Article
Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

Predictions, Prophets, and Restarting Your Business

Format:Electronic

Abstract

The first task of crisis management is a reasonably accurate view of the current situation and how it might evolve. There are many predictions about so-called “new normal” as a result of the semi-enforced social distancing necessitated by the coronavirus. But most are simply straight-line extrapolations of a few weeks of panic-buying data or sermons about what that person believes should happen in the future. Meanwhile, business managers must make decisions now about how to allocate resources based on assumptions about the future in their markets. This article provides advice about certain customer-management basics in the face of uncertainty.