After everything that 2020 has been, I wonder what the impact of this year will be on us all.
Will Gen Z’s take on an even more significant commitment to what is right for the earth after seeing what has happened this year?
I hope so.
What about the new, younger, Generation. Are they GenC, Generation Covid? The impact on them has to be the greatest of any age group. “BBC Panorama found people aged 16-25 were more than twice as likely as older workers to have lost their job, while 6 in 10 saw their earnings fall.”
I have heard colleagues in Europe talk about it being like a war where the enemy is invisible, but the impact feels like what we have read war to be all about. What we know war might be like. People are scared shitless of it coming into their family or their home. And for those impacted by the loss of life to this virus… It’s terrible.
Children that have seen a year pass without being in playgrounds with mates, without playing out the last tournament they had trained for years to win, without delivering that performance for the school musical or stepping up to asking a date to go to the dance.
The Workplace
And then there is the place where we spend most of our time – the workplace.
For sure, in the work environment, the desperation to react has seen some exciting outcomes. The good ones have seen teams bond and take on innovation to see what they can do for the good of society and at the most basic level, make a buck to survive.
But some don’t just aim to survive. Some big businesses have taken liberties to resize, deal with underperformers, reach for the supporting hand of government, and then some even fiddle the books to feign a message of underperformance just to pocket some profits.
Not that all big businesses have acted poorly. But, it does seem that a majority have done a pretty shit job supporting their people this year.
Small Business
Then for the small businesses, the ones that ‘have it so easy’ not being in the public eye – they still have it tough… they still have the same pressures, and sometimes they feel it more because they are closer to the ground. Just because they have ‘fewer mouths to feed’ doesn’t make them any less important.
As a small business, we should call out and praise those that have shown CHARACTER throughout this year.
Our own story at Putti has been pretty cool.
What have we done
In Lockdown #1, we developed a mobile offer called “Team Safe” for teams moving to Work From Home to leverage. We landed Fletcher Building as a customer and a few other proactive Kiwi clients.
We hit the media as a business innovating… Story
We got creative on the need for Contact Tracing. We designed a beautiful solution around QR codes that we offered to clubs and charity for free in partnership with Fletcher Building and RetailX, we landed on the front page for organic search globally.
Oh, that’s right; we picked up 3 US and Canadian clients and Ayala in the Philippines. Ayala Corp is a huge conglomerate, and they found us through a Google search for “QR code and contract tracing”… next thing we were on Zoom, and we clicked. They needed a flexible service and a crowd that could move quick! Boom!
We redefined our ways of working with the help from the team after months working from home. The message was that they liked the trust and productivity of working from home while being a team and seeing each other was also really important. We now hit the office Monday and Friday. The rest of the week is up to the individual and what works best for them.
We transitioned our platform, Appranet to Remote Working, and Crisis Management focuses.
We supported some businesses at the centre of the covid fight like EmergencyQ what an incredible team delivering real benefit when it matters.
We landed some fantastic new clients, aligned with us in the view of now is the right time to be courageous. Framecad, TakeABreath, Usshh, Vend Central, McEwen, Suntory Coffee, Bucket, Fletcher Building, Fletcher Living, Enspirement (just wait for it… ) and more.
We kept the fantastic clients that were already with us and flexed with what they needed to keep going to focus on their teams and business. Hirepool, Flatpack, Wendy’s, Usablenet, Just Water, Barbershop, TMS, EmergencyQ and more!
We continued to help the most purposefully driven businesses with our time and expertise though we do wish we could do more for FreeForAll and Organ Donation NZ.
We have taken on new Putti teammates, and we are going to hit 2021 straight in the face!
That’s not bad eh?
This was a year of character building. A year that culture grows around what is already there and becomes something living and robust. We were up for the fight.
As we close out the year, it is time for a bit of indulgence. It’s time to be with friends and family.
But as the rest of the world struggles with COVID, there are those struggling in NZ too. So when you have something that you might not need anymore, please consider joining up to FreeForAll, and gift things that you no longer need.
70% of what ends up in landfills is reusable. Please consider giving before and after Christmas.
Happy Holidays!