Big Picture - May 2020 - 14

business + management

Crisis Management
How to keep your business alive during critical times. | by Marty McGhie

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BIG PICTURE

May 2020

y the time you read this, I'm hoping the dramatic

and destructive events resulting from the
COVID-19 pandemic are, for the most part, behind
us. Yet, as I sit today pondering and typing at my
computer on a morning in early April, we're all
currently embroiled in a fierce struggle against both the health
and economic impact resulting from this devastating situation.
So it seems fitting I address the topic of crisis management.
Admittedly, you're likely thinking timing is everything and this
topic would have been nice to address in January. I agree.
Something about 20/20 hindsight comes to mind. However, as
a business leader, you'll likely be in crisis management mode for
the foreseeable months, trying to individually and collectively
recover from this brutal and invasive challenge. It's also
probably fair to assume this might not be the last crisis you'll
have to manage throughout the rest of your business career.
I first learned of the Coronavirus in late January while on
a ski vacation in Japan - a bucket list item my friends and I
planned to celebrate a certain milestone birthday upon
which I choose not to elaborate. One of my buddies on the
trip happens to be a medical doctor and has done extensive
research on the Ebola virus, its effects, the devastating loss it
causes, etc. He was discussing this very topic with us the
day before. At breakfast I was reading news online about the
virus and what they were dealing with in Wuhan, China.
Coincidentally, my friend speaks fluent Mandarin and was
visiting with a family from Wuhan in the hotel lobby just the
day before. Needless to say, he became very concerned and
began following the news carefully. By the time we departed
Japan the virus had become worldwide news. My doctor
friend told us we're all going to wear masks through all of
our connections in the airports until we boarded our final
plane headed for the US. Initially, I rolled my eyes just a little
tiny bit, but deferred to his expertise and we all agreed to his
plan. As you might imagine, by the time we arrived at the

COMMUNICATION
The first significant decision we made as an executive team
was to increase our communication to our employees
dramatically via virtual meetings. Weekly meetings with this

MARTY MCGHIE is CEO/partner of Signs.com, an online provider
of custom signage based in Salt Lake City. You can email him at
martym@signs.com.

14

Tokyo airport at least 80 to 90 percent of the people
traveling through were wearing masks. I had a hunch we
were dealing with something a little more serious, but I truly
had no idea how severe this would be.
I'm sure you all have a story about how you came to learn
of, and eventually understand, the gravity of this pandemic.
It's truly been one of the most unusual circumstances of my
lifetime - and I'm kind of an old man! My approach here is
not to remind us of the tremendous difficulties we've been
dealing with individually, as a nation, and worldwide. My
intent is to share some of the ideas and plans my company
put into place to deal with this crisis. My hope is we can all
learn from this experience, and each other, and develop a
better understanding of how to deal with difficult challenges.
Like all of you, I have high hopes this is a once-in-a-lifetime
crisis we never have to encounter again. However, I'm
equally confident we'll face more difficulties in the future that
will require the best of our leadership skills. So with that, let
me share two important points that will apply to any type of
crisis management you might encounter.
http://www.Signs.com
Big Picture - May 2020

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