Supporting each other during a pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has arrived with such stunning force that it’s hard to believe how different life was just a few weeks ago. Although the virus is in different stages across the globe, it’s having the same impact on businesses everywhere – disruptive and, in some cases, destructive.

Many businesses are focused on ‘just surviving,’ and those that do may find their resources so depleted that innovating and competing in the post-COVID environment will be a challenge. Although other businesses have a balance sheet that will allow them to weather this storm, this does not automatically mean the right choices will be made during and after the crisis.

We are fortunate at lululemon to have a strong balance sheet, liquidity and strong momentum before our store closures occurred. However, we are not taking anything for granted. While there’s no roadmap, we established three key principles to guide us through these uncertain times: support our people, strike the right balance, and continue to invest.

As considerations for other leaders, here are my thoughts on these key principles:

• Support our people. This extraordinary time requires leaders to act with empathy and compassion, and to understand how COVID-19 is impacting us all. At lululemon, our success has been driven by our relationship between our educators (our store associates) and our guests (customers). Our culture is rooted in personal development, and our people care deeply about our purpose and values. This grounded us in our actions to support our people by keeping all employees – from our stores to head offices to distribution centres – on our payroll through June 1, and providing grants to our Ambassadors, our key partners who run fitness studios. We also increased our investment in, and the frequency of, online development programs for employees to continue to grow and learn.
• Strike the right balance. Early on, we established two phases of our business planning: a support phase and a recovery phase. We began the support phase by evaluating our operating model and resetting plans for the year, including our strategic priorities, managing expenses, and inventory, to name just a few. With these plans in place, we began to shift our attention to planning for the recovery phase. We know our stores will re-open – but how to effectively operate and re-gain momentum post-crisis is completely new territory. Getting a fast start will be critical, and what worked before won’t necessarily work the same on day one. It’s important to strike the right balance in terms of timing, with the goal of creating share of mind and focus across the organization to both navigate the storm and be ready for what lies ahead and beyond COVID-19. This uncharted territory is a crucial business challenge, and planning needs to be taking place now.
• Continue to invest. It is likely that consumers will adopt new behaviours going forward. We expect guests will return to their routines over time, but newly discovered habits are likely to remain. Online shopping will continue to grow, as will the digital sweatlife – the popular online workouts and meditation classes we are offering during this time. In addition, I feel people will be eager to connect physically again – to go shopping, to see people, and to touch product. So, what will be different? Many consumers will carry forward their online habits, but this will only be a part of the equation. The winning formula lies within creating a distinctive and unique experience, with physical and fully integrated digital offerings. It’s just one of the many reasons we’re continuing to invest, and test and learn, as we prepare to live into a new COVID-19 world.

There is no playbook for what we’re all facing, but we each have an opportunity to create our own playbook. My advice to leaders is to do your best to lead through these times with clarity, empathy and optimism, while planning for the near and long-term.