Maximizing the September Reset

I’m read­ing a fas­ci­nat­ing book by Antho­ny Bour­dain (actu­al­ly, lis­ten­ing to the audio­book – espe­cial­ly pow­er­ful to hear in his own voice) called Medi­um Raw.

Bour­dain talks about how the restau­rant indus­try need­ed to change and adapt dur­ing the dif­fi­cult years of 2008 – 2009. Dur­ing this time, peo­ple and com­pa­nies faced bud­get lim­i­ta­tions and weren’t spend­ing mon­ey on extrav­a­gant meals and wines. Some restau­rants didn’t sur­vive, but new ones opened, and oth­ers thrived by chang­ing their strat­e­gy in response to what their cus­tomers need­ed. They didn’t let their his­tor­i­cal suc­cess and egos get in the way as they intro­duced mid-range wines, changed menus or intro­duced fresh concepts.

A Sep­tem­ber Reset is per­fect for fresh thinking

We don’t need chal­leng­ing times to force us to re-con­sid­er our customer’s needs – we can build that in year-round. Inspired by the book, I recent­ly chat­ted with a CEO about how, in the west­ern world, there are three starts to the year: post-hol­i­day in Jan­u­ary, post-spring break in April, and post-summer…the Sep­tem­ber reset.

These are the annu­al, psy­cho­log­i­cal, sea­son­al rhythms for work and school, and a time when many com­pa­nies like to kick off new pro­grams. While this isn’t true for every indus­try, it is for the humans who work there – espe­cial­ly if they are par­ents with kids in school.

When we come back from these breaks, most of us focus on busi­ness prob­lems, oppor­tu­ni­ties and improve­ments and get pulled like a mag­net into issues. But we’ve found that we are often best served and appre­ci­at­ed when most of the ener­gy goes into what our clients need.

As we head towards the final restart of the year – espe­cial­ly impor­tant in these uncer­tain times – instead of start­ing some­thing new, we are look­ing at how we can take the best pos­si­ble care of our cus­tomers, to sup­port and guide them, and to chal­lenge their think­ing to make sure they have a suc­cess­ful quarter.

I encour­age you to join us.

The Chal­lenge

• What can you and your team do to adapt to your customer’s needs, and to thrive in these very inter­est­ing times?
• What’s the #1 thing your cus­tomer would love you to focus on, from Sep­tem­ber to December?

Lawrence & Co’s work focus­es on sus­tain­able and enhanced growth for you and your busi­ness. Our diverse and expe­ri­enced group of advi­sors can help your lead­ers and exec­u­tive teams stay com­pet­i­tive through the use of var­i­ous learn­ing tools includ­ing work­shops, webi­na­rs, exec­u­tive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

We help high-achiev­ing lead­ers to have it all – a great busi­ness and a reward­ing life. Con­tact us for sim­ple and impact­ful advice. No BS. No fluff.