Surviving The Pandemic

March 5, 2021 by guest author, sixteenninewpadmin

GUEST POST: GEOFFREY BESSIN, INTUIFACE

Geoff Bessin

Inspired by our own efforts to weather a challenging pandemic-induced business climate, we – at Intuiface – decided to host a “Leadership Summit” in early February.

More than 200 women and men from around the world – representing the executive suite for agencies and integrators large and small – gathered for a virtual deep dive into the business side of digital signage content creation and delivery.  

Although most sessions were comprised of pre-built educational content, the day concluded with a live roundtable discussion titled “Surviving the Pandemic”.

Looking back, it’s clear that participants were representative of a biased sample since only survivors were in attendance. Yes, there was a collective agreement that the previous year had, to use a technical term, sucked. But the mere fact of survival, coupled with evidence of vaccine-derived light at the end of the tunnel, led the majority to embrace at least some level of optimism.

Experiences certainly ran the gamut. Most companies needed to take advantage of government largesse if available. (For an unlucky percentage, home countries were unable or unwilling to provide.) Some were forced to reassess their business models while others kept sailing along, tolerating as best they could a decreased amount of wind in their sails. (In their sales?) All had looked in the mirror and asked themselves, were they built to withstand the pandemic, thrive beyond, and – heaven forbid – be ready for the next calamity?

What follows is a collection of actions and guiding principles determined to be critical for survival in lean times and a propellant in good. Most are not unique to the world of digital signage; they are best practices that would make any business school professor proud. However, as an old boss of mine once said, vision without execution is hallucination. You’ve got to actually do these things, not just pay lip service.

Spend a moment staring at this list and ask yourself, how well has your company adopted each principle? Where you lag, take action. Surely, inaction is the quickest route to failure.

Here’s the thing. We cannot assume (or hope) that everything will return to normal. The result of such an attitude is complacency, and that attitude solves nothing. What will be standard in the post-COVID era will be different from that which came before. (Trying not to say “new normal” but it’s very hard…) So whatever you decide to do – or have done – should be approached as a long-term solution. A permanent change. You’re not just patching a hole, you’re building a new dam.

It is difficult, and possibly a tad offensive, to look at our collective hardship as an opportunity. However, the old saw is right – what doesn’t kill us can make us stronger. The key is to be honest with our self-assessment and then make a sincere effort to pivot and grow. Survival is not guaranteed, but action is the only solution.

Naturalists tell us that forest fires can be beneficial to the environment, replenishing the soil and making room for healthy new growth. We may be nearing the end of a wildfire that has consumed the global community. Let’s humbly learn from it and grow …

About The Guest Writer

Geoff Bessin is Chief Evangelist at Intuiface, which means he thinks about the intersection of digital interactivity with signage and presentations.  Twitter – @geoffbessin

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