To recover we need to be able to plan beyond daily or weekly.
Every year at Christmas people would ask me if I was busy, and of course with hospitality businesses they were busy but me personally, as the operator of the business my role was to plan. To see what could happen in the future and plan for it strategically moving the business forward.
So come this time of year when it is all hands on deck and queues out of the door, thoughts or ideas I have for changes and tweaks in the business would have to wait until January cause no one had time to hear them a few weeks before Christmas!
So yes, physically I would be busy at Christmas but no, this was my down time a chance to get a breather before we innovated and adapted the business in the new year.
I used to joke that I had everything planned for the full 9 months ahead with the following 3 months in planning stages, so ask me in December and I could tell you all about how and what we would be doing through to the following September and beyond.
Planning happens that far ahead even in the ever-changing hospitality sector. But, the current circumstances are making that impossible.
Since March 2020 and the beginning of lockdown it has been impossible to plan beyond the next week and even then, many of us have been thwarted again and again with our plans.
This is a difficult enough business, planning for the long term in an environment that changes over the short term, but Covid and the response to it means that planning our businesses has been done over weeks and days rather than months or years.
But perhaps there is a little bit of hope on the horizon.
Whilst Christmas will not be what it should be for the industry and we will enter into the dark months of winter there appears to be some light emerging with the view that by Easter we could, with some confidence be again planning over a longer term.
With or without a vaccine available, the seasonal nature of the virus means that it is likely that as the weather gets warmer, we could have at least a longer period of ‘freedom’ in which to recover our businesses.
This will come too late for some. Survival through this will be about how much cash you have available. This is complex and different for different businesses. Some will not be able to hold on, it really does feel like clinging on with fingernails for some operators at the moment with 48% of hospitality businesses saying that without further support they cannot get through the next 12 months.
But for those who can and do, there is some good news, not only has the industry itself changed it looks like the public view of the industry has also been impacted in all this.
There is no doubt that people are missing their visits to hospitality venues and events, but in the same way that many operators stepped up to their role in the community at the beginning of this there is a growing trend from the public of support towards local hospitality businesses. The public want us to do well and to survive.
According to CGA study 35% of the public want to support hospitality businesses as much as they can to help it succeed, this is unprecedented, other industries do not get that level of support. 76% of the UK population use hospitality businesses.
Hospitality is being viewed, rightly, as central, and important to communities, to our relationships and to our wellbeing. 57% of the public state that visiting hospitality businesses positively contributes to their wellbeing.
As an industry we are being rewarded for our contribution during this crisis.
We are being recognised as individuals who have had a tough time but have stepped up our responsibility, have done things well, created safe spaces for people to continue to socialise and actively supported our communities and customers.
The sector supported the community, and it is recognised. Our customers have changed, they have changed their needs and motivation for going out but they want us to do well.
There is a growing trend towards the public treating themselves on premium venues and products, they are trading up or visiting for value.
As had been the case before Covid it is the erosion of the middle ground, those venues that try to do it all. Quality and value will both be important for the future of hospitality, but more than that our customers want to be made to feel special.
The industry has a bright future one where we have a new explicit understanding of our role within our communities and where for the first time in a very long time the public also understand and appreciate that role.
There is a fantastic opportunity right now to build our businesses better to, understand our customers, to streamline what we do to deliver not just what the customer wants but also what we need.
With a light insight now is the time to start that long-term planning that has been missing and now is the time to make the changes, building back better for this new world that we are entering.
