Tips from the top

WE ASKED chief executives and business experts for advice on how to get through the next few months. Here’s what they said...

Make every day a Covid day

‘Treat every day as if the pandemic is still here,’ says Graham O’Neill, chief executive of ACIS.

‘Look at how you do things, what you can change, where your vulnerabilities are, and how your strategy fits. Sadly, it is only at times such as now, or during a recession, that many businesses take a good look at themselves.’

Really get to know your customers

‘This pandemic has caused a seismic shift in shopping behaviour and the needs of customers now coming online,’ says Cheryl Calverley, chief executive of mattress group Eve Sleep. ‘So brands should make sure their products, tech and customer experience are absolutely right for the customers of the future, not the past.’

Embrace change

‘Change is always difficult, however when forced upon you, those who embrace change or are agile in their approach will succeed,’ says Dr Tom Quirke, managing director of legal due diligence firm SearchFlow. ‘A challenging market drives experimentation and change, with the desire to find new ways of doing things.’

Be kind

‘I think Covid, and the events of 2020, is giving us all the chance to re-evaluate our core values,’ says Roann Ghosh, founder of social good consultancy Epiphany Ideas. ‘I feel that leaders are prioritising kindness and finally recognising there is a new, more diverse, inclusive way to interact with their team. When we’re all in the same boat of working from home, we’re humanised – you can’t help but see me more for who I really am when our Zoom call is interrupted by my two-year-old, marching in wearing a tutu!’

Connect with your clients

‘The pandemic is a time when you can almost guess what people are going through, and we were able to reassure them,’ says Toks Aruotore, from the Baby Cot Shop. ‘Our clients are either expectant parents or parents of young children; both stages of life come with a level of concern, and the pandemic heightened that. We were able to stay connected and speak to any fears they held.’