We are fully focused on the Post Pandemic Project and the great opportunity open to every business owner still going after everything the past year has thrown at them!
This month’s edition of Business Beautiful is focused on the post pandemic opportunity.
Take any trend – social, business, or personal – and fast forward ten years. Even if your firm isn’t there yet, consumer behaviour and the market now rests on the 2030 point on the trend line – positive or negative.
Scott Galloway, Post Corona.
What’s making us wonder….
Front of mind at Wow right now is how we empower the people in our community to build beautiful businesses in the post-pandemic world: here are the six trends we see shaping the landscape. We believe that within these trends lie clues as to where the most exciting opportunities are. Have a read and let me know what you think….
We’re probably all thinking about the best way to support our teams and our clients as we re-emerge. This week, being Mental Health Awareness Week, we’ve had a series of activities planned at Wow to get everyone talking. We’ve rolled out Wellbeing Action Plans – here’s our template if you’d like to use it for yourself or your team. As Hannah Rushbrook, Wow’s Head of People Experience says, “it doesn’t matter how you are feeling right now. We all have mental health, and we all will experience things that impact it, from time to time. Spending some time now doing this exercise will help you and others support you when you need it”.
On the subject of mental health, the New York Times ran a piece on ‘that blah you’re feeling: it’s called languishing’ This resource is a great place to start if you resonate with this post-burnout limbo where everything is at once overwhelming and unfulfilling. You’re not alone. And don’t forget Wow’s ‘Friend in Need’ service is available if you or your team need it.
We believe that standing up for what you believe in is the secret to building a beautiful, sustainable business – something to be really proud of.
from the Manifesto for Beautiful Business
On our minds….
Everyone I talk to at the moment (including my mother!) asks me when we’re going back to the office. It’s a question we’re all wrangling with. The short answer is: not yet. The more considered answer is there are quite a few of us actually quite like working remotely. We’re definitely more productive, but we would really like a bit of social interaction with the rest of the team. We definitely don’t want to go back with perspex screens, masks or social distancing.
Lots of people talk about ‘going hybrid’ – I think that’s a cop-out. It’s hard enough creating an experience for one way of working, not two. As this Wired article titled ‘Hybrid Remote Work Offers the Worst of Both Worlds’ points out, “those who do hybrid, if not intentional about making systemic changes and treating every employee as if they are remote (whether in-office or not), will see their most effective remote people leave”
What’s making us smile….
Our friends at Ecologi produced this video with George The Poet.
“All they’re going to know about us in a hundred years is the world we left behind. So let’s decide to invest the time and sow seeds of hope for those next in line.”
We partnered with Ecologi a few years ago to create a climate positive workforce, planting 600 trees a month to offset the carbon we produce. Find out how you could do the same for your business.
What we’re watching…
As well as Dua Lipa on repeat. Still. I love listening to the High Performance podcast. This episode with James Timpson is an insight into someone running a beautiful business at scale. James is the CEO of Timpson, a business that has been in his family for over 150 years. James helped grow Timpson to over 2,100 shops and developed several innovative ways to run the business at a time when traditional high street retailing has suffered.
The key to their growth has been the culture that James has pioneered that is based on trust and kindness. Employee benefits such as free holiday homes, a Dreams Come True scheme, weekly Lotteries, and mental health support has ensured Timpson has been one of the UK’s best companies to work at.
Well worth a listen.
Get involved
If there’s anything you’d like to see in our next round-up please let me know. If you’d like to join over 11,000 people receiving our Beautiful Business monthly’s in your inbox each month, you can sign up below.
