A few weeks ago many of you “liked” a comment that someone made, so I decided to reply in my post today. I won’t answer all parts of the question here but I think most of you can put two and two together to answer the rest yourselves.
Ceces Cumins wrote,
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“Good Day Sir Strive Masiyiwa
Thank you so much for sharing this with us all. May we continue to fly high as Eagles.
I feel lately we may please kindly discuss Sir, “Murphy’s Law”. If and when things can go wrong they will.
Also implementing plans and ideas into effect.
Outsourcing Challenges.
These are the main factors I am seeing lately.
Thank you Sir. May your day unfold productively.”
***
My reply,
I am going to focus on the first part of the question. Nearly no one on earth planned ahead for the devastating health, education and economic impact of a global pandemic, so we have all had to pivot quickly and adapt our lives, products and services to survive.
You mentioned so-called “Murphy’s Law”. When things go wrong in your business or life (and they will), the #Solution is actually not that complicated: You have to have the vision and courage to dust yourself off, analyze the situation (and lessons learned) and then #Make a Plan. It may be Plan B or Plan C or Plan Z…
I don’t know who Murphy was but it’s a fact of life and business that you have to plan ahead for risk. That’s why people buy personal insurance. That’s why they write “wills” and “health directives” to grant someone they trust with the legal power to make health decisions for them if they become unconscious in an accident or very ill and are not able to decide important things themselves. In business, you can and must also plan ahead for big challenges.
Serious business people tackle what you call Murphy’s Law with “risk management” analysis and planning. It is up to you to identify what risks could put you out of business. Most companies didn’t anticipate COVID but you can be sure no one will leave out this kind of possibility in the future.
It could be a weather catastrophe, a fire, new technologies, chronic power outages, even death, alcohol or drug abuse amongst your staff or family. Risk management and mitigation is actually a whole business in itself. This could be outsourced, or you can do it yourself with your team, but check it out.
The most important way to deal with Murphy though is your #Mindset. Don’t get frozen worrying about what can go wrong. Plan ahead for it with #Innovation, #StrategicThinking and #Vision.
The bottom line is: Don’t let “Murphy” take you by surprise. I understand that’s what he likes most. As the old Scout motto goes: “Be prepared!”
End.
Image credit: Amazing award-winning image by Chef Paul Rifkin who said I could share with you here today. You could say this white stork was having a “Murphy’s Law” sort of day… or you could say the leopard had done his homework! https://www.chefpaulrifkin.com.au/
