How to Reassess Business Strategy After a Crisis

Over the past few weeks, I've had 4 separate conversations with Founders and CEOs worried about their company dying. FEAR is in the air. But fear won't help you. Instead use the FACE framework to face your fear and find the path to success. OVERVIEW (Almost ) every company goes through periods of existential crisis. Founders are confronted with the reality they've fallen OUT of Product Market Fit. In many cases, the idea of downsizing their team terrifies them. So what do you do? Use this 4 step framework I've built. I call it FACE. THE FACE FRAMEWORK F - Focus A - Accept C - Choose E - Evolve 1. FOCUS in Reality: Audit the Truth “You can’t manage what you don’t understand.” Review the data with ruthless clarity. - Scrutinize revenue trends, burn rate, churn, and unit economics. - Identify gaps and inflection points. - Talk to customers, advisors, and team leads. - Triangulate perspectives to move beyond narrative into objective understanding. Where exactly is the business breaking? Acquisition? Retention? Margin? 2. ACCEPT the Failure Point: Name It, Plan Past It “Avoidance makes fear grow. Action shrinks it.” Face the worst-case scenario head-on. - Acknowledge layoffs, office closures, or hard pivots if they’re needed. - Plan past the moment of impact. - Lay out the operational steps of what life looks like after the failure event. Who’s left? What are they focused on? What does survival look like? 3. CHOOSE - Map the Roads Ahead: Visualize, Then Decide “Ambiguity breeds paralysis. Define the paths.” Create 2–3 future state options, place yourself IN THAT FUTURE STATE and reflect backwards on what worked or didn't work. Examples: Path 1: Wind down in 3–6 months with dignity and integrity Path 2: Stay alive with a skeleton crew and ride the current trajectory Path 3: Pivot the business on a leaner foundation Work backwards from each outcome. What would need to be true at each 6-month milestone? What are the financial, emotional, and strategic tradeoffs? Why is shutting down your business a GOOD thing? How will it positively change your life? By placing your future self directly in the moment you can move past the panic point and calmly reflect on your decisions and what positive outcome might emerge from them. 4. EVOLVE - Reframe the Narrative: From End to Evolution “You’re not starting over. You’re starting from experience.” Shift from a fixed to a growth mindset. - This isn’t personal failure—it’s the next rep in the set. - Extract learnings and rebuild with wisdom. - Redefine success. - The goal isn’t not to fail—it’s to evolve, adapt, and play the long game. What did this teach you about markets, timing, leadership, or resilience? CONCLUSION We've all been through moments of existential fear. To work through them, you must FACE them directly - Focus on data and reality, Accept your situation to begin planning, Choose a path that meets your needs, and Evolve to grow.

Organizational Trauma: The Recovery Killer Your Change Plan Ignores After Capital One's 2019 data breach exposing 100 million customers' information, leadership rushed to transform: new security platforms, restructured teams, revised processes. Despite urgent implementation, adoption lagged, talent departed, and security improved more slowly than expected. What they discovered—and what I've observed repeatedly in financial services—is that organizations can experience collective trauma that fundamentally alters how they respond to change. 🪤 The Post-Crisis Change Trap When institutions experience significant disruption, standard change management often fails. McKinsey's research shows companies applying standard OCM to traumatized workforces see only 23% transformation success, compared to 64% for those using trauma-informed approaches. ❌ Why Traditional OCM Fails After Crisis Hypervigilance: Organizations that have experienced crisis develop heightened threat sensitivity. Capital One employees reported spending time scanning for threats rather than innovating. Trust Erosion: After their breach, Capital One faced profound trust challenges—not just with customers, but internally as well. Employees questioned decisions they previously took for granted. Identity Disruption: The crisis challenged Capital One's self-perception as a technology leader with superior security. 💡 The Trauma-Informed Change Approach Capital One eventually reset their approach, following a different sequence: 1. Safety First (Before planning transformation) - Created psychological safety through transparent communication - Established consistent leadership presence - Acknowledged failures without scapegoating 2. Process the Experience (Before driving adoption) - Facilitated emotional-processing forums - Documented lessons without blame - Rebuilt institutional trust through consistent follow-through 3. Rebuild Capacity (Before expecting performance) - Restored core capabilities focused on team recovery - Invested in resilience support resources - Developed narrative incorporating the crisis 4. Transform (After rebuilding capacity) - Created new organizational identity incorporating the crisis - Shifted from compliance to values-based approach - Developed narrative of strength through adversity 5. Post-Crisis Growth - Built resilience from the experience - Established deeper stakeholder relationships - Transformed crisis into competitive advantage Only after these steps did Capital One successfully implement their changes, achieving 78% adoption—significantly higher than similar post-breach transformations. 🔮 The fundamental insight: Crisis recovery isn't just about returning to normal—organizations that address trauma can transform crisis into opportunity. Have you experienced transformation after organizational crisis? What trauma-informed approaches have you found effective? #CrisisRecovery #ChangeManagement #OrganizationalResilience

5 years ago our company almost died. In the span of a month, we lost nearly 70% of our revenue, as global air travel slowed to a trickle. Many companies in our sector did not make it. Here is how we survived . . . and hopefully some tips for other entrepreneurs in the future facing crises. 1). Know what matters most - and what drives it . . . Beyond taking care of our employees (which I discussed last week), what mattered most for the company was preserving cash. Within the first week of lockdown, I put together a very high level driver tree outlining the primary levers to preserve our cash. Many folks I speak with are worried that such an exercise is not going to be 100% correct, or that they can't estimate accurately the specific values of each bucket. That's not the point. I put together the "high level plan" knowing that while I probably missed a few things, I had roughly 80% of the levers correct. In a crises, this was good enough to get started. 2). Cut quickly and strategically Once we had a plan on paper, we had to move fast. Every day that we did not, we were burning precious cash and further jeopardizing our future. We identified our largest cost buckets, and set a savings goal. This did absolutely mean some very tough decisions with respect to a few team members, but we handled those consistent with our values and did not leave the individuals impacted in limbo. 3). Even in the darkest crises, opportunities may exist While our traditional business - a post-booking RM platform relying on high demand - was extremely challenged during the start of the pandemic, we kept our eyes and ears open to new opportunities with our existing customers. We tried to find ways that they could repurpose existing products for the current challenges that they faced. We also worked with them to solve new challenges brought on by the COVID disruption. Being flexible in this manner kept revenue flowing - revenue that would be vital to the survival of our company. 4). Do the legwork to get help. We benefitted from small business assistance programs set up by the US Government - without these we might not have survived. Holden C. deserves a ton of credit for pulling together all the PPP paperwork and dealing with the banks to get these applications in on time 5). Plan for the future We understood the dangers of focusing too much of our efforts on present-day survival. We dedicated a portion of our time preparing for the "post-Pandemic" world, thinking through how our tech stack could be most relevant. This strategy worked. We not only survived, but closed our Series A during the pandemic. Today the company is multiples larger than we were even at our peak pre-pandemic. COVID nearly killed us. All entrepreneurs will face existential crises during their journeys. Before going into "reaction mode", take a moment to plot your strategy. Then get to work. #entrepreneurship