We’ve all read the articles on smart organizations that have pivoted and re-invented themselves during the pandemic over the last few months. Maybe you work for one of those companies, represent one of those brands, or are in leadership at one and were part of the change. Perhaps you were a part of an organization that DIDN’T find a new way of doing business over the last few months and have seen missed opportunities.

Whatever position you’re in, we’ve all learned that the status quo no longer applies, and to be successful in a post-pandemic world businesses need to change.

In addition to the obvious need for an organization to be flexible and forward-thinking, something FAULHABER had in place pre-pandemic that helped guide us as a service organization is The Faulhaber Way – our values. Here’s how being entrepreneurial-minded, focusing on relationships, taking a customized approach and staying polished helped us stay strong and succeed over these last few months.

1. Think like an entrepreneur 

During a crisis, you have to keep the wheels moving.

Our founder and president has injected her entrepreneurial mindedness into our organization. So much so, that it’s one of our core values. We love having the opportunity to work with entrepreneurs, and we approach all our client work with that mentality.

We saw the pandemic as an opportunity – to bring to life some big ideas we had, to think outside the box and actually activate those concepts, and to strengthen our digital integration. We used any extra time we had in our days to learn, grow and brainstorm. We had team brainstorms daily for the first while, that led to services we now have in place, including FConsults, our Virtual FSHOPPE and virtual event offerings. 

Our never-ending new ideas not only kept up our energy and our passion but helped us find new ways of doing business. A bonus? Our whole team was a part of this! 

2.The power of relationship

Do not be afraid to utilize your networks.

We have always placed a strong focus on developing strong relationships with our network, whether that means media, tastemakers and influencers, clients or potential team members. One of the first questions we asked ourselves when COVID-19 started was, “who do we need to connect with?” Knowing that we don’t have all the answers put us on an expanded journey of information gathering. We stayed in touch with fellow agencies, joined seminars our clients had recommended, and found out what our media were working on and how we could help – or how they could help us!

We’re all in this together!

We took the approach that we wanted to help support all the “cogs in the wheel of PR” – meaning, in order for us to be successful, we need our media publications, vendors, freelancers and content creators to be successful as well. We have continued to stay in close touch with our networks to find ways we can support each other so that we can all come out of the pandemic strong (FConsults resulted from this).

Taking care of your team relationships is an essential glue to navigating a shift in doing business.

Not only do we prioritize having some of the best relationships in the industry, but it’s also important to maintain those relationships – outside AND inside our organization. Since the start of the pandemic and everyone working from home, and still ongoing, we connect as a team via video EVERY day. This has really helped us stay connected. We chat everything from what’s happening with work to what movies we watched. Our senior management also checks in on us regularly to see how we’re individually dealing with a pandemic.

3.Take a customized approach

There is no one size fits all when it comes to PR!

If there is one thing we can all take away from this season, it’s that “business as usual” does not apply. Much of what worked before has no place in our post-COVID-19 world. We at FAULHABER have never followed a standard approach. We take pride in the fact that we customize the strategies we offer our clients – we believe there is no one size fits all when it comes to PR!

Having this mentality already in place internally really helped us accept the new world we’re living in and made it easier to adapt. Just like when we get a new client, we started with fresh ideas of how to navigate operating a business in a pandemic world. We didn’t focus on “how will we do XYZ” but took the approach of what new strategies can we develop? It was out with the old and in with the new, and we embraced it because it’s how we’ve always worked.

4.Maintain your polish

Whatever course of action we take, from a simple internal presentation to a new client pitch, we do it with polish. It’s easy in the chaos of a pandemic to let go of the finer details – from fonts to formatting, wardrobe to presentation skills. However, we didn’t throw this to the wind, even when it was challenging. Maintaining pride in the work we did, investing in internal training to better our skills and how we presented ourselves (virtually of course!) helped us keep up not only a sense of normalcy but also kept our brand strong. It’s in the details!

Does your organization follow a values system? We’d love to hear from you! Connect with us on social media @faulhabercomm.