Juerg Degenman and Zenaida Romero from Relocation Services Global Colombia and Mudanzas Internacionales Global in Venezuela look at the ways in which COVID-19 has affected their businesses and lessons for the future.
Suddath Chief Information Officer Honoured as a Technology Leader of The Year
Suddath has announced that Chief Information Officer Len O’Neill has been selected as one of the Jacksonville Business Journal’s 2020 Technology Leaders of The Year. O’Neill and other industry leaders are being honoured for their exceptional impact across Jacksonville’s growing technology sector.
OMNI COVID-19 BULLETIN – SOUTH AFRICA
Charl Pienaar, looks at the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic affected Stuttaford Van Lines in South Africa, and takes a glimpse into the future.
It was on the 5th March that South Africa was put under total lockdown. We were not considered to be an essential service, so the business was completely closed for 41 days. We opened again on 7th of May. It’s ironic that, when we closed we only had 1 case of COVID-19 in the country, now we have had 216,000 cases, are nearing the peak of the virus, and are back working normally, with the obvious precautions. Fortunately for us, we are a very young nation with only 5% of the population being over 60.
It’s been difficult and still is. The borders are still closed and there are no international flights other than for repatriation. It’s very difficult to get bookings on vessels. China was our biggest trading partner so, now there are fewer inbound vessels, outbound space is at a premium. It’s an awkward situation.
OMNI COVID-19 BULLETIN – THE NETHERLANDS
Wouter Hijzen, Managing Director of De Haan in The Netherlands, looks at the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected his business and lessons for the future COVID-19 is not the first crisis we’ve seen since our company was formed in 1777. It probably won’t be the last either. The first contract we signed was with the Emperor Napoleon and, over the years, we have seen our fair share of good times and bad. But we survived and we fully intend to be here in another 250 years.
OMNI COVID-19 BULLETIN – INDIA
Al Mithal looks at the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected his business and lessons for the future.
It’s been approaching three months since India went into one of the strictest lockdowns seen anywhere in the world and, for me, the strain is beginning to tell. Not so much for the business, which is getting by, but personally. As someone who has spent most of the last 40 years travelling to conferences and visiting clients, I do feel that I am getting a little stir crazy.
We didn’t expect this. From 24th March nobody was allowed to go to work (unless they were an essential business), and we were confined to our houses, not even able to go out for essential supplies, they were all delivered to us. My wife, my elderly mother and I have been isolated in our 15th-storey condominium in Delhi. Just how many books can you read and how much Netflix can you watch?
OMNI COVID-19 BULLETIN – ITALY
Renata and Laura Busettini from Vinelli and Scotto in Italy look at the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their business in one of the worst hit regions of Europe
OMNI COVID-19 BULLETIN – THE NETHERLANDS
Robert Voerman talks about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected his business what the future possibly holds
We first realised we had a problem in mid-March. The government put a lockdown in place on Sunday night and we had to quickly work out how to get everyone working from home. Of course, home working works better for some than others, so we had to work out what was best for each individual, As we have experience with working from home in our offices in Eastern Europe & Africa we were able to switch quickly to this new way of working in The Netherlands. Key has been the technology of RedSky which enables us to all work from home.
OMNI COVID-19 BULLETIN – BRAZIL
Laura Ganon from Fink in Brazil looks at the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected her business and lessons for the future.
COVID-19 has been tough for Brazil; workers here have little choice but to use public transport and people in general aren’t too concerned about the whole community. It’s a difficult culture. This makes it hard to impose any kind of quarantine measures. Our government can’t control crime, health and the safety of the general population, so how can we control a situation like this?
In Brazil transport is an essential service so we were always allowed to operate legally. And we had a contingency plan, but I never expected it to include something like this.
OMNI COVID-19 BULLETIN – MEXICO
Wake-up Call
Travelling back from Asuncion after LACMA convention was cancelled halfway was indeed a wake-up call for the global threat and seriousness of COVID-19 pandemic.
Monday 16th of March first thing in the office we moved quickly to purchase and equip our teams with face masks, gloves, and antibacterial gel. Meanwhile our government and president were minimizing the threat. The lack of leadership from the government was making global headlines. It forced the private sector to mobilize quickly and independently. Trafimar did not hesitate. While logistics and moving services were considered essential and could continue to operate, we always regarded the safety of our staff as a priority.
OMNI COVID-19 BULLETIN – Seoul, South Korea
Gus Sunwoo looks at the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected Asian Tigers South Korea and lessons for the future.
It really started to kick off here on February 26th. The numbers just kept increasing every day and by March 1st we had over 1000 cases a day. It turned out that was the peak, but we didn’t know that at the time.
I was terrified because I had to travel to the LACMA conference in Paraguay and Korea was the number one country (except China) for COVID-19 infections. I had to travel through several different countries to get to Paraguay and the looks I got at the airport was something else. By the time the conference was finished, on March 9th, I couldn’t wait to get back home because everywhere else was being infected. South Korea by then was back to the lowest point: it went up very fast and came down very fast.