BONUS | Alain Mulder and Bernardin Generalao - Business Continuity in Europe

Contact Alain: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alainmulder/
Contact Bernardin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bgeneralao/

Coronavirus Update from IMA: https://www.imanet.org/about-ima/jeff-thomson-on-the-coronavirus

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Mitch: (00:05)

Hey everyone. Welcome back for another special bonus episode of Count Me In. Over the last few weeks, we have interviewed various IMA staff members from across the globe and shared their perspectives on how business in their region is being handled following disruption of Covid-19. We have heard about business continuity in the Middle East and India, China and now today we are going to share information coming from Europe. Adam spoke with Alain Mulder, Senior Director of Europe, Operations for IMA and Bernardin Generalao, IMA’s Director of Regional Partner Relations. For more global perspectives and business insights. Keep listening as we head over to their conversation now. 

Adam: (00:48)

So we are going through a globally challenging period and with IMA's regional Europe offices based in Amsterdam and Zurich, can you tell us a little bit about how this region is coping with the situation and what are some of the highlights of government level initiatives being taken? 

Alain: (01:04)

Well, let me first say that I hope that you are all safe and taking care of yourself and your family as we beat this COVID-19 crisis. And I also want to express my heartfelt sympathy to all being affected by this pandemic, and also the loved ones of the ones who have left us. So IMA’s approach to this challenge has been simple, to demonstrate social responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of our stakeholders, including our staff, professionals, and students in more than 150 countries, and of course our partners. Before our local governments decided to call a lockdown, we already decided to start working from home and not from the office anymore. So like I said, the wellbeing of our stakeholders is our priority, and in the first week of March, for example, we had many conferences happening across Europe, including Switzerland and France, and we immediately decided to cancel these events to make sure we, our members and stakeholders are all safe. Of course, it is very unfortunate because I was looking forward to these events for months and the teams and speakers put a lot of efforts into the preparations. But we have to take our responsibility during these difficult times. In Europe we currently have approximately 1.1 million COVID-19 cases, and especially Italy and Spain are heavily affected.  We saw most European countries have observed decreases in daily number of newly reported cases in the last two weeks, and as of April 22nd 20 countries had decreasing 40 day instance with 19 countries reporting a current 14 days instance below 50 cases per 100 K population. And although the composition and intensity of implementation for all European countries, entity UK, if we introduce a range of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as stay at home policies, recommended or enforced, alongside other community of physical distancing measures such as the cancellation of mass entering and closure of educational institutions and public spaces to reduce transmission. So while uncertainty remains about the extent to which the combination and intensity of these measures impact transmission in several countries here in Europe, certain measures are associated  created at least temporarily with decreases in the number of newly reported cases at the population level. So also transmission rates within the countries are heterogeneous and even in countries with high incidents of COVID-19, there are areas where sustained community transmission has been halted or strongly reduced, and countries with appropriate measures in place as well as in areas where transmission has declined or remain low probability of infection with COVID-19 is currentlyin his assessed low. And in many European countries we see the early signs of post-lockdown rise in activity and governments are now taking first steps reopening societies and economies. Here in the Netherlands for example, elementary schools were reopened for half of the time, and also other countries are now reopening. 

Bernardin: (04:33)

Well here in Switzerland and an easing of measures in three phases was introduced end of April. So public institutions, schools, private businesses are scheduled to reopen with three-week intervals until mid-June. There are various guidelines and regulations towards social gatherings and onsite events. So similar to most countries, physical distancing measures are highly recommended and also followed by the public. So as Alain mentioned, we have all had to act fast and remain vigilant. Hard to say that any organization was prepared for a pandemic and we are privileged to be at an organization with a high level of readiness for this unusual time of crisis. 

Adam: (05:15)

So as leaders in this region, you guys have had to make some difficult decisions to ensure that business continues and the staff is safe. What have been some of your guiding principles during this challenging time? 

Alain: (05:28)

Well, like I said, the wellbeing of our stakeholders is our priority and our senior leadership and our President & CEO, Jeff Thomson, has been very clear from the beginning, the wellbeing of our stakeholders is our number one priority, and that has always been the guiding principle for me. Safety is above commercialism and therefore we postponed our events across Europe, and we immediately started working from home. We are very fortunate that our organization was well prepared for that, and we used to work from home remotely while traveling and have all the systems in place. 

Bernardin: (06:05)

Well, I couldn't agree more with Alain. As cliche as it sounds, safety first is more prevalent than ever. Worth noting aside from the behavior for organizations, every individual reacts differently to this punctuated equilibrium. Prior to this current situation, there was a relative period of stability contrary to where we are now, where there are periods of rapid change. So for many individuals, this pandemic has been a period of loss, for example, with regards to normalcy, safety and livelihood. So consequently one should be mindful or at least familiarize themselves with the grief cycle from Kubler Ross. The grief cycle is stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and lastly, acceptance. Any individual or organization you're dealing with can be in any one of these stages. So what I'm saying is remember to be empathetic, or more empathetic than usual. 

Adam: (07:05)

I think that's some great advice Bernardin. We're all, we're all dealing with differing levels of that grief cycle as we're dealing with the loss of normalcy and this new normal is taking over. So how has IMA adapted to this new situation of working remotely? I know Alain you mentioned that IMA was very well prepared for that because a number of people do work from home at times, but how else has IMA adapted? 

Bernardin: (07:32)

Well, IMA immediately adapted to the new situation of remote work. So as a global organization we have been monitorin...