Not only a glance at the newspaper, but also objective indicators such as the "World Uncertainty Index" show that crises and major changes in corporate environments are following one another at an ever faster pace, and are increasingly overlapping. Change is thus becoming a new permanent condition to which companies not only have to react, but which at best even serves as a means of strategic further development. After all, crises and other times of major change often offer the best opportunities to set oneself apart from the competition.
"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste."
Paul Romer, Economist, Stanford
A study by the Henderson Institute, for example, shows that as many as 14% of all companies recorded higher sales and earnings growth in times of crisis. Even after recessions, such crisis winners consistently had twice as much sales and earnings growth as average companies. A long-term analysis by GfK/Serviceplan for the FMCG sector in Germany also concludes that the biggest market share gains, but also the biggest market share losses, occur in phases of economic downturn.
Source: Reeves, M., Rhodes, D., Ketels, C., Whitaker, K. (2019). Advantage in Adversity: Winning the Next Downturn, in: Lanzer, Sauberschwarz & Weiss, Successful through the Crisis, SpringerNature, 2020.
So taking advantage of crises and changes is possible and important - but not easy to achieve in practice!
Exploiting change by increasing resilience in the company
To make positive use of crises and change, companies need to build strong resilience. In relation to companies, this concept from psychology describes an organization's ability to cushion and adapt in a changing environment in order to achieve its goals, survive and thrive. Resilient organizations can anticipate and respond to risks and opportunities - due to sudden or gradual changes in the internal and external context. The above studies show that it is even possible to expand this definition if resilience describes not only the response to change, but even its exploitation for positive development. In order to achieve such resilience in companies, a proactive approach in the corporate strategy is particularly necessary in addition to operational (immediate) measures.
