Bringing out the best in People

Current Covid-19 events are drawing the best (and sometimes worst) behaviours out of businesses and from my isolated perspective I thought I’d share some of those businesses/organizations who are doing things that deserve acknowledgement. I personally don’t think that we are deep enough into a lockdown to change ingrained working practices and we’ll snap back to previous behaviours pretty quickly, unless that is we continue lockdown for much longer - but there are some who have executed plans that will have a lasting effect and here are my current favourites (in alphabetical order)

Code Academy believe that learning to code can make you feel empowered and set you up for future career success by developing valuable technical skills. Having already given 100,000 scholarships to students they have now extended their offer by matching every Pro membership purchased with five memberships donated to people who have lost their jobs due to the economic impact of COVID-19. @codeacademy

Denmark (and now Poland) are doing the right thing in my mind by refusing aid to businesses registered in off-shore tax havens to avoid paying domestic taxes. This feels like a very strong message and one that rightly highlights the pressure that this behaviour puts on society.

Google - Within a week of lockdown being announced in the UK, I received an email from Google saying that my Suite discount would be continued for another 6 months (it was due to change on 4th April). Its not so much the financial side of this that matters, but the gesture, and behaviours like this no matter how small will be remembered.

Gymshark - feels like we are all getting more active despite restrictions and Gymshark are doing a great thing to capture this change - sharing post work out pictures tagged with #NHSSweatyselfie delivers a ￡5 donation to the NHS - and they are on target to deliver ￡175k. even though it does feel like an altruistic measure I am about to order some kit from them.

HMRC - Politics aside, I feel that the the measures taken so far have shown an exceptional understanding of the circumstances of most of the workforce in the UK. I hope that the measures are being used appropriately, and everyone taking advantage of them understands that we are inevitably going to see a hike in taxes to pay for this. I feel that the government acted quickly and strongly and even though there are not current measures in place to all businesses, I’m pleased that the strain has been taken off a lot of people.

HSBC - I know all banks are moving to do the right thing but the first action I saw taken was by HSBC to respond with payment holidays for personal loans/mortgages and creating packages for businesses. It is entirely appropriate that banks do everything they can to deliver some security to public and business accounts having been bailed out themselves. Glad to see it happening.

Not Furlong - an interesting concept here, a group of creatives from Adland have been furloughed and as a result are in the unique position of being paid not to work! This means they have skills available for SMEs to get advice that they may otherwise not have had the budget or connections to do so - will obviously create relationships that might extend past this period but it is great to see the thinking not going to waste. Apparently 1 in 5 SMEs won’t weather this storm so their resource could be life saving.

Pantry at 51 - There are lots of local businesses who have switched models from being destination shops to collection/delivery services and are serving local communities brilliantly. Operating in an area with a lot of immobile households, the good will they are generating is phenomenal - prices are not going up, they are just very focused on serving their clientele. So free plug to the Pantry in Prestwood.

RocketMill - a recent post on LinkedIn was the best I’ve seen of a company response to CoVid-19 so far. Not furloughing staff, not putting extra pressure on economy and best of all re-hiring those who had left recently and unable to work at the new places. A fantastic position to take. @SamGarrity @Rocketmill

Video Intelligence - offering ad free video feeds to publishers to make sure that their audiences are fully informed on the current situation. A nice example of stepping up and doing the right thing by figuring out how their technology can help.

And finally (and out of sequence) Good-Loop - a video advertising system that is set up to solve the worlds problems through advertising, they actually don’t need to do anything different to be doing the right thing.

There are a lot of people doing great things I just wanted to highlight those that are immediately visible to me. Thankyou

Stay safe