The New Big Picture: Think Before Taking Action

Recently, I met with the top executives of a Fortune 100 company. During traditional times, you can probably imagine that being an executive of such a sizable company does not allow you much free time during the day. Now imagine trying to get one of these executives to devote an entire day to stepping back and examining what I call “The New Big Picture” and the rapidly emerging risks and opportunities associated with seeing it.

During the Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown, we heard the term “new normal” pretty frequently, though what most companies realized during the crisis was that when it first hit, many weren’t thinking that a global shutdown could possibly happen, so when it did, they were truthfully caught “not thinking.”

Oftentimes, as mentioned above, companies are too busy to think strategically about future risk and opportunity that come with everyday operations. Now we have lived through a moment in history when future risk involves a much more dangerous situation for companies and organizations alike: another potential lockdown or the resurgence of a worldwide virus.

The Danger of Complacency

Being “too busy to think” is not a good thing; it gets us into trouble more times than not, no matter if you are a mom-and-pop shop or the owner of a…