Remember the Future?
This week my wife and I were talking about the plans we had for 2020 last fall. A cross-country visit from our grandchildren, a vacation for us. All obviously postponed due the jarring effects of COVID. We talked about people we know who we lost to this awful virus and how their plans for 2020 were snuffed out, alone, in a hospital room, on a ventilator. It’s hard to imagine anyone whose life was not impacted, inconvenienced, taken, or destroyed in these past 10 months. The memories of the plans we once looked so forward to simply paled in comparison to the reflection on the devastation that has to be part of that same conversation. 2020 became the dream that was and the nightmare that is and continues to be for so many.
That conversation brought me to reflect on the flip side of that coin – from family to business. In my case, as CEO of ETHIX360, the two are very often intertwined. Like many of my peers, I think of the others at ETHIX360 as family. Like the responsibility I have for my family, I feel a similar responsibility to them. To provide them with a safe, reliable place to work. A company with an ethos and culture to inspire them. An opportunity to learn and grow; to mature and innovate. A safe place to be rewarded for contributions and encouraged to say, “what if?”
COVID didn’t steal our dreams, but it certainly changed our goals for 2020. As devastating as COVID has been to our country and the world with loss of life, debilitating illness, financial ruin for some, and economic turmoil for nations, in our case it brought about revised goals that started with two of the basic elements of survival – security and shelter. After all, like many other small businesses, our very future was challenged. Our dreams shifted to survival, then growth in the midst of global chaos, and finally thriving again in the next normal.
We started with survival, and for us that came in two forms: solvency and physical security. Actually, solvency was the easy part – we are fortunate to have a group of engaged and compassionate investors who stepped up and secured us, even allowing us to continue to hire and grow. This basic need was crucial to the next concern – security. While our team shifted to a work from home stance, we explored our options, knowing that with our eventual reopening things had to be different. They had to be safer. They had to respect this next normal.
So, we got new space, and more of it. Prior to COVID, we had seen tremendous growth. Frankly, our office was double stacked in some areas. Our new office allows generous spacing to accommodate social distancing, as well as newer air handling technology to better recirculate fresh air in while maintaining negative air pressure. Community areas like conference rooms, break areas and even restrooms, are much larger to support the necessary social distancing. We moved into the new space last week and we couldn’t be more excited!
But we’re still a business at our core. So, once survival and security were assured, we shifted back to growth and, like the rest of our business, that meant adjusting goals. Probably the most pleasant surprise has been that reset was not as dramatic as it has been for other businesses. In fact, we’ve been able to grow our client base and overall system usage, substantially exceeding those goals!
I think the lesson we learned was a component that, frankly, we never addressed in our business plan before – resilience. When we look to finalize our 2021 strategic planning, we’ll remember the resilience our team demonstrated in the midst of chaos and we’ll think about what we could have done to be better prepared next time. We’ll remember the future.
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MEET THE AUTHOR
J Rollins is the co-founder and CEO of ETHIX360. J is a well known leader and innovator who has served on senior leadership teams ranging in responsibility from Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, SVP of Product Strategy and Chief Operating Officer.
ABOUT ETHIX360
At ETHIX360, our goal is simple: to provide an affordable, flexible, and comprehensive answer to employee communication, policy management, corporate training and case management on issues related to corporate ethics, code of conduct, fraud, bribery, and workplace violence.
