In the era of Industry 4.0, Digital Transformation and disruption already brought dramatic and rampant changes. I called it Disruptive Transformation and it was our Business as Usual #BAU.
While many of us have had our fair share of ups and downs – from the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 2000 dotcom bubble, the 2003 SARS, the 2008 global financial meltdown – the Black Swan once-in-a-century COVID-19 pandemic and the sheer scale and devastation and subsequent worldwide economic downturn startled us all.
So, how has TRG responded to the unthinkable?
Similar to our instincts to reach out and protect loved ones during emergencies, we created TRG COVID-19 Policy and put it swiftly into action, first and foremost, to ensure the well-being of our employees and their families. It’s also a public document as we wanted to be transparent as to what we’re doing as the pandemic evolved and it made little sense to have an internal and an external view, that would just create even more work!
Since 28th March 2020 we have been 100% virtual globally with all employees working from home #WFH. Our last office to close was TRG Sala in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on 28th March, even before the Vietnam nationwide “social distancing policy” came into effect on 1st April (no joke) for 2 weeks (now extended to 22nd April). It’s not called ‘lockdown’ in Vietnam and as a Brit I have to say I call it a lockdown as I have family and friends and we have employees in lockdown in the UK, Switzerland, Singapore (circuit breaker), Malaysia, Thailand, USA, Africa, and the Middle East to name just a few places our teams operate from.
#WFH is only one aspect, 100% virtual service delivery, suspending all international travel, and restricting domestic travel are the others.
While there is no question about the challenges to its adoption, working virtually does offer some unique benefits. I believe, there is a high likelihood that working-from-home will become a permanent trend in the over-the-hump pandemic world. Note I’m not calling it post-pandemic for a reason. Consequently, and logically and practically, TRG will continue to be a virtual workplace for the foreseeable future and similar to like-minded organisations we challenge the need for physical permanent offices and ponder how virtual a virtual operation should be (more on this in future letters).
This TRG move was not as disruptive and sudden as it may sound as we have been promoting virtual working as a part of our own disruptive transformation initiatives for some years and to be honest several of the previous crises resulted in TRG office closures and a move to virtual #WFH, country by country.
As a result of these initiatives, we have avoided any disruption to our clients’ support service level during this crisis. Our cloud services, designed to operate across multiple data centres in separate geographical locations, also prove to be resilient as intended. I know many of you also have disaster plans in place and ideally have tested them over time, however there’s nothing like the real thing to really test whether such plans actually work. As Helmoth mon Molke famously said “no battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy” and yes, we are at war with COVID-19 on an unprecedented scale.
Our successful transition to a 100% virtual workplace is proving our model of dealing with disruptions works. As an IT and Digital Services provider for more than 25 years, TRG understands technology alone is not enough. What’s required is a particular human mindset not just a business mindset, one that embraces empathy, agility, risk-taking, innovation, and the Kaizen way.
And nowhere is this mindset better demonstrated than the shift to becoming a cloud service provider.
Since our pivot to the Cloud-First strategy several years ago, I have witnessed first-hand how cloud services transform our business as well as our clients’. They are instrumental in maintaining business resilience in such disruptive moments and are now the tipping point for many who were resistant to letting go of their “on premise” IT mindset.
As much tragic as this health and economic crisis is, it also highlights the need for the next wave of cloud adoption when Cloud-First becomes Cloud-Only.
Could we have had done more to make ourselves and our clients better prepared? Absolutely! Hindsight is always 20/20. And now that we are in uncharted waters, the only way to go is upwards to the cloud.
Technology aside it’s about people, which is why for more than a decade we’re in the Talent business where we can identify VUCA mindsets and the behaviours for working virtually.
Unusual? Yes! I refer to this as Business As UnUsual #BAUU
On the one hand, we continue to bolster our key offerings like cloud-based enterprise systems, managed IT services, Disaster Recovery, cloud backups, and cybersecurity.
On the other hand, TRG is already rolling out a series of new Digital Advisory services geared at helping businesses survive and thrive during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. Yes, this does mean we have a slew of immediate fixes to enable #WFH and get you onto cloud literally by tomorrow.
I believe it’s our responsibility to further promote confidence and positivity among our community through knowledge sharing. Business As Unusual (BAUU) is a bi-weekly newsletter where we share the most updated and relevant insights on how to adapt quickly and decisively to this new normal.
In the #BAUU newsletter you’ll find information about our TRG Talk Virtual events. These 30-minute webinars are held 3 times a week and provide immediately practical solutions to real challenges you are facing today.
Finally, I’d like to express my personal gratitude to all clients, partners, suppliers, as well as all health workers and #Frontliners who are at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. I trust you and your family are safe and healthy during this unprecedented crisis. Our tag line says we help you and your business shine, and I do believe by working together, connecting virtually as we #WFH, we will all come out of it far stronger than ever before.
Stay safe, Stay healthy, #StayAtHome.
Cheers,
