While doing some company database updates for Global 5000 companies recently, we came across a couple of interesting cases that point out how businesses in different industries have to adapt very differently to market conditions.
Covid hit hardest during 2020 but there were early signs at the end of 2019 and then it lingered into 2021. People’s activities were restricted and became altered during that time and in some ways we were forever different.
Businesses have to adapt or they can be left by the wayside and in some cases, new opportunities crop up in those times.
Here are charts of three Global 5000 companies showing the year-by-year revenue changes starting in 2017, thru the Covid years and thru the latest reported year – 2023. There are three different scenarios here represented by these firms.
Winnebago
The first is Winnebago, the camper/ recreational vehicle maker. Back in 2017, 2018 and 2019 annual revenues were around $2 billion. Then when Covid hit and one thing people could do was to go outdoors and camping became a ‘thing’. Orders for campers started to swell and lead times to get a camper climbed. A large goods manufacturer like Winnebago can’t easily speed up the line and crank out more very quickly. Now, having caught up to that demand, the market starts to come back to a normal state and revenues and will likely end 2024 flat to slightly down.
Zoom Video
A different trajectory is shown by what happened with Zoom Video. Zoom was barely a blip when Covid hit – not nearly large enough to be part of the Global 5000. Covid hit and BOOM! – Zoom came of age. In the corporate meeting world, regular calls are now Zoom calls. Out of the mess and uncertainty that was Covid, a Global 5000 company was born.
Carnival
A company scenario that is almost the opposite of Winnebago are those in the travel industry like Carnival Cruise Lines. They were streaming along having good and growing years and then Covid hit. People couldn’t travel, they couldn’t be crammed in together with others and businesses like Carnival just fell apart – look at how that revenue cratered.
Now, they are back and the revenue is larger than it has ever been.
Three different pictures from that Covid period with different markets and companies having to adjust and navigate thru constantly changing market conditions.