CEO Seminar 2021: Bouncing Back from Adversity

Since the previous CEO Seminar was co-hosted by Mercuri Urval and Executives' Global Network (EGN) Singapore on December 4th, 2019, the world has changed in many ways by the pandemic situation. This includes how seminars (or webinars) are organised due to social restrictions in Singapore.

The CEO Seminar 2021 was originally planned as a face-to-face meeting at a great meeting venue (HUONE Singapore), but the organisers had to switch to a webinar as Singapore had a spike in Covid-19 cases and moved into the Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) (let's call it a "mini-lockdown" or "mini-circuit breaker").

Thankfully, there was a good turnout of 60+ participants on May 25th via Zoom! The speakers and participants had a lively and insightful discussion about "bouncing back from adversity" brought by the pandemic crisis.

The seminar kicked off with an introduction by Ricky Foo (me), who brought the participants down memory lane, flashing back to a survey done during the CEO Seminar in 2019, when most executives were optimistic about the economy and the biggest challenge then was disruption in trade due to the US-China trade war. Simpler times indeed. A lot of opportunities and changes were predicted, including digital transformation which has since become the norm instead of a trend or a buzzword.

CEO Seminar 2021 Poll

Ricky then surveyed the executives virtually, polling their responses to the following 2 questions:

1) How was your business in the last 12 months?  (N=34)

Interestingly, many business sectors did not suffer as bad as some economists have predicted. In fact, some companies grew tremendously despite the crisis due to change of consumer behaviours and spending patterns.

2) When do you expect business to “return to normal”? (N=34)

The survey indicated that most senior executives do not expect business to "return to normal" very soon. It is at least 13 to 18 months or longer, i.e. 2022 and beyond.

Additionally, slightly more than 60% of the 34 executives had taken their vaccine, at least the first jab and more than 70% of executives will “force / strongly encourage” their staff to be vaccinated.

Current state of the world in pandemic

Following the poll, Ricky shared a quick overview regarding the pandemic, informing executives that while Covid-19 was declared as a pandemic on March 12 of 2020, Bill Gates had already predicted a pandemic since 2015 (TED2015).

The two charts below were shared by Ricky to show a contrast of what we predicted vs. what actually took place. Experts thought that USA and UK were among the best prepared for an epidemic, while China is ranked 51 on the list.

The chart above was published on Feb 28, 2020.

The chart above was updated as of May 21, 2021.

The reality is quite far from the prediction, illustrating exactly how unpredictable the future can be. There is still a lot that we do not know!

Covid-19 impact on businesses

Impact on businesses were not as bad as anticipated

Ricky went on to share that according to the PwC Global Crisis Survey 2021, businesses were not as badly impacted as anticipated but this finding varies from sector to sector. This is aligned with the earlier poll that was done with the participants.

The difference on the business impact is quite significant, with those who requires traveling and/or face-to-face contact that are most affected, due to social restrictions imposed by every country.

Digital transformation driven by the pandemic

As many of us have experienced, the pandemic crisis has accelerated digital transformation in many companies.

According to a McKinsey's report, some of the changes during the pandemic crisis might be permanent, including:

• Changing customer needs or expectations
• Increase in remote working and/or collaboration
• Migration of assets to the cloud
• Online purchasing
• Spending on data security

However, with the prominence of digital transformation, cyber security risk has become the No. 1 concern for CEOs, based on a survey conducted by KPMG in early 2021. (Source: KPMG 2021 CEO Outlook Pulse Survey)

WFH? Hybrid? Work From Anywhere?

Ricky also brought up another trend that has be forced on many organisations: working from home, with different sectors having different percentages of staff working remotely. Remote working also affects the need for office space and the need for business travel. With 20-25% of the workforces in advanced economies possibly WFH between 3 to 5 days a week, firms plan to reduce office space by at least 30% and business travel will be affected by at least 30% (Source: McKinsey, Aug 2020, N=278 executives).

Additionally, work culture differences and the nature of work must be accounted for as employees of different countries and professions react differently to the idea of never being in the office.

In Singapore, one in two workers (49%) feels exhausted, while 58% feel overworked.

According to the Microsoft Work Trend Index, an online poll in January 2021 of more than 1,000 workers based in Singapore revealed that about one in two workers (49%) feels exhausted, while 58% feel overworked, which is much higher than the global average (39% exhausted and 54% overworked). Furthermore, 49% of workers in Singapore are considering leaving their employers in 2021 (global average is 41%). Additionally, while 51% of business leaders say they are thriving, only 27% of workers feel this way, signaling that staff is facing a lot of trouble adapting to the new norm.

