Leading through crisis: what four scaling coaches are seeing and doing

Executive overview

In early 2020, with COVID-19 forcing businesses to shut down globally, four experienced scaling coaches compared notes on what they were hearing from clients and what actually works in a severe downturn. The core tension: optimism is part of a coach's DNA, but some situations require brutal honesty before any pivot makes sense.

Accept the brutal facts fast, cut costs ruthlessly, then focus only on what you already do well — in a different direction if needed. The window to act shrinks with every week of delay.

The companies that will emerge strongest are those that identify the trend shift early, cut decisively, and pivot within their existing competence — not by jumping to unfamiliar ground.

What clients are experiencing

• Uncertainty is the dominant mood: no one knows timing, depth, or political ramifications.
• Three client categories are emerging: those who are growing (rare), those pivoting, and those that must simply shut temporarily.
• Companies in China — weeks ahead of the West — show the pattern: lockdown → partial reopening at reduced capacity → slow return, not a snap-back.
• Zombie company risk is real: state aid can mask insolvency; some businesses on paper owe so much they should close rather than carry debt.
• Hospitality, events, and in-person services face the hardest road; food, produce, and essential delivery are surging.

Signals that this is a structural shift, not a cycle

• Crisis events create lasting industry change: CNN's Gulf War coverage permanently shifted how news is consumed; JD.com was founded during SARS to solve lockdown delivery.
• The same dynamic is playing out now across multiple industries simultaneously.
• Tools like video conferencing — used by leading practitioners for a decade — are suddenly being "discovered" by large organisations; the shift will be permanent.
• Education is counter-cyclical: demand spikes when times are hard, and the format is shifting from credential-focused to practical and on-demand.

Pivots worth noting

• LVMH redirected perfumery capacity to hand sanitiser production.
• Tito's Vodka publicly corrected misinformation about DIY sanitisers, then started producing hand sanitiser themselves.
• A Portland strip club launched "Boober Eats" — scantily clad delivery from their own kitchen, with bouncers as drivers.
• A hospital privacy-screen inventor saw a decade of development pay off overnight as orders flooded in.
• A landscape distributor sent clients gift cards to open restaurants, then held virtual lunches to maintain relationships.
• Growth Institute saw a 40% traffic increase; clients binge-watched negotiation courses to prepare for landlord and supplier talks.

What actually works in a downturn: lessons from 2001 and 2009

• Map everything on two axes: working vs. not working, and easy vs. hard. Ditch everything in the hard/not-working quadrant without sentiment.
• When forced to make changes Bill Gallagher kept postponing, the company doubled in the year after, then doubled again.
• In 2009: look at strengths, weaknesses, and trends together. Identify jobs-to-be-done and fast-track new products at different price points for different occasions.
• Pivot, don't go greenfield. Reconfigure what you already know. Jumping to an unfamiliar domain in a downturn burns cash and time you don't have.
• Distinguish between what you can do and what you should do — get to "no" as fast as you get to "yes."

How coaching practice is changing

• Planning cycles are shortening: rather than quarterly plans, coaches are now setting monthly action blocks with more frequent check-ins.
• Virtual delivery is proving more effective in some ways: easier to pull in specialist coaches for specific segments, breakout groups run faster, facilitators become less central and clients do more of the work.
• The Scaling Up Scoreboard daily huddle tool is being offered free to help remote teams stay aligned.
• Growth Institute's Private Implementation Online — video content plus eight live coaching sessions — is being adopted rapidly as CEOs try to keep teams focused and productive rather than watching the news.

Priorities for moving from surviving to thriving

• Accept the brutal facts immediately; delaying makes every decision harder and more expensive.
• Cut costs first and fast — identify what is mandatory versus discretionary and eliminate the latter.
• Refocus sales teams on short-cycle, in-stock products rather than long-lead custom work; cash and liquidity are the constraint.
• Monitor trends, not just threats. Companies that identify and act on trend shifts before competitors are the ones that thrive, not just survive.
• Use the forced pause to sharpen execution: daily huddles, shorter planning loops, and tighter accountability structures that should have been in place all along.
• Continuous learning is not a crisis response — it is the baseline habit of high-growth companies. The crisis is an opportunity to install it permanently.