Rapid response: the power of business design
In 2020, FromHereOn supported a group of entrepreneurs to bolster the hospital system by providing hospital beds in hotels. The initiative was called HospiTel and operated under a newly created brand, Response.
Reflecting on our disruption response at pandemic speed, it’s remarkable how quickly you can shift from idea to prototype when there’s a clear and meaningful purpose, and you get out of your own way.
BRACE FOR IMPACT
In February 2020, the Global COVID-19 pandemic loomed large, threatening to decimate economies, rock healthcare systems, send hospitals into overdrive and leave public spaces deserted. Governments across the planet scrambled. Entire industries braced for impact.
Healthcare service providers were forced to rapidly scale their capacity to manage the forecast surge in patient demand. Travel, leisure and hospitality industries worked furiously to rethink their services, pivot and diversify revenue streams. Nation-wide policies and ‘lockdown’ protocols saw hotel occupancy in Australia plummet to a never-before-seen low of 20%, rendering a distressed hotel inventory of some 240,000 rooms.
THE CHALLENGE
This was a wicked problem right at the intersection of industry, government, NGOs and the community which required complex, lightning-speed strategic responses to an unfamiliar, unapologetic adversary.
The need was clear: Create a service that would help ‘flatten the curve’ of demand on the health system and keep people safe.
Our purpose was clear: Preserve Australian lives, jobs & businesses through COVID-19.
Our mission: Design and prototype a purpose-driven, human-centric service that could scale through an intelligent ecosystem of partners and specialist communities.
The challenge called for fresh, agile thinking and prompt action from a newly formed multidisciplinary team, responding to new daily challenges while working remotely in lockdown from locations all over Australia.
THE SCOPE
Brand (Response.org), website and promotional materials
Executive Summary, Business Case, Strategy on a page, Business model, Operating model, Capability model, Org model, Application model and Information Architecture and Service Model. Customer Journey Maps, Service concepts, Service blueprints and a working Prototype.
OUR RESPONSE
In just six weeks, together with Response we were able to conceive, develop and prototype an innovative service called HospiTel to save lives, jobs & businesses that were affected by COVID-19.
The solution activated latent infrastructure, existing services and talent, increasing the capacity and resilience of governments, hotels, healthcare and community services.
Our business design method provided a backbone to keep everyone aligned and empowered, gaining buy-in and trust through co-design and providing the pertinent documentation to tie the concepts together.
Promotional video created to explain the business concept to stakeholders
OUR APPROACH
We applied our Business Design Method to bring together different communities, leverage capabilities across the ecosystem and design a solution that catered to multiple stakeholders.
We employed a network approach to activating partners and specialist talent with competencies in branding and marketing; purpose design; vision, mission and service model design; operating model design; technology architecture; information architecture; agile delivery; disaster response; strategy; financial modelling; stakeholder and community engagement.
We baselined by mapping customer experience and catalogued the service landscape. We used this to define, design and test intricate service concepts, build service blueprints and ultimately prototype a minimum viable service that could assist a patient.
To build a robust commercial business case, we defined the capabilities required to deliver the service and depicted them in an operating model. This, in turn, enabled us to visualise how the service was delivered, specifying the relationship between capability and delivery – outlining feasibility and providing a valuable anchor for discussing stakeholder needs, concerns and opportunities.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The success of the project can be attributed to the following.
The power of purpose - Our purpose informed every decision and underpinned our mindset. It helped our new, multidisciplinary team form, storm, norm and perform in record time.
Business Design involves the whole business - Often most effective when the CEO is at the helm.
Prototyping - Enabled us to better understand the customer journey and to test assumptions.
Process - Absolutely essential! It informs the cadence of catch-ups, stand-ups, collaboration, test and iteration across a group of people shifting between synchronous and asynchronous remote working.
Technology - COVID-19 presented an altogether more demanding need for creating a stable, accessible space for people to work together in real time.
Communication - Resist the temptation to use every available channel. Stick to the few that enable simplicity, clarity and focus through regular, clear, transparent comms.
People - Hand-picking talent who share a bias toward action, generosity of mindset and time, at the top of their game and work fast. People who are self-motivated and strike a great balance between data and experience to deliver fast, smart, insightful solutions.
Attitude - The complete absence of ego. Genuine openness and curiosity and desire to get to results, not win arguments.
We’re thankful that pandemic-level speed isn’t required to transform business today, but we do still use the insights gleaned from working under such high-stakes circumstances. If you’re ready to move from idea to prototype to change the way your organisation thinks and works, reach out. From here on, things could be different.