For the last few weeks, on Leading the Factory Forward, I've been talking about how manufacturing leaders can lead their team and organization through the novel coronavirus crisis.

Today, I’ll review a blog post from Steve Blank called How to Keep Your Company Alive. 

Here are the five key takeaways from his blog:

1. Your customers today may no longer be your customers or they may no longer need your products in the same way that you've delivered them in the past. 

2. Give daily updates to your employees. – You won't be able to give them certainty, but you can give them some clarity around what you're thinking, what you're trying to do, and what you see moving forward.

3. Sit down to do an external assessment and an internal assessment of your business.

4. Think about your new business model and your new operating plan. What could you see as the new normal (which could be for the next 12 months, 18 months, or two years)?

5. Assume you're going to survive. What are the things you’ve been doing that are part of your success that you need to keep and have them ready to roll out?

One more thing…

Think of the SCARF model from David Rock of the Neuro Leadership Institute, which stands for:

• Status

• Certainty

• Autonomy

• Relatedness

• Fairness

You can move forward feeling more confident in terms of status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness. With these lacking, you may find yourself fearful or stuck and unable to take as much positive action.