CEO lessons post-lockdown: What stays and what goes?

In a whirlwind of weekly events, they lost control over their lives. Their staff were not spared. Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), who thrive on predicting future business environment were left at the mercy of hour-long Presidential addresses, soon after the Coronavirus pandemic hit Uganda.
They watched and listened as decisions on travel and operation were made by the President.
Coronavirus had made its debut, forcing many top executives to invoke a two-month lockdown period for their employees.
For the next eight weeks, Mr Wim Vanhelleputte, MTN chief executive officer, would work from home four out of the five days of his billable time.
He only left his house when he had to attend a meeting or engage in an outdoor company activity. It was a learning curve dotted with discoveries and reflectable moments.

“You are busier working from home than in the office. I still haven’t figured out why. From one Teams meeting to another. We wanted to do it such that we do not feel idle at home,” he says.
The meetings among staff during lockdown were more organised.
Meetings were moved online, small talk around the office and coffee machines were eliminated.
Timekeeping got better while productivity was boosted.
However, service centres lost productivity because of reduced personal interaction and curfew.

At the same time, working from home paled the light shade on the realities of life’s inequality.
“...Not everyone is privileged. You ask your staff to work from home using their laptop but then later on, they are not available. You later realise that he does not have electricity,” he says explaining that the company quickly identified some of those gaps and addressed them.

Manufacturers
Pepsi Uganda chief executive officer Mr Paddy Miramira learnt that he had very supportive staff.
They were willing to be housed at the factory \to continue working despite the limitation in movement and 7p.m curfew.
“We operated despite the hardships. We had to house people. Staff were willing to work extended hours when there was no one to relieve them,” he says.
Like most businesses this season, sales did not reciprocate the vigor displayed by the employees.

Salary cuts, loss of jobs, and closure of businesses affected disposable income and eventually volumes of beverages purchased.
Glass bottled sodas suffered the most.
“Sales volumes went down but we believe they will return to normal. Glass bottled sodas suffered the most because people would need to leave a deposit to go with the bottle,” he explains.

Pepsi, however, had the cheat codes when it came to adjusting to working from home.
The beverage company according to the CEO already had an in-house online chatting system amongst the staff.
It only needed to be enhanced to accommodate third parties.
In the case of Quality chemicals (Cipla), the costs to continue operating increased.
The drug manufacturer had to provide masks, sanitisers, transport and accommodation in the guest house for those that lived very far.

Technology
Ride hailing application, SafeBoda lost 90 per cent of its business in a day.
President Museveni banned passenger movement on motorcycles.
Without grounds for negotiation, Ricky Rappa, SafeBoda founder had to focus on the package delivery aspect of the application.
“We realised we were not paying a lot of attention to the delivery aspect of our business which is a potential revenue stream even post covid,” he says.

Tourism
In the spirit of diversification, Mr Amos Wekesa, chief executive officer Great Lakes Safaris, one of the hardest hit sectors by Covid-19, is investing in agro-processing.
The awakening came after Covid-19 suffocated the respiratory organs of his tour company.
Earlier in February, his plans were to hire more people as the tourism business was growing by 30 per cent.
“Good thing is we were not indebted, if we had big loans, they would have taken down the business,” he says.
The tourism industry which is accustomed to attracting foreign tourists is now strategising to look at ways of attracting the domestic market.
“We are doing a lot of domestic promotion to attract the domestic tourists. We are starting a drive,” Mr Wekesa says.

Shifts expected to stay
Winston Churchill once said; “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
Different international companies during the lockdown announced that they would permanently shift to the mode of working from home for some of their staff as it is convenient.
The strategy raised a lot of dust amongst the working community prompting a court ruling in Switzerland that employers would need to contribute to employees’ rental costs if they worked from home.
While that topic would be bone of contention among CEOs, there was a general consensus about use of virtual tools going forward.
Mr Vanhelleputte believes that social interaction is important for the human race and cannot be erased.

The company is therefore embracing both virtual as well as physical interactions.
“I do not think that in the long term we shall all be working from home. I don’t believe that. As human beings we still need social interaction. We will continue with more virtual engagements that is for sure going to remain. We shall still have face to face interactions and meetings but also virtual interactions because they are convenient,” he says.
Mr Mathias Katamba, chief executive officer dfcu bank says greater usage of digital must continue.

“That is something banks have taken steps already to progress and stay on course. Then how to teach our people how to create learning organizations such that learning doesn’t happen because of events like a pandemic,” he forecasts.
Despite the effectiveness of accommodating staff at work premises, Mr Miramira says, it cannot be a continuing strategy.
“No, it cannot happen. It is only during such pandemics. It would be a big sacrifice from staff because it is not convenient. You cannot manage people with their families at their place of work,” he strongly opines.

Business continuity
Mr Nevin Bradford, Cipla CEO says; “It focuses on everyone’s business continuity plans and how to keep the business going in case of an emergency. So now we are fine-tuning and completing the business plan that can also address any other major challenge.”

Maximise virtual connectivity to deliver

Business continuity.
In Ms Sarah Arapta, Citi bank’s chief executive’s experience, working from home can be just as productive as long as there is a conducive environment.
She says regardless of the constraints brought by the lockdown, the bank remained productive.
“It is always important to have robust business continuity plans which has allowed us adapt to working from home,” she says.
She further explains, “The virtual connectivity with clients and the robust technology infrastructure made working from home a seamless and productive experience.”

The new normal
Now that the world has changed, just about everyone must find their footing with a new normal.
Some people will make working from home the norm and others will be rendered jobless after their employers fail to return to business or realise they can do without them.
Mr Wim Vanhelleputte, MTN chief executive officer, believes that social interaction is important for the human race and cannot be erased.