As we move more decidedly into the recovery phase, brands and businesses are scrambling to get their long-term strategies back on track. New research from predictive analytics software firm Prevedere illustrates the impact COVID had on business planning, how leaders responded, what keeps them up at night—and what the path forward looks like for them.
According to the firm’s newly released report, Business Planning in the New COVID Normal, several narratives have emerged including:
- Nearly every business was unprepared to face a global event such as the pandemic, and almost everyone faced challenging disruptions to their planning process
- A world of uncertainty persists today, even beyond the pandemic, and
- Businesses are investing more heavily in external data and are adopting new planning techniques, including economic scenario planning and predictive analytics
“COVID created forecasting and planning challenges for businesses around the world because it impacted things that organizations had little control over, namely economic trends, industry shifts, and consumer behaviors,” said Rich Wagner, CEO of Prevedere, in a news release. “If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that incorporating external factors is now a necessity in planning and strategy, or organizations will be left vulnerable with increasing go-to-market blind spots.”
According to the survey, various sources of uncertainty persist today in addition to the pandemic. At the top of mind for business leaders are global supply chain issues, inflation impact, changing consumer behavior, labor shortages, and wage increases. The survey identifies ways that businesses are navigating uncertainty and adapting to the new normal including:
- 67 percent of businesses are revisiting and iterating their plans and cycles at a much higher frequency or cadence than previously
- 58 percent of businesses are including multiple economic scenarios in their forecasting process
- 54 percent of businesses are augmenting their internal data and insights with external market signals to understand how external factors will impact their business
