Key Takeaways from Briq’s COVID-19 & Construction Panel Discussion OH&S Occupational Safety and Health | 02.06.2020 By Raul Chacon There has been a ton of uncertainty surrounding the
collapse. He stressed that unlike those two events, the banks
Coronavirus pandemic that is currently shutting down the
were in strong financial standing prior to the shutdowns and
entire continental United States and the information seems
are “not going to walk away from credit lines.” He said that
to be changing by the minute. To help navigate your
the difference between a deep recession versus a shallow
construction businesses through this mess, the team at Briq
depression will be the ability to help small businesses recover.
hosts an expert panel discussion yesterday titled “The War Room: A Construction Disaster Preparedness Panel.” Moderated by the CEO of Briq, Bassem Hamdy, the panel featured: • Moti Jungreis, Vice Chair and Head of Global Markets, TD Securities • Cal Beyer, Vice President, Workforce Risk and Mental Well-being, Cobb Strecker Dunphy Zimmerman (CADZ)
LEARNING FROM THE PAST James Benham talked about his experiences navigating through the 2001 and 2008 downturns and stressed the need to trim non-essential expenses in order to retain critical staff through your hardest times. His number one rule of business is to just survive and to find a way to keep your business operating, which could mean pivoting into different, but related, work, like service work instead of new builds.
• James Benham, CEO, JBKnowledge
WORKING REMOTELY
I want to give a brief overview of the discussions that took
Being a technology guru, Benham also shared insights on
place, but you can watch the full replay of the hour long discussion on Briq’s website here: https://www.br.iq/the-warroom-panel
OVERALL EFFECT ON THE ECONOMY Jungreis led off the discussion by explaining the overall impact the pandemic has had on the economy so far, drawing comparisons to the post-9/11 recession and the 2008 housing
the best practices for working remotely and some readily available software to help get you through it. Programs like Microsoft Teams, Slack, WhatsApp, and Zoom will help keep your teams in productive communication while working remotely. He says that his favorite app for internal meetings is Teams, whereas he prefers Zoom for external meetings. WhatsApp is his favorite for mobile.
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