"How to Continue Building in a Crisis?"
Opinion: Andreea Strugaru, Co-owner and Marketing Director, KADRA
We are going through a challenging period; our lives have radically changed in just two months, and the outlook remains unclear. Many companies’ activities have been disrupted, some projects are on hold, others have been postponed, and some continue.
At KADRA, we are here, on duty, for our clients and partners. We strive to face all challenges with optimism and confidence, mobilizing today to ensure a better tomorrow. It is not easy, but we trust that we will (re)build together.
Entrepreneurship in a Crisis, Without an Instruction Manual
We quickly realized that decisions made under the impulse of fear are, more often than not, wrong. We knew from the experience of the 2008 crisis that reactive actions are not good for businesses in the medium and long term. The situations are not comparable, but we try to learn wherever we can, because we haven’t received an instruction manual for the current situation.
What did we do at KADRA? We quickly formed a crisis team with whom we had daily meetings in the first few weeks. Very tiring, but useful. Initially, we had to make decisions day by day. Now we have managed to aggregate two working scenarios for 2020, based on which we can make “big” decisions. We understood that no one can predict the future, so we decided that during this initial period, we would manage the crisis in all possible aspects: structural, financial, human resources, sales, and marketing.
In this rather turbulent stage, we will not make major changes within the company, as some could cause irreparable long-term damage. We are currently trying to steer a ship through a storm, but once the waters calm, we will thoroughly revise all plans for 2020 and probably for the first half of 2021.
We Constantly Adapt to the New Reality, But Remain Active
During this period, we had to change our way of working. Some of our colleagues worked from home, and opinions are divided between those who consider it counterproductive and those who managed to adapt.
However, regarding travel between national offices for team meetings, we learned that things work very well online. We are very fortunate to be a country with quality internet services, so many meetings will move online, which will generate significant savings for the company.
We took this opportunity to participate in several interesting webinars, and the positive experience makes me believe that many conferences will move online in the coming period. The ultimate advantage here is the fantastic time saving and the ability to access events from anywhere in the world.
It's Difficult to Work with a Lack of Predictability
The biggest difficulty is the lack of predictability. Economically, you look at revenues and expenses and see where you stand. When revenues decline and no one can estimate them for the next phase, a whole suite of questions arises. As one of the speakers I followed online said, it’s good to treat the business like a start-up and act Agile.
We Remain Active and Strive to Find Engineering Solutions to Current Problems
We have remained active, continuing projects that investors or contractors have not blocked, under maximum safety conditions for our colleagues. We are trying to find engineering solutions to current problems: automatic doors with counters and the possibility of blocking in case of overcrowding in stores/pharmacies, we are studying the possibility of integrating access solutions with thermal scanners in very crowded areas (e.g., airports), etc.
We communicate as much as possible during this period, both with our team and with the construction market. We are looking for opportunities for our business without deviating from what defines us – access engineering. We believe in the automation of all access points, with multiple benefits for people, the most sought-after at the moment being hygiene. And we want to continue building together in this direction.
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