“The ability to withstand unpredictable threat or change and then to emerge stronger.”

This is how the team at McKinsey & Company defines resilience in their recently published an article on what they call The Resilience Imperative. They elaborate further that resilience is going to be more important in the coming decade than ever before when they explain, “Catastrophic events will grow more frequent but less predictable. They will unfold faster but in more varied ways. Disruption is becoming more frequent and more severe.”

Resilience can be financial, operational, technological, organizational, or reputational in nature but the greatest resiliency comes when an organization can anticipate and respond to threats across all categories to dynamically adapt as needed. Obviously, this kind of resiliency does not just fall into place – it is the result of careful planning to develop a revenue resiliency toolkit.

The term “Revenue Operations” is soaring in popularity these days. In fact, Chief Revenue Officer, VP of Revenue Operations, and Director of Revenue Operations are among the fastest growing job titles right now on LinkedIn.

But what is Revenue Operations?

Does your business need it?

And, if you do, how do you establish a Revenue Operations framework?

Revenue Operations (or RevOps for short) is an approach that aims to align sales, marketing, and customer service teams to give them the tools and resources needed to drive predictable revenue. As Bhaskar Roy explains in an article on the rise of Revenue Operations, “RevOps treats revenue not as a fortunate outcome of a quality product, but like a mirror of the supply chain — a pipeline that needs to be powered by optimized business processes.”

Over the last several decades personality evaluations like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, DiSC test, Core Values Index (CVI), and PATH assessment have made managers more aware of the different types of individual personalities represented in their employees, and how best to unify them around a set of organizational goals. These assessments highlight an individual’s predominant characteristics and traits to better understand what motivates them, which types of roles they are best suited for, and how to interact with them for optimal results.

But what about personality types that stick out from the crowd dramatically – the colloquial “sharp edge of the circle” so to speak?

A recent Fast Company article highlighted a unique personality that they called the “Rare Breed.” They explain that these so-called Rare Breeds do not conform, are outspoken, rebel against the establishment, exhibit unparalleled drive, and obsessively strive for high achievement at all costs. The article goes on to say that while companies typically view these as vices, they are also what drives innovation, making this personality type integral for organizations that prioritize out-of-the-box thinking. However, their big egos, short tempers, and manipulation of those around them can also be damaging to an organization if left unchecked.

Do you know anyone like that at your company?

The pandemic hit many industries and demographics hard, but some shouldered the burden more than others. Women, especially working mothers, were overwhelmingly negatively affected.

In fact, the 2020 Women in the Workplace report revealed that 25% of working women and over 30% of mothers with young children were “contemplating downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce” with mothers citing increased domestic and child-care responsibilities as their primary motivation for doing so. The study summarized,

“Women in particular have been negatively impacted. Women—especially women of color—are more likely to have been laid off or furloughed during the COVID-19 crisis, stalling their careers and jeopardizing their financial security. The pandemic has intensified challenges that women already faced. Working mothers have always worked a ‘double shift’—a full day of work, followed by hours spent caring for children and doing household labor. Now the supports that made this possible—including school and childcare—have been upended. Meanwhile, Black women already faced more barriers to advancement than most other employees. Today they’re also coping with the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the Black community.”

While these challenges impact women individually, the cumulative effect of women leaving the workforce significantly affects the companies they work for as well.

So, how can B2B companies keep women among their ranks and on their leadership teams?

“Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.” – William Durant

In 2020, B2B sales abruptly transitioned from a face-to-face game of relationship-building to a digital game that aimed to do the same. Sales representatives traded long drives and flights for their home offices as companies nationwide closed themselves off to non-essential personnel. Video conferencing and email became the new standard as processes and systems shifted. However, the need to develop and build relationships never faltered.

Now, as companies look toward the future, they need to make difficult decisions about when to move employees back into the office, while considering the needs of both their employees and their clients. The other big issue facing employers is the variety of protocols that will need to continue and be enhanced to bring people back in safely while accounting for the fact that not everyone is planning on getting the vaccine. Ultimately, control of COVID-19 and the rate of vaccination is going to affect the speed with which we return to the workplace.

The timeframe on this decision will be heavily influenced by industry segment. Companies that have an internal focus and can work in a bubble likely have not stopped going into the office, at least to some degree. For example, manufacturers never stopped going into the plant, instead they implemented strict protocols to keep their workforce safe and on the job. However, externally focused companies, like professional services firms, started going back into the office since the first of the year, but are not interacting with clients yet. Meeting with clients and partners is still being done virtually in these settings. Most other companies will likely be back by this fall, all things equal, but not in the same way as before.

In a Harvard Business Review article on how the global economy is recovering in the wake of COVID-19 economists explain,

“In times of crisis it’s tempting to be pessimistic and fearful, in particular if the drivers are unfamiliar or the risks pose credible systemic threats. However, this inclination to pessimism and retreat also carries risks itself and we should remind ourselves that 14% of firms across all sectors typically grow both revenues and margins during downturns. This is not just idiosyncratic luck — i.e. being in the right sector and seeing a demand boost because of the nature of the crisis — it’s driven by a firm’s ability to see beyond the acute phase of a crisis and exploit its idiosyncrasies to drive differential growth in new areas. While monitoring the overall macro landscape remains important, leaders should not underestimate the importance of measuring, interpreting, and exploiting the dynamics of their own sectors and markets in order to be able to invest and flourish during the recovery and the post-crisis period.”

While organizations have already pivoted to withstand this year-long disruption, there is still work to be done. The goal now is to ride the growth curve as the economy swings upward up to avoid being left behind.

The role of the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) is experiencing unprecedented demand right now. Resources on why a CRO is important are gaining traction, and CRO job postings are increasing. So, why are so many companies looking to hire a CRO for the first time?

Over the past last year, the B2B space has likely made about ten years' worth of digital adoption progress. CEOs are still trying to do it all themselves, but with advancement happening faster than ever before, they can no longer keep up, making CROs critical in a post-pandemic world.

No industry has been spared by the disruptive effect of this global pandemic. Some B2B organizations have been negatively affected by supply chain disruptions, stifled sales models, and shifting buying patterns. Others have seen exponential growth due to the emergence of new markets, shifted buying patterns, and grappled with scale-up operations. But businesses experiencing a boom are not in much better shape right now because they are also managing unprecedented revenue challenges.

The pandemic has not created a need for a CRO; it has accelerated the need.