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What Did Our Companies (and you) Learn From 2 Years of a Global Pandemic?



This is not "our first rodeo". Some countries experienced severe pandemics and other crises before. But is it

not an opportunity, if we spend one hour or two hours, of our 1800 hours per year, having this discussion about what we learned?


Companies like Nasa, and others of that ilk, capture all of this knowledge, successes and failures, to make sure they "learn". It is accessible for all new employees.


One of my last management consultancy roles before the pandemic was helping an ad agency focus their proposition. As part of the facilitated Brand Lab, one of the last questions I asked this heavily healthcare-orientated agency was "do you have contingency plans with your clients in the event the proverbial "shit hits the fan"". Sadly for them, I was met with laughter.


Stuck between the Bermuda Triangle of a global pandemic, a barbaric war in Ukraine, and a bubbling up recession fears, I would argue this one or two hour meeting reaps significant returns.


For those of you that have read The Fourth Industrial Revolution, by Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum, the world is a miss of bodies governing the future collision of the physical, digital and biological worlds. Governments are laggards in this regard. So hang on, this dynamic is not going away. And I would argue, it is only going to get more bumpy


The U.S. government has specific functional areas that look at "what if" scenarios. At the other end of the continuum, other companies think that if they create a platform to house Powerpoint presentations, people will access them. (not a chance)


I would recommend, regardless if it is initiated at a Corporate level, a Sales level, a Marketing level, HR, or other, somebody will be a hero to initiate this.


Some questions (far from exhaustive) coming more into focus:

  1. How resilient is your supply chain? Many companies 20-30 years ago farmed out manufacturing to other countries. Do you have back up?

  2. Do you have pricing flexibility?

  3. Can you elevate e-commerce if need be?

  4. How does your brand speak during a crisis?

  5. How do you speak to your employees?

  6. Who speaks during your crisis? What is their script? Is it on brand?

  7. How do you manage hybrid, work from home, work from office.

Two hours is not a bad use of time in the grand scheme of things.

Feel free to add to this list because it needs work.




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