Leading Through Disruption

Thursday, April 2, 2020, I gave a presentation to the Rotary Club of Kingston which I believe can help you navigate these testing times.

Let me first thank the Rotary Club of Kingston for inviting me to address you today.  This has been in the works for some time and so, I am happy that we are finally getting together, embracing the disruption and adapting to the new normal. When I was first invited to speak with you, I had intended to share how we are transforming the culture within our organisation even as we make game-changing moves in the commercial space.

However, the current climate requires that I shift focus just a little and take this opportunity to share how we are navigating the challenges and meeting the demands caused by this pandemic. We’re used to disruption in the ICT industry as we must constantly adapt to the evolution of new technologies almost daily.

Context

Today, we are treating with an international pandemic - the kind where we cannot always see the risks we are exposed to. This affects everyone. Stock markets worldwide have crashed and many businesses, small and large, are hurting. The impact of what we are going through is not lost on any of us, especially when there is no timeline on when we’ll be past the worst of it. Our focus is on abiding by the guidelines of our Government, “social distancing” and making every effort to support the drive to “flatten the curve”. I’m sure that both phrases will make it into the top five of 2020…along with “you’re on mute”.

 Leading Through Disruption

What is clear is that we are living in a V.U.C.A. world. A world that is Volatile. Uncertain. Complex. Ambiguous.Surviving, and even thriving, as a business leader in a VUCA world requires vision, sound judgement and adaptability. Essentially, a leader that can Unlearn, Learn and Relearn.

For me, leading through this period has been based on my three C’s, Communication, Collaboration and Compassion, which are based on some of our company philosophies.

 Communication

Let’s start with Communication which goes to the heart of our values at Liberty Latin America:

• We’re courageous in our innovation, authentic in our actions and transparent in our decisions.
• We’re considerate of others and encourage their opinions.

During these times, it is important that we have ongoing communication with our teams, customers and all stakeholders. Internally, we have daily communiqués to team members to provide updates on what we are doing and how we will be operating throughout this period. It is what is required to ensure that we have an informed team. These updates are open, transparent and build trust. 

We’ve also ensured that we maintain channels that allow team members to share their thoughts and suggestions, flag issues and commend each other. We conduct regular surveys and polls which give us a temperature check on how our team members are doing and help us to understand what initiatives we need to implement. Externally, our customers and stakeholders are kept updated via direct communication, updates on our social channels as well as statements and interviews via the media.

In my opinion, there is no such thing as over-communication. People want information and we have a duty to share the relevant updates in a calm, confident and measured manner.

 Collaboration

My next C is Collaboration.

• Our philosophy is that when we collaborate, we all win…especially our customers. 

We’ve leveraged the conferencing tools available and are having meetings in Microsoft Teams, WebEx, and via livestream. I'm sure many of you are using Zoom, Skype and the works. Who's have ever thought that these tools would be the primary tools of people connections in February.

No one person or one team in our organisation has all the answers. We have several cross-functional, multi-national teams working through this pandemic as we share best practices and learnings from markets across the region. 

Leaders must accept that they are human and it’s okay to say you don’t know when you don’t have the answers. Leadership is also about leaning on the strengths of your team and you pull together for the best outcome. We also encourage the input of all team members across the business so there is shared ownership in the execution of strategies.

 Compassion

My final C is Compassion.

• For me, Compassion is at the heart of what we do. Compassion for our team members, for our customers and the wider community.

As we monitor the evolving COVID-19 situation, the safety of our employees, their families, our customers, and the communities where we operate is our primary concern. As an essential services provider, it was important for us to reassure our team that their health and safety are our primary concern, and quickly implemented the measures required to keep them safe, even as we continue to provide the services that keep Jamaica connected.

If you had asked me a year ago, or even six months ago if I could have had over 600 team members work from home, I probably would have expressed reservation and told you how many weeks or maybe months of preparation that would need. However, we did it in less than 24 hours. In fact, we launched our work from home arrangements for our non-customer facing staff before the announcements from the Government.

And, for our customer-facing teams, we’ve implemented measures to protect them and our customers. These include enhanced sanitizing protocols as well as providing the appropriate personal protective equipment to our retail and mobile sales teams and our technicians. We’ve also limited the number of customers in our stores based on the Government’s guidelines.

