BUSINESSAgenda CASE STUDY
OVERCOMING COVID-19: NECESSITY AS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION Speaking of the ways in which the global pandemic has brought about unprecedented changes in how a vast majority of companies operate, CEO and Managing Director of STM Malta Deborah Schembri discusses how COVID-19 has tested companies’ resilience with Sarah Micallef, and how ultimately, in every challenge lies an opportunity. “Today’s CEOs are faced with uncharted waters as they continue to navigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” begins Deborah Schembri, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of STM Malta. “Out of necessity, CEOs have prioritised the ‘now’, focusing on supporting their people, customers and suppliers, and orchestrating responses to supply chain disruption. In parallel, leaders have sought to stabilise revenues and take care of customers, to reshape their businesses to align with evolving demand and find new growth pathways,” she says. And, now, those same leaders are rapidly turning their attention to the ‘next’: “a period of unpredictable and possibly muted economic recovery which will raise new competitive threats and opportunities at great speed.” What follows, Ms Schembri maintains, will not be a return to pre-COVID business practices, but rather “a new era defined by fastchanging shifts in cultural norms, societal values and behaviours, such as increased demand for 66 | SUMMER ISSUE
responsible business practices and renewed brand purpose.” Indeed, with over 20 years’ experience across several industries, in which she formulated new strategic directions and implemented changes within both local and international companies, Ms Schembri believes that there are important lessons to be taken away, post-COVID. Referencing the urgency and complexity tied to the reopening of businesses, Ms Schembri maintains that a programme of reinvention can outmanoeuvre the uncertainty. “This presents an opportunity and a need for many companies to build the competences they wish they’d invested in before: to be more digital, data-driven, and in the cloud; to have more variable cost structures, agile operations and automation; to create stronger capabilities in e-commerce and security. This agility will be core to the long-term capabilities they build. Leaders should consider the steps they take to reopen as the first in a long journey of wider transformation,” she asserts.
Noting that a typical crisis will play out over three timeframes – “respond, in which a company deals with the present situation and manages continuity; recover, during which a company learns and emerges stronger; and thrive, where the company prepares for and shapes the ‘next normal’” – Ms Schembri maintains that CEOs have the substantial and added responsibility to nimbly consider all three timeframes concurrently and allocate resources accordingly. “Within the framework of these broad imperatives, resilient leaders can take specific tactical steps to elevate these qualities during the current crisis, blunting its impact and helping their organisations emerge stronger,” she says, affirming that, with the right approach, the crisis brought about by the pandemic can become an opportunity to move forward and create more value and positive societal impact rather than just bouncing back to the status quo. Asked about the strategic changes that companies should be making, Ms Schembri believes that the coronavirus outbreak has forced companies to move at an unprecedented speed to serve their customers with quality, while caring for their employees with compassion. “Companies are reevaluating how contact centres are leveraged, how employees deliver relevant customer experiences, where they work, and how digital channels can be used to support business continuity through the crisis and beyond,” she says. “The pandemic has forever changed our experiences – as customers, employees, citizens, humans – and our attitudes and behaviours are changing as a result,” the CEO attests, adding that the result is a fundamental change in how and what consumers buy, and an acceleration of structural changes in the consumer goods industry, for example. “Once the immediate threat of the virus has passed, companies will need to consider the impact of these changes on the way we design, communicate, build and run the