WE'RE GREAT. DON'T LOSE SIGHT OF THAT.

The Great in Great Britain is not there by coincidence.

We have a proven track record of overcoming adversity and you’ll do well not to forget that!

Not only is Great Britain leading the charge in the development of a vaccine to rid this world of Coronavirus, but our economic handling of the crisis, whilst perhaps not faultless, has in my opinion led the way globally.

But of course, this has come at a price and the world will be a different place as we recover from the impact. Despite green shoots of normality peeking through the dark soil, we must all be realistic in acknowledging that change is ahead and perhaps long overdue.

Our front cover is dedicated to former American President John F. Kennedy, who unarguably was an advocate of pioneering and forward thinking. His famous quote should be an inspiration to us all, but a warning to those who choose not to accept change.

We must cut our cloth accordingly, plan for a storm and as business leaders

navigate our businesses through unchartered waters. We really shouldn’t assume that whatever we did yesteryear is fit for purpose for tomorrow – because the likelihood is that this will not be the case.

We’re already seeing analysis of businesses that have invested in digital, versus those who have not, and the results are shocking if perhaps unsurprising. Businesses that have digitalised have performed better than those who have not – including ours.

In 2018, I instigated the digitalisation of our operation, transforming the organisation from a paper heavy one, to paperless. This wasn’t in preparation for a pandemic of course, but it was in recognition that times had changed and technology was leading this shift.

My choice to change resulted in the almost instant mobilisation of our workforce in March, enabling the team to work from home seamlessly.

Without that investment, we would have closed the operation and quite possibly not re-emerged. We definitely

wouldn’t have been there for our industry at a time when we were most needed.

Our old, traditional system was perfectly adequate for the time. It worked fine. It would have been ‘easier’ to stick with it… but something inside me knew that change was necessary. And the rest – well, that is history!

So, my plea to you all is this. Don’t be afraid of change. Change is what humanity does. We face challenges, we overcome challenges and we evolve.

We can do this – we will do this!

The human loss is catastrophic. The financial burden will be unprecedented and the impact that this will have on us all is yet to be known. Whilst I truly believe that we will emerge stronger, we are a long way off the benefits and it’s the decisions we all make over the next few years that will dictate the overall outcome.

Damian Walters BiKBBI CEO