By José Ángel de la Paz

In the midst of the abrupt change of plans due to the COVID-19 crisis, companies have taken on the responsibility of prioritizing their employees' health.

Experts from academia, consulting and industry discussed this issue in the webinar “The dilemma of COVID-19 as a threat to the organization's well-being”, from EGADE Business School’s webinar series “Rising to the challenge: Leadership in the face of COVID-19”.

“If we go back to the start of 2020, we had plans which, over the last few weeks, have changed drastically; today the priorities have changed,” said Alejandro Olivera, associate dean of Lifelong Learning at the Undergraduate School of Business at Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Gabriela Garcia, senior vice president of Human Resources at PepsiCo Alimentos Mexico, said that COVID-19 has changed the way companies work.

“2020 started like any other year, with business challenges, growth targets in sales and market share, plans to boost our staff's development, and suddenly this is forcing us to redefine our priorities,” he said.

García noted that this global food and beverage company is now focused on building on the lessons learned in China and Europe as a result of the pandemic, in order to strengthen the safety of its employees

Meanwhile, Mauricio Reynoso, CEO at AMEDIRH, mentioned that in view of the constant evolution of the COVID-19 crisis, organizations face the challenge of first ensuring the safety of their staff.

“This contingency has also taught us how to be agile, an ability we have found in ourselves and in our work teams, in order to find solutions faster without losing contact with our scenario,” he said.

Juan Pablo Ventosa, CEO at Human Performance, said that with millions of people in quarantine and working from home, the contingency has made companies aware of how much they depend on technological resources to ensure business continuity.

“If a computer virus were to bring down the Internet right now, how would it change our world? We need to be prepared for the new normal or we will hardly return to the circumstances to which we were accustomed,” he noted.

WATCH THIS WEBINAR HERE

The upcoming scheduled webinars of this series are:

Wednesday, April 22: A conversation with inspirational leaders to help address the pandemic. With:

• Ivan Lansberg, Co-Founder and Senior Partner of Lansberg, Gersick and Associates (LGA).
• Susana Coppel, President of the Coppel Community Foundation and member of the Board of Directors of Grupo Coppel.
• María Fonseca (moderator), Head of the Institute of Family Businesses for Mexico and Latin America at Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Friday, April 24: Guidance on how to find solutions using the Family-Business system. With:

• Susanne Grimm, Board Member at Estafeta Mexicana.
• Oscar Howell, Author and Founding Partner of LFE Windward.
• Fernando Sandoval Arzaga (moderator), Associate Director of the Institute of Family Businesses for Mexico and Latin America at Tecnológico de Monterrey.

All of these webinars will take place at 1:00 p.m. (GMT-6). You can catch the previous webinars here.