Panel Discussion

In the second part of the seminar, Ricky introduced the three panelists: Adelyn Ong (MD, China Mobile International), Dirk Goovaerts (CEO Asia Pacific, dnata) and Lisa Yeoh (VP APAC Sales & Commercial Operations, CooperVision), who provided their insights on how they manage the pandemic situation within their businesses and the roles of leaders in a crisis.

Cultivating positive thinking amongst staff

Adelyn emphasized the importance of positive thinking and the importance of cultivating such positive thinking within employees and teams. She called on leaders to frequently engage their teams in focusing on positives instead of magnifying negatives, looking a perceivable solution instead of the abundance of issues, asserting that it is vital to checkup on the team regularly. She recalled having to host many leadership events to reassure her people that they were well-equipped to push through crisis and empower her people with the ability and mindset to work through said crisis.

Prioritizing customer’s needs

"Only when one understands the customer, such as their challenges and needs in operations, will they be able to stand out from the competition." - Adelyn

Additionally, continuing with her focus on people, Adelyn prioritized her customers needs, wants and welfare during the first few months of the pandemic, allowing customers to save costs. She argues that every service provider wishes to sell similar types of products as their competitors and only when one understands the customer, such as their challenges and needs in operations, will they be able to stand out from the competition. She likened salespersons to doctors who must be able to diagnose the customer’s problems and offer solutions, calling on leaders to ensure salespersons always seek to add value to the customer.

Four pillars to rebound from any crisis

Dirk shared his experience in dnata and he introduced four pillars to rebound in the pandemic which are as follows:

1. Re-shaping the business model
2. Re-inventing and reuses assets on hand
3. Generating income with the highest possible margin
4. Reserving cash as "cash is king" during a crisis

Clear and transparent communication to ensure buy in

Dirk also emphasised that strategy cannot be operationalised without buy-in from the people and thus he stressed on the importance of clear communication. He believes that new strategies, new customers, new teams, and new decisions from the leaders all send signals that are vital to the confidence and morale of the staff and that clear communication involves sharing both the good news and the bad news, ensuring transparency and allowing leaders to reassure and guide their staff without paranoia and doubt from the staff. 

Engaging staff amidst a crisis

Finally, Dirk shared some insights on how to engage staff and external contractors such as:

1. Leading by example (walk the talk and be involved)
2. Sharing commercial successes even if small
3. Upscaling and training staff to get them ready for the new norm
4. Focusing on the safety and health of staff
5. Signaling a sustainable and good future to staff with sustainability-based initiatives such as solar panels
6. Focus on engaging the management of contract staff and reassure the workers on the ground by reassuring the top management.

Leading with empathy

"Success in pre-Covid times was due to the ability of executives to manage up, but success in a post-Covid future will be reliant on executives' ability to manage down." - Lisa

In her passionate sharing, Lisa warned that one of every two employees is planning to leave the company and that turbulence in companies with be present despite the easing of lockdowns and restrictions. However, she believes that leadership and communication motivated by empathy will determine if leaders are sprinting or running a marathon with their team, recalling her CEO’s reassurance of no cutbacks that allowed her company to pivot and thrive in the pandemic. She asserts that leaders not only have to recognize the importance of people who operationalise strategies but also have to lead and communicate with empathy. She believes that success in pre-Covid times was due to the ability of executives to manage up, but success in a post-Covid future will be reliant on executives' ability to manage down, with the advent of the era of leading with empathy.

Cultivating psychological safety

Lisa shared two processes she believes is vital to doing right by their staff:

1. Cultivating psychological safety in leaders and teams by creating safe environments where staff can be authentic and share with leaders on how they are coping with the new norm.
2. Coaching leaders on how to demonstrate empathy and connect with team members to ease the transition to new working norms.

Work life harmony

To sum it up, Lisa championed the idea of work life harmony instead of work life balance as she believes that the former is more relevant with the prevalence of working from home, where leaders empower staff to decide when and how they can work their best.

Conclusion

While the seminar gave many insights to the audience and provided suggestions on what business leaders can do in their organisations, the pandemic situation is still ongoing. There is a need for everyone to continue to step up in engaging people meaningfully, communicating frequently and empathetically, and leading everyone out of the storm.

Stay tuned for the next round of CEO Seminar!

If you are keen to have a discussion on the seminar and leadership topics in APAC, or join us for future CEO Seminars in Singapore, please be in touch with Ricky Foo ([email protected]).