What organizations can learn from the global pandemic?

This unprecedented situation we are in has forced us to revisit aspects we had come to take for granted: how we communicate, keep employees engaged, serve our clients, and maintain relationships.

When China was placed under lockdown, travel curbed, and people asked to work from home, we realized that the situation might escalate anytime and other countries might be forced to take similar measures. Keeping in mind the safety of over 1000 employees spread across offices in London, Princeton, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Aarhus, it was decided to experiment with a work-from-home arrangement in a phase-wise manner across locations. A secondary objective of the experiment was to gauge the operations readiness of all functions—we wanted to ensure that we continued to meet our commitment to our clients across 190 countries, most of whom are researchers and who probably are on the frontline in the fight against the outbreak.

The pilot proved to be a boon. In no time, several other countries had decided to implement lockdowns when the number of COVID-19 cases started increasing. The pilot had helped identify infrastructural gaps that were promptly resolved and ensured that the move to a work-from-home setting was smooth.

Over subsequent weeks, HR and the leadership teams put in place several measures to ensure business continuity and that employees had access to correct information and didn’t feel isolated. We believe our learnings and observations may help other global organizations deal with similar situations now and in the future.

The following articles by leaders across CACTUS locations and functions contain insights on leadership, empathy, team building, and customer focus, aspects that have more currency now than ever before.

1. Managing Your Emotions As You Deal with This Crisis: Notes from the CEO – Abhishek Goel, CACTUS Co-founder and CEO
2. How CACTUS Responded to the COVID-19 Crisis: Foresight and Empathy – Yashmi Pujara, Chief Human Resources Officer
3. Dealing with a Global Pandemic: What the World Can Learn from South Korea – Basil D’souza, President, South Korea
4. Working Around a Crisis: Lessons from Japan – Makoto Yuasa, Country Director, Japan
5. Making the Most of a Difficult Situation: Views from China – Frank Xu, Managing Director, Greater China
6. Bringing Two Cultures Together in the Middle of the Global COVID-19 Outbreak: Thoughts from Denmark – by Thomas Laursen, Country Director, Denmark