Virtual reality is socially acceptable and permeates everything: "New normal" in family businesses in 2022
How is the Corona pandemic changing our corporate and working world? In a "backward forecast", we look for initial answers. Concrete. Creative. And actionable for today.
In a thought experiment, let's imagine a future situation in the summer of 2022. Let's say Thursday, August 11. It is afternoon. The weather is nice. And we look back on the last 2.5 years, in which the coronavirus has shaken up so many things in our lives.
In year 1 after the Corona crisis
We ask ourselves: How does it compare today with the past, when we didn't know anything about Covid-19? What has changed? What new territory have we entered? Where have we evolved? What practices that we once thought were impossible have we been able to integrate into our daily lives without any effort at all?
We realize: a lot has happened. Each of us has entered new territory. In the family, among friends, and at work. The compulsion to change has uncovered many operational opportunities. We can do things faster, more creatively and more efficiently than we thought. Now we need to seize the strategic opportunities as well.
Part 1 - Social Distancing: Virtual Reality is socially acceptable and permeates everything
It's 3:23 p.m. I'm sitting on our balcony at home in the shade and clicking my smartphone into the VR mask for the upcoming meeting. As spokesperson for the Shareholders' Committee, I have - as always - invited the Supervisory Board and the CEO to jointly review our key performance indicators and planning assumptions. After six months of practice, my nervousness about VR meetings has largely subsided.
I check the VR goggles and enter our protected virtual reality meeting room in the next moment. I am the first person in the cozy, old parlor of a mountain farm in Vorarlberg. I still have to smile that, with all the digitalization, it was precisely this romantic retro motif that won the last ideas competition among our employees. But it fits in well with us and our commitment to tradition and down-to-earthness.
I wonder about my steep learning curve. It started with wild improvisation. When we started organizing web meetings and WhatsApp groups right away - from home and sometimes without a good Internet connection. Without this leap, I wouldn't be using VR glasses today as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
I am pleased that our VR initiative launched at the beginning of 2021 has not only strengthened our compliance with social distancing regulations, but also upgraded our operational capability in the event of a crisis. And along the way, we were even able to noticeably and permanently improve our carbon footprint. In the meantime, even the "mileage collectors" at our company appreciate it when they lose less of their life and working time to travel. Like me, many have become accustomed to spending more time at home and with their families.
The creaking of an old floorboard on the porch announces a new participant. It is our CEO and Chairman of the Board, who is currently on an exhausting trip abroad and has become a pro at shimmying from quarantine zone to quarantine zone. We shake hands warmly as we greet each other. The sensory glove that we have been using as a pilot for a few weeks now conveys the hands-on character of my counterpart one-to-one. We are full of beans. In the next one and a half days, we want to discuss a lot and work intensively together at our "strategic lookout hut. Together, we go through our agenda once again, which is stored in our "governance cloud.
Now the six members of the Supervisory Board enter the room, the Chairman here first as well. Some things remain unchanged. I have to grin. After a personal and casual greeting, I open our meeting.
Authors:
Christian Schiede has been advising and assisting entrepreneurial families and family businesses to strengthen cohesion, increase competitiveness and secure value since 2003. Contact: www.schiede.com; schiede@shpadvisors.com
Bastian Schneider has been helping entrepreneurs and management teams strengthen their brands from within and lead their organizations and businesses into the future from this perspective since 2000. In more than 30 industries. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Contact: www.brandleadership.ch; bastian.schneider@brandleadership.ch
