Eyal Gutentag on What Management Could Look Like After COVID-19

The global COVID-19 pandemic has not only taken thousands of lives around the globe, it has shaken many businesses to the core. Forced layoffs, remote working styles and reduced revenues have altered a once-expanding economy into an uncertain, dazed and uncertain one. 

In such a marketplace, what will management look like after COVID fades from memory, if that actually happens? How do companies pick up the pieces and resume the path to stability and profitability?

For answers, we turned to Eyal Gutentag, the growth and performance marketing leader who has helped many organizations maintain or reacquire their balance after any number of crises. 

Who’s Eyal Gutentag?

If the name Eyal Gutentag sounds familiar, you may know him from his innovative business and marketing achievements with companies like Uber, ZipRecruiter, Primafuel, the NFL and others. He developed a national reputation as a transformational operational and management expert who takes small-to-medium-sized companies and scales them into industry powerhouses. 

How does Eyal envision a post-COVID business world?

“Among those companies that suffer major losses,” he says, “many will scramble about desperately seeking some kind of magic solution. That delay could cost them both time and treasure. But for those companies faithful to their core values, the recovery time could be relatively short.”

Recapturing Core Values

Core values are the driving forces behind a company’s growth and success, Eyal believes, both in good times and bad. Where do those values come from and how are they articulated? They derive from the reasons the company was started--its driving purpose--and the vision of the founders. Spelled out in the company mission statement, core values unify the company and guide its relationship with both employees and customers. 

“Post COVID,” Eyal asserts, “managers who reacquaint themselves with their core values will lead the way to economic recovery.”

Unfortunately, mission statements and the core values contained within them often lie forgotten on the company website, collecting digital dust. “The first step in the aftermath of COVID,” Eyal says, “is to pull up that document and revisit the values that got you where you were before everything changed.”

“Your core values should act like the rudder in a boat, guiding your company through the roughest waters and keeping your employees calm and focused,” he continues. “When you face major decisions, deferring back to your original purpose not only keeps management and staff on target, it also keeps your stakeholders from feeling nervous.”

Who is Helped When You Refocus?

Consider how a more focused company could affect your employees. Remote staffs often feel alienated from their fellow workers and clients. That’s a danger for companies, Eyal believes.

“Reviewing your core values with your employees reminds them about who the company is and why it’s such a great place to work,” he says. “It helps keep everyone on track, fully engaged, loyal and invigorated. Employees thrive when they know they’re part of something positive and purposeful, they trust your leadership and they remain with you longer.”

Focusing on your core values also promotes loyalty among customers. Studies show that 80% of buyers are more loyal to brands with a strong mission. In the post-COVID world, customer loyalty programs that incorporate principles from the company value statements will be critical in keeping and enlarging your customer base.

Actions Will Be Everything

“Revisiting your driving principles is not the end goal: it’s just the first step,” Eyal concludes. “You have to take action. Words don’t matter as much as action. Your actions hand-in-hand with your mission will define your brand and create your internal culture in the days to come.“

For management, the challenge is to keep strategies and actions in sync with the mission. The danger is that managers preach one strategy, but employees practice another.

“This is what I’m advising my clients today,” Eyal says. “Take that mission statement out of the closet and remind everyone of the core values inside it. Paint it on a wall if you must. Talk about it continuously. Make it live again. Never forget why the business was started or why it’s still in business today. Make it your mantra, and build your company culture around it once more.”

In the challenging times after COVID finally ends, that’s what successful companies will do to grow and prosper.