MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Developing Strategy for New Customer Expectations

The pandemic caused organizations around the world to rethink how they were doing business. Remote work, distance learning, and curbside retail pickups became a necessity, whether or not managers felt they were a good idea before the pandemic. Preparing for the post-pandemic era requires leaders to weigh their options for the future. What is the right combination of the old ways and the new ways? What do customers and employees really want as we move forward?

Making these decisions requires not only weighing new options but also rethinking the decision-making process itself. The unspoken assumptions that helped to speed decision-making in the past may lead companies to take the wrong path. As leaders develop strategy for a future that has been reshaped by the pandemic, they need to rethink their fundamental assumptions about how employees work, what customers want, and how to drive change in organizations. In this article, I will examine some key assumptions about what customers want. While some prior assumptions may remain true, all of them need serious consideration, and many will need rethinking for the post-pandemic economy.

About the Author

George Westerman (@gwesterman) is a senior lecturer with the MIT Sloan School of Management and principal research scientist for workforce learning in MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab.

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