Although we have not recovered fully from the pandemic of 2020, we can conclude that some businesses are winners and others are losers as a result of the pandemic and resulting economic downturn. The real winners are not just those who survived, or even prospered as a result of the pandemic, but those who ceased on the opportunities it presented, exploited those opportunities and gained market share, brand value and are turning their good fortune into extraordinary sustainable business growth. Companies like ZOOM came into their own as a result of the pandemic, not just because of the rapid rise in demand for online meeting services, but because they were ready to respond and had a business model that was preferred by more people entering the market than the market share leaders at the time like WebEx and Microsoft Teams. Now ZOOM dominates the market and has the opportunity to make their domination sustainable. Businesses should always see “hard times” as opportunities to achieve extraordinary growth, leap frog the competition and bolster their brand value instead of complaining, hoping to survive and waiting for others (politicians, government, large corporations) to solve the problems that caused the hard times. The keys to prospering during hard times are; being ready (financially and operationally), flexibility to change direction quickly, recognizing market opportunities, getting in front of the competition quickly, and leveraging the extra profits, brand value, new customer base and success into sustainable long term business growth. Opportunities like economic downturns and events like the pandemic of 2020 do not happen very often, so when they do, cease them, exploit them, convert them into sustainable business growth and enjoy the prosperity that they present.
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