16 Junio 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a unique and unprecedented global crisis. This situation has forced companies to speed up their digitisation process to ensure their business continuity. Igor Muñiz,CEO of Erhardt Proyectos, gives us his five keys that may help us to understand this new situation.
TECHNOLOGY? OF COURSE, BUT ALWAYS WITH “PROXIMITY”
Proximity is essential at times of instability and uncertainty. Clients need to feel, now more than ever, that we are by their side, that they can count on our support, and that their own and their business’s welfare is our priority.
There are no distances for us, we remain accessible 24/7, and we accompany our clients in their search for the best possible solution for each need or problem to be resolved, using digital media (videoconferencing, mail, service platforms…).
The present scenario calls for strong teams, with the engagement of stakeholders. Only in this way will we be able to work together to gain a fresh perspective of the new scenario in which we are going to find ourselves. Companies today, more than ever before, need to work together and close ranks to find and manage lasting solutions.
COMMUNICATE, MOBILISE, ACT
In an environment that is as insecure and as volatile as the current one, ongoing communication is essential for reducing as far as possible the level of anxiety that these unforeseen circumstances create for those of us that do not have any prior models of behaviour to act as a reference.
In the first days of the pandemic, we thought that a good way of helping our clients was to keep them regularly informed of the most significant developments in our market, so we launched a Digital News Bulletin with three issues per week.
The initiative has gone down well and enabled our clients to know exactly where we were and where we were heading at any given moment. In view of this positive response, we have decided to launch an online Digital Newsletter to provide clients with information on the market and items of interest to help them find their feet in this new scenario that is now being referred to as the “new normal”.
FLEXIBILITY AND ADAPTATION… QUICKLY!
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, we already knew that the unstoppable advance of technology and the long-term fall in growth rates called for a rapid innovation process. We were already onto it, but the present scenario now requires us to shorten these timeframes and transform ourselves into a hybrid organisation that combines knowledge, experience, human resilience and technology (artificial intelligence, process automation).
The barriers to travel, interacting, and working in the office during Covid-19 have forced us all to find alternative ways of behaving to keep our business afloat. We have resorted to working from home to adapt to the new scenario, catering for our clients’ movements and needs, which has enabled us to strengthen our ties with them and access new opportunities. Internally, we have modified our operating procedures to render them more efficient and speeded up the development of certain critical aspects of our business. We are learning, we are changing, and only time will tell whether we have done so at the speed these new circumstances require.
ENGAGEMENT FOR TACKLING THE FUTURE
We are battling to survive; we have to make short-term “moves” to ensure long-term options. Yet although survival is our main goal, we have to be capable of “staying the course” for the long run. Nobody now doubts that we are all interdependent, which means the system’s very survival depends on each organisation’s own survival, and this resilience will only be possible through interaction among companies and between these and the authorities.
We are probably not going to recover quickly, which is why it is important to concentrate on the medium and long terms. This may involve drastic changes, so we need to look ahead and focus on a renewed operating model that galvanises the necessary capabilities for operating in this new environment, one in which the risk management model has already become a key competency.
The market has been seriously affected by Covid-19. Gathering, processing and sharing data with our clients has enabled us to understand (together) what has been happening, pre-empt their requirements, and find alternative solutions. This has involved a high degree of engagement on everyone’s part.
DIGITISATION, ONCE DISCRETIONAL, NOW MANDATORY
Digitisation was here to stay even before Covid-19 forced us into lockdown, but the one silver lining to this situation has been that it has revealed how important the digital world has become. We are openly committed to the digitisation of our value chain. It will enable us to be more dynamic, further customise our solutions, and adapt more easily to the constant changes our clients require from us. Our team is therefore working on the digitisation of all our processes, from the preparation of bids through to the management and delivery of each project and its after-sales service.
Igor Muñiz
CEO of Erhardt Proyectos
