Crisis management in COVID-19 times

The COVID 19 crisis also poses challenges for crisis management worldwide in terms of corporate culture: How do managers ensure that it survives uncertain times well? In many places, it is becoming clear how difficult it is for CEOs and HR heads to find out what is really happening in the organization. How is the mood evolving, what attitude dominates? Solid data collection is an important basis for effective crisis management.

Leadership Advisory Egon Zehnder, together with Swiss people tech start-up Sinequanon (SQN), offers the data-driven Odyssey Index(TM) for this purpose, which provides leaders with valuable insights into the inner workings of their company. "More than ever, organizations need to create an environment of trust while fostering identification and support among their employees," explains Gabriel Andrade, partner at Egon Zehnder and board member of SQN.

"Odyssey helps companies emerge from crises with a strengthened culture, too." Egon Zehnder and SQN are now making the index available free of charge for the first month - in exchange for a donation to a charity of your choice that is committed to fighting COVID-19.

The index can be used for companies of any size and industry. Uncomplicated in handling and data collection, it can be seamlessly integrated into existing processes. Once a week, a representative selection of the workforce receives an anonymous survey of about 6 minutes with scientifically validated questions. Based on SQN's experience, this is aimed at providing information from the four success categories for effective crisis management:

self-image and objectives; adaptability and learning ability; perseverance and resilience; structure and working methods. The resulting dashboard serves management as a central and continuously updated control instrument. Odyssey thus provides information about the acceptance and effectiveness of management communication and uncovers possible hurdles.

The index uses the innovative SQN behaviour measurement platform TWISIT® ("The Way I See It") and specifically adjustable algorithms from the AI Engine Living Analytics®. The tools help to map the company's crisis resilience in a resilient way and at the same time trigger cultural change. The data dashboard offers various calculation tools and recommends concrete measures for a strategic improvement of the corporate culture.

"The tool helps every company at a key problem point during a crisis: act quickly and decisively despite incomplete information," says Per Lagerstrom, CEO of SQN. All data is collected using the latest security standards for containerized clouds. A connection to the existing IT architecture is not necessary, updates are loaded directly from the cloud.

Details about the "Odyssey" software can be found here