Francis Wade | Finding your true north

As an executive, you are grappling with relentless changes sweeping through North America. The daily flood of shocks is overwhelming. You want success, but will it come from constantly reacting to the latest headlines? There must be a smarter way forward.

If you have entertained the above thoughts, you are not alone. To most senior managers, it seems that the world has swallowed a double espresso. The big surprises that used to intrude around once per month are now happening several times daily.

In the past, you could call an emergency meeting. But that approach won’t work. You have a business to run and can’t chain yourself to an unending flow of emergency meetings. Instead, you may want to take a page out of the playbook being used by some Canadian firms.

Canada has long benefitted from its special relationship with The United States. In fact, the partnership has been stable for so long that most of the countries’ organisations never seriously questioned its durability.

Like cyclists in a peloton, they could afford to sit back and benefit from the draft.

Now that the alarming rhetoric from its wealthy neighbour has suddenly worsened, the USA has become just like your family’s cranky, old uncle. Remember him? He’s prone to say and do anything, and can’t be relied upon. Therefore, he can only be accommodated via a number of work-arounds.

Furthermore, it makes no sense to wish he would revert to his younger version.

Dealing with this unanticipated shock is having a functional, social and emotional impact on the way Canadian companies go about their affairs. So are their suppliers, customers, distributors and regulators around the world.

If chasing around in a daily panic isn’t the best response, what is?

Diving deeper

More executives are waking up to some rude truths. In theory, they were always available to all. But first-hand experience is a better teacher than anything offered in a classroom.

Lesson 1: The new pace of surprises makes it impossible to deeply analyse each one. There isn’t time. Instead, many expect this volatility to continue for several years, even if the US presidency were to change hands tomorrow.

Lesson 2: Few organisations, or countries, perform rigorous scenario planning. Even after US President Donald Trump’s followers repeatedly promised to deliver Project 2025, some believed he could not be serious. As such, they did not anticipate the current state of affairs.

Lesson 3: Making the necessary changes could take years and even more than a decade to establish new supply chains. For example, Canadian companies like Tremcar, a maker of tanker trailers since 1962, currently imports aluminium from the USA. Retaliatory tariffs could drive them out of business.

Instead, they need to source their inputs domestically. Even though aluminium is mined in Canada, this is easier said than done. The most cost-effective sources have always been imports from across the border.

The impact of unpredictable disruptions isn’t limited to Canada. In Jamaica, a shift that has been brewing for years is now reshaping the courier industry.

Case in point: Recently, Amazon.com announced the advent of free shipping to Jamaica … an apparent boon for consumers.

However, just imagine what’s happening in the board rooms of MailPac, ShipMe and DHL. These companies offer import shipping services to local shoppers. Up until now, these middlemen were the best complement to online retailers like Amazon.

But no longer.

Hopefully, they anticipated the advent of this interruption in their strategic planning. To do so, they needed to have started many years ago. Without this long view, they could not prepare for this eventuality.

It’s tempting to believe that your industry is the exception. But instead of hoping to be lucky, try this.

Stepping back

Ultimately, your only real lifeline is to step back from the daily drama. Now it’s time for big picture thinking.

More than ever before, you need an explicit True North. In the past, you might have used brief vision, purpose, mission, or value statements. Or just ‘vibes’. Perhaps you trusted a brilliant managing director.

Retire the lot. Instead, define a ‘true north’ with stakeholders. This is a detailed destination some 15 to 30 years hence.

Some will complain that it’s impossible to set such plans.

Be prepared with an airplane analogy. Explain that during a flight, an aircraft is off-course 99 per cent of the time, but constant small adjustments keep it on track to arrive at its destination.

A company committed to a true north must do the same.

Instead of being stuck in recent disruptions, use them to energise a true north. Yes, folks are worried. Allay their concerns with brand-new stability and predictability.

Francis Wade is a management consultant and author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity. To search past columns on productivity, strategy and business processes, or give feedback, email: columns@fwconsulting.com