covid crosses boundaries

Ten months ago, borders closed overnight. Covid locked us in. No more flights, no more conferences, no more business miles, no more vending machine coffee. Our world became a mini island, with a furious storm raging outside. 

What happened too: we had different kinds of encounters. Google Meet and Zoom ensured that we could meet up in a split second, and location became an unimportant concept. Suddenly Berlin, Madrid, and New York were just as far away as the neighbors. Covid sped up the creation of a platform through which we could work just as easily in Germany, France, Ireland, and the US, as here, below sea level. Using a universal language, ‘Covid English,’ that made collaboration a lot easier. And it turned out that having your office Christmas party, or your lunch, or your coffee break online is just as much fun. Having those in real life will always be a great option, and now we have a very good alternative to add to it. We wonder how things would have turned out roughly 15 years ago...

And so, faster than we could ever dream of, we are now building international networks for both our customers and ourselves at lightning speed. In less than a year, we ended up having colleagues in Germany, Spain, Italy, UK, France, and the US. Covid is a horror, but its impact also offers opportunities. For us, for you, for every organization. Take, for instance, the concept of the inclusive workplace. These times give you the opportunity to be more diverse than ever. Working online eliminates thresholds and borders, literally and figuratively. It has become a lot easier to work with colleagues from all over the world. And because being in the office physically is becoming less and less necessary, people who were not participating have more chances to do so. People with physical impairments, for instance. They don’t have to get into poorly accessible buildings anymore, as they can participate from home (perhaps with some adjustments).

Together we can enable these people to actually seize the opportunities they are offered. Shall we?

 
On January 14, 2021, we placed a page-long ad in FD. You can find it below.