Our retail team members are transported from and to their homes daily on dedicated buses equipped with various sanitizing agents and while practicing social distancing. Our most vulnerable have been redeployed to back office duties. Our technicians now conduct an initial assessment during appointment scheduling. This includes ascertaining whether anyone in the household has exhibited symptoms of or been tested for COVID-19. Further safety assessments are conducted via WhatsApp, where applicable. Where there are concerns, we use other methods including remote trouble-shooting to serve customers who may be displaced by the protective measures. If that does not resolve the issue, we will reschedule the appointment to 14 days later. 

We are ensuring that, as best as possible, we keep our team members and customers safe.

 Innovation

When we talk about disruption, we often note that it leads to innovation. We also say that necessity is the mother of invention and that is certainly true of these times. As we explored even more non-contact options for our customers, we had to rethink our business model. This led to the launch of our virtual stores. We are currently operating 17 Virtual Stores in addition to our physical stores across the island. These virtual stores offer all the products and services accessible to walk-in customers and will ensure that if we must close the physical stores, we are still able to deliver services to keep Jamaicans connected.

Innovation often evolves, and in this case, we also looked at our elderly and others who may not be able to either visit the physical store or access the virtual store. We now also have roving stores which are equipped with security guards and visit various communities across Jamaica to deliver products and services.

 The right thing to do

These measures are driven by a commitment to taking care of each other.

Quite simply – It’s the right thing to do!

We’re also ensuring that we work with our business customers to ensure that they can continue their operations while keeping their teams safe and, where possible, working from home. We are working around the clock to keep businesses connected - from facilitating emergency requests to exploring ways to support industries during this challenging period.

 #OneTeamOneDream

This has been one of the most challenging times for us. The risk is ever present in our minds, but we continue undaunted. And so, I must come back to where we started – our philosophies.

We’ve remained authentic throughout this time. Our team knows that we have their best interest at heart and that we are doing our best to make the right decisions for the business and our customers.

We’ve also ensured that we keep morale high by engaging in several online/virtual activities including: 

• Daily and Weekly check-ins and meetings
• Virtual Lunch & Learn activities
• Online games nights
• And Quaraoke!

But even with that, the isolation is difficult and so we’ve also provided counselling services for those who need that additional support.

 Network Resilience and keeping you connected

So, with all of that said, it would be remiss of me to end without talking about our network. We’re keenly aware of the responsibility that we have, especially during this time. § With the closure of schools and increased number of persons working from home, we’ve seen the high surge in demand for bandwidth. We’ve already put measures in place to extend capacity to respond to the additional demand expected during this period and, will continue to monitor the network to provide a high quality of service to our customers.

There’s been an unprecedented growth in traffic, but we are currently able to meet the additional requirements with our fixed broadband capacity. We will continue to improve our capacity to the extent possible, but if this pace of demand continues some customers may experience a slowdown in speeds. This is not unusual as we’ve seen networks around the world responding in similar ways. Major players such as Netflix, YouTube and Facebook are all responding by lowering the quality of their video to avoid global network congestion.

Now, some customers may have experienced a disruption recently. I want to assure you that this was not related to our network capacity.

In the first instance, we had a software issue with one of our DNS servers which impacted the broadband service of some customers across the country. As such, they were not able to browse online. In the second, we had two acts of vandalism - one in St. Catherine and the other in Montego Bay.

Too much is at stake for these criminals to continue unchecked. Communities are at risk, economic activity is thwarted, and students’ online education stumped.  I want to use this opportunity to ask for your support in this fight. We need to revisit the ban of the scrap metal industry, and amend the legislation which treats with the penalties and jail terms for theft and vandalism of telecommunications infrastructure which is vital on a personal level, on a business level and on a national level.

Our commitment to investing in both our fixed and mobile networks remains unchanged. We have accelerated our investments to increase mobile, network and subsea capacity, and will continue to tightly manage our ongoing projects to mitigate any potential disturbances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

• 20GB Datalink
• Additional LTE sites
• Network expansion

But this will be in vain if we do not treat with the scourge of theft and vandalism. We continue to support our communities as our connectivity services are essential to helping the government, medical facilities, and a variety of critical institutions operating during this challenging time.

 Final Thoughts on Leading During Disruption

I’d like to summarize my thoughts on leading through disruption:

• Stay visible and accessible to your team
• Maintain promises to customers
• Demonstrate empathy to stakeholders – We are in this together
• Continuously review business continuity plans for worst-case scenarios
• Remain positive

Disruption is the present and the future. How you respond may very well determine your survival. We’ve opted to find the opportunity during this time. For us, it’s an opportunity to push the boundary, to innovate, as we continue building our company for the future to better serve you, our customers and meet your needs. We appreciate your loyalty. Thank you again for this opportunity to share with you.