COVID-19: First Be Safe, But Also Be Productive | Sadin on Digital

“Sadin on Digital” episodes explore the fast-changing and high-stakes world of digital business. Wayne Sadin and I focus in particular on what CEOs and boards must do to lead their companies successfully into the Digital Age. Today, we look at Wayne’s suggestions for how businesses should be preparing for COVID-19 and an extended work-from-home period.

Episode 13

In this episode: Wayne shares the guidance that he has put together for his clients around staying productive during the work-from-home period.

Wayne starts off with a critical point: every Googler has a work-designated or work-sanctioned mobile device that they carry with them everywhere. Google’s network has the ability to handle more than 100,000 people working at home. But for construction companies and manufacturing companies for whom 90% of staff works in the office, the disruption caused by COVID-19 precautions is much more abrupt and challenging.

Wayne says people laugh when he comes into a client’s office, because he always comes prepared with a power supply, a spare screen, charging bricks, a battery, and two headsets. But the reality is that it’s naïve to even say that everybody’s got a laptop these days. That’s simply not the case. For example, you don’t need a laptop when you’re an accounts payable person.

So Wayne and I start to dive into what companies that look nothing like Google should be doing to prepare for a work-from-home reality. On the business side, we start with some basics. Are your people aware of how to log in? How about printers? Are your collaboration tools set up for home use? Wayne also goes into a number of questions to ask of your IT team, to keep things running as close to business-as-usual as possible.

Bottom line, Wayne says, is that the coronavirus is the number-one priority. Staying home and staying healthy needs to be prioritized over corporate profits. Wayne says there are going to be companies that emerge from this crisis in better shape. And there are others that are going to fall apart, because they can’t operate in a different model.

The key message to IT: don’t assume the crisis is over until it’s over.

You can also stream the audio-only version of this episode:

Highlights

'We're changing the way we work, and some pundits say there's an opportunity for companies to move from their kind of early two thousands network… into the 2020 world.' #CloudWars #COVID19 Click To Tweet 'This is a different kind of calamity. This is a different kind of continuity issue. And so when I talk to boards, when I talk to CEOs, I always want to say, think about what might afflict you.' #CloudWars #COVID19 Click To Tweet 'Think of this as an organizational change management initiative. And what's the number one thing when we're doing an organizational change? Communication, communication, communication.' #CloudWars #COVID19 Click To Tweet

Thanks for watching! For more like this, we recommend:

View Wayne’s recommendations in written format: The Coronavirus Impact: Optimizing IT/Business Operations

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Follow Wayne on Twitter and LinkedIn for more valuable insights into digital strategy.