“The password is resilience. This emergency has caught us unprepared, as this is the first time we are faced with an event of this scale…
Stefania Maggi
general manager, MAGGI (Certaldo, Florence)
www-maggi-technology.com
- How are you reacting to this emergency?
“The password is resilience. This emergency has caught us unprepared, as this is the first time we are faced with an event of this scale. Day after day, we have seen increasing restrictions and fear of contagion, but after the initial confusion, we have organized to create the necessary conditions to keep working safely. As we guessed that we would be forced to work from home sooner or later, the sales and service departments arranged everything to switch to smart working seven days before the law was passed, with the strong determination to serve our customers until the last shipment, and to support them remotely with any information or service.”
- What do you think is changing or will change radically?
“It was not easy to adapt to the new working conditions, but this situation has forced us to change the way we communicate and keep in touch. During these days, we are exploring the best way to start again, which strategies we should adopt in the future, which marketing and communication initiatives we should carry on. We are also doing some training, attending a program of webinars together with a few collaborators about business management topics: despite big difficulties now and in the near future, we are fighting to get out of this situation and we are doing all we can!
According to experts, we will have to live with this virus for a long time before final solutions are found, although we hope that the emergency can be over in few weeks. Covid-19 will be a turning point for mankind: we well have to adopt a new lifestyle suitable for the new conditions, we will need to avoid or minimize social contacts… I imagine there will be safety protocols to work, travel and make any other activity, similar to what happened in airports after September 11…
For some time, I think that exhibitions will not be attractive for exhibitors and visitors, so if we want to meet customers and show our new products, we will have to leverage advanced technology that so far have not been used by smaller companies.”
- What should the authorities and all of us do?
“Humanity, and most of all the leaders of the planet, have shown no sensibility for the planet we are living on and for the weaker people in the past one hundred years. In my opinion, to survive in this new condition, we will need to change our way of working and living radically, we will have to manage resources differently, respecting other people and the environment where we live… I hope this catastrophe can help us become more ethical and smarter.”
