Much has already been said about what the health crisis will leave in the world “after…”.I will summarize it around 4 key findings that apply in particular to the consumer goods and retail companies that I help in my consulting activities:

The indisputable trauma caused by supply and demand shocks during lock down, which led to deep questioning and new consumer expectations
The uncertain return to consumption and especially to envy, under the effect of fears generated by this invisible enemy capable of killing and confining half of humanity and overthrowing the economies of the planet in less than two months
A new human distancing in the society of tomorrow alongside an increased need for social ties, with immediate effects on the modes of access to the offer and their digitization, the return to the local as well as our behavior in public life
The growing mistrust of institutions, politicians but also certain large companies, starting with food distribution chains, as underlined by the April 2020 study of the French ObSoCo, which would have thus benefited from a windfall effect for which they would become indebted to consumers: "The world of big business would be contracting a form of debt towards society" under the effect of the context of lockdown and state aid having stimulated their activity.

For a good number of companies grappling with serious financial difficulties linked to their freediving, the stake in "After" will be first of all to activate all the levers for a rapid restart in a strict economy of means. It will also to provide with restraint and touch the proof of the lessons they have learned from this ordeal.In the first place, this will call for a rapid diagnosis within the framework of well-defined transformation projects, to identify blockages often prior to the crisis (e.g. compartments of the organization, weight of inventory management, operational efficiency of distribution networks …). And allow a "restart otherwise" as clean as possible.Then and almost as a simultaneous step, we will have to try to find a "renewed attractiveness" in this post-traumatic context.However, the opportunity for the company to embark on the path of "trade differently" is enormous as it offers the possibility of challenging its own software to integrate the essentials of an effective and sustainable recovery:

To arouse back the "willingness to buy" of consumers in such a context of mistrust, must force the company to focus on the value of its actions in the eyes of its customers. It will now be appropriate, after so many decades of communication having favored signs, that the company refocuses more modestly on the "use value" of its offer or its services for which the consumer is still ready to pay. Gone are the days of promises. The urgency is for concrete actions seen by customers.
To concentrate all the energies of redeployment around a project of meaning for the company, in line with its DNA and its brand history necessarily updated by what the company is already telling us when approaching the "After". Again, evidence must take the lead on communication and self-proclamation that would result in critical and bashing damaging to recovery. This is all the virtue of the authentic and lasting "raison dêtre" that a company must adopt so that the brand contributes "in real" to the balance of the world and thus justifies its fight. The time has come for Brands to create value in the sense defined by the B Corp law, placing their contribution back into society.
To make the organization act in full coherence and be aligned in order to serve the company project and its proofs of evidence. This is certainly the best opportunity to be seized so that each function feels associated with the same objective in a complementarity of roles that are equally essential to the success of the project.
To combine economic performance and solidarity commitment, one cannot be done without the other in a sustainable vision capable of involving a community of employees and customers, in this "co-reconstruction" of the company. To be able to say that this unprecedented period opened the way to a real transformation. This is undoubtedly the most ambitious issue for the “After...”.