Rethinking Your Business Values For A Post-COVID-19 World
As of writing this article in early April 2020, nobody really knows how business will look like after COVID-19. People could either go back to how it was before or see the event as an opportunity to do things differently (let’s hope the latter). It is hard to make any predictions at this stage but there are a few values every business should think of going forward and how they can be incorporated into interactions with staff and customers in a post-COVID-19 world.
1. Kindness
Everyone knows the word but what are the qualities of kindness? It is being friendly, generous, considerate, gentle, caring, and helpful towards others. Doing something and not expecting anything in return. Being warm in spirit.
Random acts of kindness from your business can go a long way, especially during a crisis. Let’s be nice to people and look after each other.
2. Community
With so many borders closed around the world, the community around us has become even more important. How can you help the people and other businesses close to you? Are there any local initiatives to get through this together?
To give you two examples, SOScafe helps cafes to sell gift cards during lockdown and We Love Local offers gift boxes with products from small artisan businesses who are unable to attend farmers' markets.
Thinking of our local community will be crucial in restarting economies worldwide and businesses who embrace this will thrive in the coming years.
3. Collaboration
Less competition, more collaboration. The problem with competition is that there can only be one winner and while it is in our nature, we should rather learn from each other, break down barriers, and share goals during and after the Coronavirus crisis.
Encouraging collaboration both internally and externally in your company will help us to progress as a whole and get through this together. Let’s put our egos aside because it’s not important who wins but far more important to get through to the finish line!
4. Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. However, it will become increasingly important to be empathetic not just on an individual level but on a societal level. What could you do in your organisation to move towards being more empathetic?
For example, an interesting idea could be a new approach to design and moving from human-centered design to society-centered design with an emphasis on citizen empowerment, civic commons, public health, equity, and the planet.
Let’s all not rush back and try to get back to how we were doing things before. Take the opportunity to pause and re-evaluate how we want to run our businesses in the future. Be kind, think of your community, collaborate with each other, and move society forward. Now is your time to be a part of history and make our world a better place for generations to come.
Written by Timo Reitnauer
Based in New Zealand, Timo leads all the customer engagement efforts at CentralNic. He has spent 18+ years growing domain name registrars that enable customers and make getting online easy.