Crisis management for institutions often starts with an evaluation of any impacts, followed by mitigation processes. However, it is also essential for institutions to revisit their company cultures and see if formal and informal processes are equipped to rise to the challenge. This is particularly important in the present, seeing as how the COVID-19 pandemic has led nearly every business to adapt internal processes in order to continue operations. So how can institutions manage working through a crisis by reworking their culture in a time of rapid change?

This webinar will aim to:

• Evaluate what Gulf Region institutions are doing to manage through the current crisis,
• Understand the necessity of changing an institution’s culture and practices during times of crises, and
• Offer solutions for companies and their leaders to try new strategies to revitalize their company cultures for resilience during a crisis.

In this webinar, we learned:

• Companies have rapidly pivoted to innovate and implement new practices in risk management – particularly with respect to human resource management. This is aimed to manage critical decision-making and facilitate smoother transitions in times of crises.
• Certain sectors of the economy are pioneering technologically advanced risk management initiatives, and are looking inwards at employee engagement as well as externally at aspects of stewardship that include air quality control and environmental safeguards in product designs and manufacturing. This is a cultural shift in thought processes for businesses.
• All organisations, even the agile ones, have had to change quickly in the current scenario. The extent of the pivots in cultural management, and increasingly digitization imperatives, depended on how open the company culture was to change. This early fostering of a flexible company culture is now moderating the success of select businesses in the pandemic.
• Company cultures have changed dramatically with shifts towards remote working, faster decision-making, and more flexible workplace hierarchies. However, what is most important and rises above other necessary changes is the need to empower teams in this turbulent period.