normally feel comfortable. Examples could include The reward is resilience standing up new sales channels, accelerating new- Getting the return muscle right will be the key to product launches, creating new business models, building resilience throughout the organization. or M&A. Today, for instance, investors and companies are asking increasingly probing questions about The plan-ahead team can also stress-test core parts whether their business partners can truly deliver in of the enterprise operating model by focusing on the more extreme circumstances that seem possible the supply chain’s resiliency, liquidity, assumptions over the next few years. Genuine investments in about customer demand, and the robustness of the resiliency may be an essential part of survival for operating model. many businesses, providing the cushion required by further setbacks that might be in store over the next Processing the signals: The data platform year or two. To function well, nerve centers will need to collect data from a wide range of sources (not only their Many companies are sweating the details of their own operations but also public-health agencies, return plans rather than building the capabilities policy announcements, and economic indicators), needed for a return. They are running spreadsheets synthesize this information in real time, and translate to see how many people spaced six feet apart will it into action. A nerve center with a nimble information fit in an office, planning one-way paths through system can help a company to keep up with rapid the workplace, and figuring out adaptations to rest change in the virus’s spread; to answer questions rooms, lunch rooms, and entrances. All of those are about, for example, what holiday shopping will look critical tasks, but they are not enough. The ability like without a vaccine; or to cope with a resurgence in of top leaders to refocus on the task of building the fall. Companies need an information platform that sustainable capabilities will define the companies captures such data, flags them if certain thresholds that emerge intact from the pandemic over the next are breached, and helps generate responses to two years. problems. Many companies have most of what’s needed; they can organize these resources to form an agile technology capability in a few weeks—not months or years. Mihir Mysore is a partner in McKinsey’s Houston office, Bob Sternfels is a senior partner in the San Francisco office, and Matt Wilson is a senior partner in the New York office. Copyright © 2020 McKinsey & Company. All rights reserved. 10 What now? Ten actions to emerge stronger in the next normal September 2020