Episode 107 – Business Recovery as a Project

VELOCITEACH – Manage This – Episode 107



As businesses and project managers start to strategize about
the post-crisis world, Mike Goss explains what makes business recovery a
project. How can we respond to this crisis from a business standpoint, and how
that can be a project?



Table of Contents



01:58 … Meet Mike 03:08 … Everything in Life is a Project 03:49 … Responding to Crisis as a Project 05:00 … Redefine your Business: The Why and the Who 09:24 … Business Recovery as a Project 11:26 … Personal Experience with Business Recovery 13:33 … What Parts of a Business will Benefit? 16:05 … Building a WBS 18:45 … Facing Risks in Business Recovery 20:50 … Staying on Course 22:15 … A Project Plan for all Scenarios 23:49 … Overcoming Communication Challenges in Business Recovery 25:37 … A Plan for Businesses of all Sizes 26:06 … Strategizing in a Post Crisis World 27:23 … Advice for Resilience during Business Recovery 32:37 … Mike’s Course on Business Recovery 34:12 … Closing



MIKE GOSS: If we had a scale of one to 10, yesterday you
were at an eight.  Then COVID-19 show
up.  Now you’re at a one.  Your objective is not to get back to
eight.  Your object is to get back to 10,
where you’ve never been before.  On your
way, you’re going to build in the tools and the processes that make sure you
never hit one again, no matter what happens. 
That’s a project.



WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is our opportunity to meet with you and talk about issues that project managers are facing today.  I am Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio is Bill Yates. So today we’re talking in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, businesses are starting to think about the post-crisis situation.  For some organizations it’s really been near-term survival is what’s on the agenda.



BILL YATES:  Right.  I agree, Wendy.  There are so many companies that are just
fighting to stay in business right now. 
I’m a part of a CEO roundtable, and just seeing the impact that this is
having on people locally and globally is huge, I think.  I just saw some statistics today.  Now, just to let listeners know, this is May the
4th.  And so far 30 million people in the
United States have filed for unemployment, just since the COVID-19 got really
serious in March, up until today.  We’re
here in the Atlanta, Georgia area.  So
just for our state of Georgia, one in four workers have filed for unemployment.



WENDY GROUNDS: 
Unbelievable.



BILL YATES:  So it’s
huge.  And obviously our federal
government is taking great steps to help fight through the economic impact of
this as we all figure out what does the new normal look like.    So just thinking about what is business
going to look like when we can get going again. 
So I think it’s helpful for us to have this conversation, and we’re
fortunate to have Mike Goss here to talk through some of this with us.



Meet Mike



WENDY GROUNDS:  He was
telling us that his career has taken more twists and turns than most. 



BILL YATES:  Yeah.  So he started out as a stereo equipment salesman.



WENDY GROUNDS:  And a
computer store owner.



BILL YATES:  An
elevator salesman.



WENDY GROUNDS:  And
then he became a software developer.



BILL YATES:  Senior VP
at a bank.



WENDY GROUNDS:  And
the author of “Breaking
Through Walls,” a business novel about overcoming life’s obstacles.



BILL YATES:  And then
a college instructor.



WENDY GROUNDS:  And
then a radio personality.



BILL YATES:  And of
course he fit a military career in there, as well.  He’s a veteran in the U.S. Air Force, serving
in Thailand during the Vietnam War.



WENDY GROUNDS:  He has
been on a podcast before with us, and he tells us more about that in his
previous episode.  Since 2014, Mike has
also taught PMP exam prep boot camps in Oregon, Washington, and South Carolina.



BILL YATES:  Quite a
diverse, I’d say, yeah, he is definitely shaking the tree.