For Lockdown Day 8, here’s an inspirational message from our MD, Martin:
Dear Placement Partner family,
The recent worldwide lockdown has had a drastic effect on businesses and the people operating within them. There is plenty of uncertainty fueled by the constant barrage of news surrounding this flu-like virus and what its doing to the global economy. On the positive side, we’ve recently seen many of our Placement Partner clients take this opportunity to focus their operations and use their online system as it was initially intended. I’ve had a number of meetings and online sessions with many companies during this lockdown and I can clearly identify two opposing points of view. On one side, we have companies who see this as an opportunity to maximise their efforts on priming top candidates and clients for action post lockdown and on the other side, we have the group who are preparing to throw in the towel and give up the fight… Fortunately, the latter group is in the minority and incidentally, they’ve also been operating for a relatively short time.
Many of you may remember the challenges SA businesses experienced during the 2008/2009 recession and a lot of you will also recall that straight after this period, many businesses experienced their strongest growth. The main point I’m trying to make here is that all major events do eventually pass and the companies who are most likely to benefit are the ones who are best prepared to continue at full speed.
There is a very fitting analogy that comes to mind, which I’d like to share with you: In motorsport racing, accidents and track incidents are usually accompanied by the deployment of a safety car. This forces the competitors to slow down behind the safety car and regroup. Some competitors will use this opportunity to make a necessary pit stop to refuel and fit some fresh rubber without sacrificing the precious time this exercise would cost during race time. Those same competitors will also ensure they remain alert and ready to pounce the moment the safety car pulls back into the pits. Naturally, they’ll be in the best position to gain a substantial advantage over their fellow racers, who perhaps decided not to use the downtime to prepare themselves and their cars for maximum attack.
The end result of many races in motorsport can be decided and altered during the safety car downtime period. The current national lockdown is our safety car period. Prepare wisely and be alert and ready to strike when this period is over! We expect to see teams powered by Placement Partner surging ahead of the field when that happens!
Yours in gaining the competitive advantage during lockdown.
Martin Venkov
Managing Director
Placement Partner
