Get the most out of adversity: Licensed products vs. Crisis

This message was given by Manuel Rodrigo of Inventa Consulting, a company that, according to Cerdá, is focused on causing changes in the companies commercial strategies and habits.

After a pleasant greeting and good wishes to the professionals connected in the webinar, he indicated that nowadays, the personal part is the most worrying, but that "although right now it is difficult for us to see it, these days also give us opportunities."

The welcome and presentation of the crisis

As an introduction, Manuel Rodrigo gave a summary of what is currently happening and took advantage of the space to wish to the listeners good health and send condolences to those who could have lost a loved one.

He defined the situation as a health and humanitarian crisis. The coronavirus is a strain that has become a pandemic because of its easily contagious. As a result, it has forced us to confinement with an indefinite duration.

All this situation made us change our lifestyle worldwide, not only in the family environment but also in the economic one such as consequences on the Wall Street stock market, and a total or partial closure of companies.

How to afront the crisis

Uncertainty and fear are part of our days and its important to know how to afront this situation.  However, Rodrigo pointed out that hope too and recalled the words that Finn kydland said during an interview in April, that "Spain always has surprised researchers because of its resilience. It knows how to adapt to what is coming (...)".

And with this he summarized how we should act in 6 words tied to the word Hope, among them are:

VUCA

 It is an acronym in which the V belongs to volatility, the U means Uncertainty, that is, doubts and increases in unforeseen situations, the C is for Complexity, which in this case refers to this challenging situation, and the A means Ambiguity. 

But he emphasized that to face the volatility, we must have a vision of the future. To face uncertainty, we must acquire knowledge and continuously update. To avoid complexity, we must seek clarity and simplicity in the execution of our acts, and in the case of ambiguity, we must act with agility. 

Change

 For this definition, he used “The 4 Rooms of Change” by Claes Janssen; the process explains that the first phase is the satisfaction in which we show indifference until a disruptive event arises and, therefore, a need for change. It leads us to self-censorship because of the second phase, a constant rejection, but feeling unhappy makes us return to the need to change, and here, we enter the stage of confusion. In this stage, we feel fear and uncertainty until we dare to innovate and enjoy the renewal, the last phase.

Transformation

To define it, he expressed the thoughts of Alex Rovira, who says that this word is very different from change because, during the process, we understand things and incorporate them from within us. In this manner, "The 4 Dimensions of the Human Being" arise: wanting, knowing, capacity, and vision because we have a goal with our action, that unlike change, we act because we must.

Resilience

According to Rodrigo, it is about the ability to prepare and adapt against a disruptive situation. To explain it, he showed the example of the egg, carrot, and coffee, where each one adapts to boiling water in different ways: the carrot gets soft, the egg gets hard, and the coffee is transformed.

Levers

 It refers to opportunities and strengths. He focused this word on Cerdá’s licensed business, since it has at least 6 important levers to generate strategies and hope in crises. Among those I mention that:

1.     We are already resilient: We try to adapt to certain situations to cheer our spirits up.
2.     We want to re-excite ourselves: We need to strengthen the family concept. Uniting is the key.
3.     They sell illusion: They make children and adults smile with those characters who watch them grow.
4.     The lipstick indicator: Sometimes, when a crisis increases, there is more selling of products because people seek to have moments of happiness.
5.     The local will go up: If the service is optimal and provides security, the client will commit.
6.     Fewer buyers but big buyers: Customers are loyal because if their needs are satisfied, they will have a confident purchase decision.

Plan

You always may have an idea of ​​how to carry out an action. Rodrigo divided them into three, which, according to Improven, are the contingency plan, 100-day plan and restructuring plan.

Ideas to afront the crisis in the future

Finally, he made a call for changing the chip of our mind "now" and stressed that we should not focus on problems but solutions. Furthermore, he invited everyone to risk themselves doing things they never dared to do before, get out of their comfort zone, and take advantage of their skills at home. However, he also added some tips to consider in the future, such as:

• Apply an omniclient strategy, offer quality service, and show sustainable values.
• Consider sanitary restrictions such as safety, comfort, and speed.
• Find ways to reward consumers who are loyal to the brand.
• Be clear, simple, and straightforward during the executing of actions.
• Take advantage of the online route to generate sales and collect in stores.

Cerdá knows the difficulties of making decisions in this extraordinary situation, that’s why we encourage our clients to thinks differently and still growing with the licensed products. Yes we can!