Change is relentless. Sometimes it creeps slowly, and sometimes it’s forced upon you bluntly, and with force. The last few months have very much been the latter — for everyone.
Once we ensured our staff and our families were safe from COVID-19, how were we to continue to offer our services to those in need? Like most of us, we were forced to think earnestly about how we could adapt to such dramatic change.
In our case we are Malaysia’s pioneer in disaster restoration, forensic investigation, and indoor air quality. Almost overnight we had to pivot for the health of our clients as well as our business.
We became leaders in Coronavirus sanitisation — now obliged to shift to making spaces safe to live and breathe in, as well as brokering Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and test kits. We had to adapt to new tech — moving exclusively to video conferencing for training, meetings, and general conversations.
And while we would normally have our consultants fly overseas to our clients abroad, we were now able to empower our staff in those countries to assist remotely in site inspections. We have been thrilled at our staff’s abilities to pick up new skills, for example undertaking 3D imaging of sites for our consultants to assess from thousands of kilometres away.
While in totality, none of this has been close to desirable, we have been very proud of our team for their ability to adapt, and forge a new path forward to keep our clients safe.
We, and I hope all of us, can remember this lesson in change — whether it comes slowly or abruptly, it always comes. And instead of seeing it as a shock that we need to survive, we should see it as an opportunity (that was always coming) to grow and evolve, using resources we never knew we had.
I’d be very interested in hearing other stories of businesses adapting and teams stepping up in the COVID-19 era — tell your stories!
