New guidebook helps companies foresee their post-COVID business landscape — Source: Wade & Company

Woody Wade, a Swiss-based expert on the strategic technique of scenario planning, has just launched “SEE YOUR NEW NORMAL”, a handbook for managers wanting to understand how their post-pandemic terrain could develop. The book is available in e-book and paperback formats.

The COVID pandemic brought about an unprecedented degree of change in almost every sector of the world’s economy. It hit hospitality and travel especially hard, as border controls went up, vacations were canceled, business meetings went virtual, and hotels and restaurants across the globe were forced to close their doors.

Now, however, the world’s population is getting vaccinated, and businesses are beginning to reopen – but does this mean that we will be returning to the pre-Covid way of operating? Almost certainly not, argues Woody Wade, a scenario planning expert an author based in Switzerland. “During the last 18 months, we were forced to find – or invent – new ways to get things done,” he says. “Normally, inventiveness is a very good thing. But in the case of COVID, our short-term adaptiveness may have longer-term consequences, because the measures we put into place as ‘temporary’ fixes may become part of the permanent landscape.”

The New Normal

Cumulatively, all these changes mean a ‘New Normal’ is forming, a business terrain that is significantly different from the way it was before the pandemic. “In every industry,” says Wade, “a new landscape has been taking shape over the past few months – and the process isn’t over yet. You need to identify how your landscape could still change, because you may need different strategies, resources and skills depending on how it does.” This may be even more true for companies in the hospitality business, as recovery is only just beginning.

To help business owners and decision-makers understand specifically how the post-COVID strategic landscape could look for their companies, Wade has written “See Your New Normal”, a guidebook that takes readers through the step-by-step process of scenario planning, a method used by many corporations to foresee changes they may face in the future. In this new book, he focuses on visualizing the immediate post-pandemic world, and presents a number of examples illustrating this process from his repertoire of post-COVID scenario generation workshops conducted during the last few months.

“Scenario planning is a surprisingly straightforward methodology,” says Wade. “My book shows you how to apply it – in an uncomplicated way – in your own company. The benefit is that you get a realistic handle on the future opportunities and challenges that you could encounter in your specific business. It’s very down-to-earth.”

See Your New Normal” is available in paperback and Kindle editions. A Spanish edition has also been published, entitled “Visualiza Tu Nueva Normalidad”. Later this month, a French, German, and Italian edition will also be launched.

More information via Woody Wade ([email protected])

About Wade and Company

Wade and Company, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, uses a scenario planning methodology to help organizations foresee how their future business landscape may change, a strategically important capability. Headed by Woody Wade, the company facilitates scenario generation workshops for the hotel industry and other sectors, as well as NGOs, non-profits and governments.

Woody Wade
+41 21 784 3303
Wade & Company