Your value proposition post-Corona
China is open for business again. Some 70% of its workforce is now back on the job and, after nearly two months of dead silence, there is a hum again at the Honda, Ford, and Toyota car factories. The WeBank China Economic Recovery Index shows that China’s production is already at about two-thirds where it was this time last year.
The China experience tells us that this too will pass. We want the end date to be sooner, naturally, and although our personal accountability can contribute to the finish of this thing – it’s beyond our control as individuals.
So just what is under our control and how can we use that to emerge on the other side to confront our ‘New Normal’?
The answer lies in how you think about your role as a financial planner.
The opportunity to reinvent
Simon Sinek, author of ‘Start with Why’, observes that although this pandemic will result in the end of many businesses across the world, it doesn’t have to be a fait accompli. There are many examples in economic history of disruption events that caused some businesses to double-down on their outdated model – to their ultimate demise – whereas those who adapted and innovated thrived …
When the internet hit mainstream use, many companies went broke who failed to adapt to the New Normal. The world of taxis has been upended because of app-wielding competitors like Uber, Didi and GoCatch – for no other reason than taxi companies resisted innovation. Think, too, about the impact on coffee shops and corner stores by the arrival of specialty shops like Gloria Jean and Coffee Club – these new competitors didn’t actually do anything to the incumbents … it was they who refused to reinvent.
Although Corona has enforced a welcome pause on the never-ending waves of reform heaped on the financial services industry, that pause button will be turned off in the not-too-distant future. But on the other side of that unpause, the world will have changed. The question you need to ask yourself is what is the opportunity to think differently about what you do as a financial planner, so you can thrive in the New Normal.
Mindset: asking different questions
Are you thinking you can wait this out and then pick up where you left off? If you’re thinking about how to batten down the hatches to get through all this you should reconsider your mindset and instead brainstorm how to change, innovate and adapt through this period.
The question is not “how can I keep doing what I’m doing?” but “how will I do what I do in a different world?”. The question is not “how do I survive?”, the question is “how do I thrive?”.
The mindset you want isn’t to be thinking of ways to preserve what you had, it’s to revisit what it is we do as financial planners and ask yourself what you want your practice – and you as its leader – to become. Be open to having a very different business by the time we come out of this.
Get your ‘reinvention game-face’ on.
Where’s the value?
Think of this as your ground zero. As financial advisers we are often too close to it and from that distance it’s easy to over-think things.
Let’s keep it simple …
PIFA is hosting an online meeting on Wednesday 15 April at 12.00 AEST to explore five pools of exceptional value that advisers bring their clients. This is another release in its ‘Independence Advantage’ webinar series.
Spaces are limited – to secure yours, CLICK HERE
