For global travel the pace is starting to pick up and with it, so too the pressure to deliver. Businesses are demanding results. Quick gains are needed. Individuals are straining to deliver against ever tighter budgets. Years of brand equity in the channel cannot afford to be undermined. Or, if you put it another way, there is the investment of time, money and effort multiplied by pressure and a call for ‘strong’ leadership. Sound familiar?

Inevitably there will be casualties in our industry. However, simply taking a step back right now and reappraising the situation before putting a revised plan in place, is likely to have game-changing implications.

Here is our guide to planning for success in 2021:

1. Start now There is nothing to win from delaying and everything to lose. The best day to begin is today. 2. Embrace flexibility Remember that your goal is what you want to achieve, and your plan is your intended way of achieving that goal. There may be multiple ways to achieve the same goal and as the landscape changes, it might be that a different plan makes it even easier to achieve that goal. So, prepare for change, expect change and understand you plan is likely to require changes in order for you to successfully reach your goal. 3. Amplify the signals No matter how small and harmless a new piece of information or a shift in the landscape appears, amplify it. Look at it the same way you would a bigger problem, put it under some genuine scrutiny and identify what impact it will have on your plan, tweaking your plan accordingly. It is incredibly easy to miss something when the pressure is on….and remember, hindsight is 2020. 4. Take a moment Organisations rarely have the luxury of taking their time in a crisis. As the stress and pressure mounts, they try things like improvising or throwing more people at a problem, but this is almost always counterproductive. Stop, draw breath and get your head out of the detail. A few minutes spent looking at the bigger picture now will save countless hours, money and resources later. 5. Dip your toe in the water In a time of crisis, when you are less sure of the future than ever, be careful not to be lured into putting all your eggs in one basket. With an unknown landscape in front of you, it is much better to try a couple of new things and learn from the results. Essentially, it’s a bit like dipping your toe in the water before you dive in. 6. Ignore U-turn shame It takes far greater leadership to recognise things have changed and that you must adapt, than to rigidly stick to the original plan, even if that makes you look weak. Leaders who stubbornly stick to the original plan tend to go down with the ship! 7. Question authority Many people are nervous about questioning the decisions of their superiors and the consequences which may follow, but this is classic PCB behaviour and actually makes you complicit in any failure. Remember, questioning authority is not dissent, it is your job. 8. Be creative In times of unstable conditions, people are drawn to new and innovative ideas. Now is the perfect time to get creative so hire the best creative minds in the business, don’t rush them as great ideas take time to develop, and be bold. It was brands like Coca-Cola and Kellogg’s who emerged victorious from the crisis of WWII and it was their bold creativity which drew millions of people to them.

When interviewed as part of the marine investigation into the Torrey Canyon shipwreck (which also caused an environmental disaster), Captain Rugiati claimed he had lost a vital 30 seconds just before he hit the rocks and that he could have avoided them if things had simply gone his way.

But if you take a step back to look at the bigger picture, you can see it wasn’t what he did in the last 30 seconds that mattered at all; it was what he didn’t do in the two hours before it.