A small enterprise engaged in the business of preparing aspiring professionals for board examinations attempted to engage in ISO Certification in 2019. The company was very ambitious to take the road that even many educational institutions fell short of achieving. But it dared itself and its management to take the road to ISO Certification. And it became successful. It was the first business of its kind to have been awarded the seal of quality based on the international standards of ISO 9001:2015.
The ISO Certification of the company was due for surveillance audit in June 2020—the peak of the pandemic experience. Its President and CEO prioritized the mental health of its people and navigated the business to survive the pandemic instead of the scheduled audit. His team was reluctant to postpone the required audit to maintain the ISO certification, but all that the founder wanted was to ensure that the company could survive the biggest blow in its 13 years of existence—the cancellation of all board examinations by the Professional Regulation Commission. Without examinations, who will take review classes? Then how can a review center survive?
The company digitally transformed, nevertheless, and pivoted to create more products. From five program offerings during the pre-Covid period, the company now has 25 programs to offer. It has launched 10 new books in 2020, much more than the total number of books it has ever published in a decade. It has conducted countless webinars and learning sessions on international and national topics of interests attended by hundreds of thousands of diverse audiences. It has innovated itself to engage in services that it didn’t offer prior to the pandemic. It is now able to manage virtual events of various national organizations, launched its own digital television programs through its cumulative one million social media followers, and produced films and productions. It has helped schools and trained thousands of teachers in digital learning and developed its own learning management system. It has retained its social relevance through many socio-civic engagements and many advocacies.
The work-from-home set up enabled its people to optimize productivity and exhibit lifelong learning through its quick adoption of technology on how the company operates and delivers its services. With minimal rate of attrition, the company has kept its people and sustained its existence, ready for the future.
There are three concepts that could have contributed to how the company has tactically survived and strategically thrived through the rough seas of the pandemic. These are quality, agility and tenacity. The quality is its input, agility is its process, and tenacity is in its output.
Recently, the company passed the ISO surveillance audit with flying colors, and more than ever is ready for its post-pandemic existence.
Indeed, being in the same storm does not guarantee similar prognosis on how the pandemic would impact the sail. What is real is that we are in different boats. Some are in yachts, luxury cruises, canoes, while others are in paper boats that are sinking. Others are drowning as some have already drowned. This figure of speech explains not only the situations of individuals but also of business organizations and enterprises through this pandemic sail.
The input of quality
The company should be consistent, persistent and insistent on its pursuit of quality. A corporate DNA endowed with quality considers not only what is in the product or service but more so on what the customers get out of it. The company’s most important customer is its people. The failure to bring out the joy in its internal customers may lead to an expensive high rate of attrition and the fatal syndrome of low productivity and unstable organizational culture. On the other hand, the joy of the internal customers—its people—radiates to teams delivering services that bring happiness, satisfaction, delight and joy to its external customers. This joy brings ripples of customer loyalty and excellent customer experience.
The process of agility
The external environment of the recent time is appropriately described as VUCA—volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The VUCA world threatens the weak but becomes an opportunity for the strong business organizations. The volatility of the current situation can benefit from the vision that serves as the north star in the organizational navigation. The uncertainty can inspire understanding, which comes handy in the information age. The complexity can trigger clarity with a small dose of critical thinking. The ambiguity can be counteracted by agility. The new VUCA for adaptive organization takes centerstage—vision, understanding, clarity and agility.
Agility has become the antidote to the rapidly changing environment, regulations and realities of the pandemic time. The agile organization has a mindset that welcomes (and anticipates) changes and is quick to change its course like a boat sailing through a rough ocean. The vision, being its north star, guides every pivot towards it, regardless of the need for intentional redirections.
The output of tenacity
IT is the rough sails through the rough seas that make great sailors. Tenacity, the strength with a purpose, becomes characteristic of an organization in its essence and form. It is easier for the purpose-driven organization to be tenacious because the reason for its existence is clear, communicated and shared. Tenacity is achieved as the organization is strengthened by the crises that it may have survived, the failures it has committed, and the lessons it has learned.
The wonders of human physiology set good examples of tenacity through the scar that replaces the wounded skin and which histological characteristic has become stronger after the wound heals. The palms of our hands become more rough and thicker as they are subjected to more work and friction. Another example is the muscles that hypertrophy or enlarge its cellular and histological characteristics as they are frequently used. Such physiological adaptation prepared these organs and tissues to greater works in the future.
Similarly, when confronted with crisis, an organization accesses the lessons of the past, utilizes the resources of the present and focuses on the envisioned future. These timelines in the organizational history strengthen the tenacity not only to survive but also to thrive.
In the pursuit of quality, agility and tenacity, leadership is essential. It provides the influence needed to create a culture to engage teams and deliver results. It models, mentors and motivates people as it multiplies leaders within the organization. The leaders are able to innovate for, as it embraces, change.
Bracing to prepare for the disruption from the Fourth Industrial Revolution, humanity was caught unprepared for a pandemic. No corporate analyst, futurist, psychic or fortuneteller was good (and lucky) enough to have documented and warned humanity against it. Economies of countries declined, corporate organizations suffered the shocks, and most businesses declared losses. People loss lives, livelihood and jobs awaiting relief, vaccines, medical breakthrough, and other miracles that could end the global ordeal. But some organizations and business enterprises are lucky enough to have been able to survive and thrive. The luckier ones are able to grow and are prepared to glow. These are organizations and enterprises that have quality, agility and tenacity.
The Carl Balita Review Center has its footprints marked through a rented table space in Morayta, Manila, but in 14 years has evolved as a brand leader in the test preparation business with more than a hundred branches in all major cities in the country. It has become a multi-awarded enterprise that has expanded to some part of the world and is proudly an organization that is ready for the post-pandemic world. Most importantly, it has bridged the dreamers to be one with their dreams. CBRC’s hundreds of thousands of products now live their lives as professionals of the world.
For feedback, please send e-mail to drcarlbalita@yahoo.com.