the utilization of modern technologies that exists.
• They do not understand how the needs of their markets are changing, and therefore will not have a viable value proposition for their customers.
• They mandate workers to come into the office, just as they have always done in the past, and when they are forced to congregate they do not implement modern social distancing practices.
• They do not implement modern marketing or sales approaches, and instead rely on old school methods for going to market.
• Their leaders make excuses about the economy or cite government policies as reasons that prevent them from being successful, and this will permeate like a cancer into the rest of the organization.

The Winners

The winning individuals will be individuals who change or adapt to the times:

• They take COVID-19 seriously and do not carelessly risk harm to themselves and their loved ones – they will wear masks, wash their hands regularly, and will maintain all of the proper social distancing practices.  You need to be healthy to be successful.
• They do not let COVID-19 affect their mindset or their attitude – they are working differently, but harder and more strategic than ever before – they are striving for more.
• They are able to properly conduct business in the modern day – they don’t have to ask what their customer needs, they already know what it is because they are educated and entrenched in the market they serve.
• They offer value above and beyond what the cost of their offering is.
• They get to the point quickly – they provide detail ahead of any call or scheduled communication that explains their entire offering, and then use the actual live discussion to reinforce what was already presented and answer questions that the client may have – they do not waste their customer’s time.
• They move quickly from one task to the next – they are focused – they are relentless in pursuit of their objective.
• They stretch, they ask for more, they always push the limits.
• They are aware of the news and what is happening in the world, but they also realize that media outlets are for profit entities that have an agenda to ‘sell to their audience’ to get ratings – they understand that media outlets do this above all else, and are not baited into being addicted to the news cycle.
• They do not make excuses about why they are not able to achieve success – instead they choose success, and they develop plans to do whatever it takes to achieve success legally and ethically – they do not blame their failures on the government, or the economy, or the pandemic.

The winning organizations will:

• Adapt to the utilization of modern technologies that exist and implement in all facets of their business.
• Understand how the needs of their markets are changing, and therefore will have a viable value proposition for their customers.
• Not mandate workers to come into the office, just as they have always done in the past – instead they will develop guidelines for workers to operate efficiently from remote locations.
• Implement modern marketing or sales approaches instead of relying on old school methods for going to market.
• Make sure that all members of the organization are pushing forward towards achievement of objectives, and will not allow external factors impact their ability to be successful (DISCLAIMER:  Small businesses that are not allowed to open, like many still are not allowed to in the State of Michigan, clearly have a government excuse exception here.  It is beyond disappointing and many believe it is even criminal that a governor will not allow businesses the opportunity to even have the chance to try and conduct business safely – this becomes especially maddening because many people in society still are not consistent in implementing social distancing practices).

Choose your approach wisely, it will pay or cost huge dividends in the near future!