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...