Why Small and Solo Firms Are Well-Positioned to Survive the Current Crisis

Lisa CulhaneBlog

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4 characteristics of an agile firm

The current COVID-19 crisis has highlighted something that has been hiding in plain sight.

We must all quickly adapt to adjustments and the needs of the moment, such as work-from-home strategies and disrupted court procedures, while simultaneously altering business practices, such as implementing new tools and technologies.

In short, the pandemic has highlighted the power and necessity of improvisation and adaptation—a.k.a. agility.

The good news: Agility is a small and solo firm’s superpower. Solo and small firms have always needed to be agile to sustain our practices up until now, and that agility will help us weather the current storm.

4 characteristics of agile firms?  

  • Agile firms embody a culture that is collaborative rather than imposed from the top down. Agile firms reward innovative ideas and practices, and accept good ideas from any source—not just from the firm’s leadership.
  • Agile firms innovate, experiment and learn on the job, embracing a mindset of discovery and potential. Agile firms don’t always depend on tried and true methods, or the way we have always done things. Playing not to lose doesn’t work for agile firms; nor does sticking with the status quo.
  • Agile firms find ingenious solutions to problems. They look for solutions that are scaled specifically to help both them and their clients. They need solutions that don’t involve a huge, up-front investment of time and money but that are available on-demand.
  • Agile firms swiftly and easily alter business practices, adopting new tools and technologies that benefit their practices in times of stability and crisis.

As the landscape beneath us continues to shift we need to be able to adapt. Small and solo firms excel at adaptation, and know how to improvise and succeed where yesterday’s rules no longer apply.

Small and solo firms have been practicing agility for years and now, more than ever, can use that superpower to weather the current crisis and come out stronger than before.

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