Shifting Priorities – Business and Personal Focus and Values are Changing

Lives and livelihoods have been lost during the 2020 pandemic, and it has yet to fade into the background. As a result, shifting priorities can be expected among your clients, associates, and partners, whether business-to-business or business-to-consumer.

On a personal level, work/life balance has become more important than ever. Relationships, in both the personal and business arenas, are being prioritized by an increasing majority as interpersonal interaction has suffered from the rules for social distancing.

For many, once important pastimes have become trivial; with things such as fashion, social status, and even ideological convictions seeming far less crucial than in pre-pandemic times.

As shared in an article from The Guardian, professor of history and philosophy at the University of Paris Justin EH Smith made an interesting observation about life in quarantine.

“Any fashion, sensibility, ideology, set of priorities, worldview or hobby that you acquired before March 2020, and that may have by then started to seem to you cumbersome, dull, inauthentic, a drag: you are no longer beholden to it,” he writes. “You can cast it off entirely and no one will care; likely, no one will notice.”

And there we have the crux of the matter… “no one will care; likely, no one will notice.”

Except, the clever business owner MUST care and notice if she hopes to prosper in a world where “Nothing is the same as it used to be”, a declaration made by author Michelle Russell at pcma.org.

Individual Priorities are Trends for Businesses

Of course, on an individual level, the changes are usually highly personal, while businesses are responding to broader shifts, as they always tend to do, as a matter of course. After all, the larger the business the more they are forced to respond to changing general trends rather than shifting individual priorities.

In a report published by MIT, titled Amid the covid-19 pandemic, shifting business priorities, we discover that “Organizations are reshuffling projects and accelerating investments that were already underway, leaning heavily on technology to stay competitive.”

Further, “The pandemic is shaking up corporate priorities rather than introducing new ones. Nearly three-quarters (72%) report that covid-19 has acted as a catalyst to their companies’ innovation, but fewer (53%) have changed their technology roadmaps substantially.”

Some key points from the report include:

• Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents expect covid-19 to disrupt the way their companies innovate.

• Businesses are building new capabilities and ecosystem partners and automating as much as possible.

• [Normally slow-to-respond large organizations and] businesses have learned how quickly they can adjust when they have to.

These shifting priorities include: improving productivity, improving customer experiences, and improving the employee or agent experience.

Targeting Shifting Demographics

What does all of this mean for small business owners and entrepreneurs?

It should go without saying but must be reinforced, that when your target audience shifts their priorities, your response – or lack of response – will determine your level of success (or lack thereof).

Resilience and versatility are two of the greatest assets you have as an entrepreneur. Putting those qualities to use in response to your client’s shifting priorities will no doubt be a requirement moving forward, whether during or post-pandemic.

In fact, beyond a change in priorities, you should also expect to see a shift in values; the very principles and standards by which individuals choose to live and do business. Literally, for many, they are responding to a shifting world view that has altered their perception of the nature of life. There is probably nothing that can shift priorities as dramatically for them, and you will need to be empathetic toward their needs at all times and in ways you may not have imagined, pre-pandemic.

Ultimately, the ability to build and sustain relationships will be the saving grace of entrepreneurs and small business owners. By staying focused on the needs of your clients as individuals, you will be able to adapt to shifting needs more quickly and with greater elasticity.

In other words, you are going to need to be empathetic and holistic in your approach to serving the needs of pandemic-damaged clients. For that is what many of them will be; fearful, angry, resentful, damaged human beings who need your support and understanding.

Ted remains available for business consulting support to interior designers and furnishing store owners. With more than 25 years' experience in the luxury furnishings industry, he can answer questions about everything from general marketing to specific tips for developing a unique selling proposition and your UVP as the foundation and guides for your marketing strategy… Get in touch with TD Fall today.