Blog · Archive · 2021
The challenges of the post-COVID recovery
Written in autumn 2021, when businesses were reopening and no one yet knew how long it would last. The thesis was that every crisis produces opportunities for whoever knows how to read them — and that a small business's strongest weapon costs nothing.
Published 11 November 2021 · revised 16 August 2026
The starting point
The space big companies leave open
A large company can afford campaigns a small one can't even consider. On that ground the game is lost before it starts, and there's no point playing it.
There's a different ground, though, where the large company doesn't play at all, because its organisational machine isn't built for it: direct, one-on-one relationships with the people around it. That space stays open.
It doesn't require funds, it requires time
Talking, meeting people, organising occasions: you don't need to move resources, you need your own commitment and that of the people who work with you.
Which is an elegant way of saying it costs something anyway — it's just paid in a currency nobody puts on the balance sheet.
The advice that holds up best
A mile wide and a yard deep
It's how most people's networks look: a huge number of contacts, none of whom would go out of their way for you. The goal is to have a network that's wide and deep, and the two are built in different ways.
Diversifying helps: people from different sectors, with different skills, so you don't end up with a network that can only do one thing. And putting the effort into explaining what you do to others, instead of trying to sell them something.
One word at a time
"Completely free" is the part to correct
It was the article's strongest promise, and the one that did the most damage: if something is free, it doesn't go on the balance sheet; if it doesn't go on the balance sheet, nobody defends it when it's time to cut.
What it actually costs
Time, and the time of a person who could be doing something else. It's a real cost, and calling it zero is the fastest way to never get the hours you'd actually need.
What changes if you count it
It becomes an investment in an asset, and assets get accounted for. In the discipline that asset is called Relational Capital, and the document that measures it at year-end is the Relational Balance Sheet.
And the person working on it inside the company has a role and a mandate — the Referral Director — instead of doing it "when there's time", which is the condition under which it never gets done (First Law).
Calling it free is convenient. Then it's the first thing to go.
The first step
Where your company stands, in one number
AIRA-SCAN© measures the Relational Capital your company already has: ten questions, three minutes, no registration required. Your browser calculates the score and it appears immediately, along with the dimensions where you're losing the most points.
The extended report then arrives by email, and within one working day someone calls you: you look at the result together and assess whether the AIRA-DX© Stoic Analysis makes sense for your company. It's free and limited to twelve a week, so it isn't owed to whoever takes the check-up: it's decided together.
Would you rather just talk it through? The number is 0549 888808.