Tony skinner
Hi, and welcome to the podcast at podcastmybusiness.com.au. And today we have Lisa Lewis from lewers.com.au. How are you?
Lisa
I’m very well, Tony, how are you? 
Tony skinner
It’s quite interesting. Your business is about innovation, adaption and having the research to do that. And we, we tried to do this interview yesterday. And I was at home and next one I was mowing, and we thought, trees. Okay, we joined it to today. And then today you had
Lisa
some little technology issues. So I adapted and well, I thought I was and then I didn’t adapt quite fast enough. But today I’ve come into office. So I’ve got my Wi Fi issues, but now I’m just having a little bit of a headphone issue, but we’ve managed our way through it. And a news visual that you’re on a Mac and PC environment. How’s that working out for you? Well at different times trouble so I am on the advice of my manager decided to come in and use a hard wired headset that I’ve got here and found that I don’t have a USB port for a USB
Lisa
phone winging it a little bit.
Tony skinner
Okay, well, it’s coming across. Okay. So you know, we will persevere which is part of adaption and let’s face it, this event that we’re still going through. Boy talk about having to adapt.
Lisa
Yeah, absolutely. Having to adapt I think the I still remember leaving the office and thinking oh, well, you know, grab a thing and go to work at home for a couple of days and four months ago, and being here in Melbourne, it looks like it could be
Tony skinner
six weeks anyway, so you know, let’s not One and a half months. So there we go. It’s only one and a half months.
Lisa
I definitely adaption and I think, you know, like all businesses, we just went through that initial couple of weeks thinking, Well, you know, where will this end and with some of the, the pool, so to speak, I felt like you’re kind of diving in you can’t find the bottom, which would be difficult to plan. But you know, that kind of circumstance, the first thing you’ve really got to do is think about how you make yourself useful. And that’s what we started to do. And we’ve managed to, you know, stay busy, be occupied, hold the team together and adapt to a changing environment. 
Tony skinner
Yeah, and that’s, that’s the the issue, isn’t it? I mean, you, you’re forced into it, then you have to adapt. So what about businesses? I mean, they should be adapting all the time. Yes. And I think what’s going to happen those businesses that are in the habit of adapting and looking into the future and creating new things, Being collaborative, they’re gonna die.
Lisa
Mm hmm. It’s been really interesting. I heard actually a quote, and I can’t remember where it’s from. But, you know, essentially what the event has done is compressed what might have been five years of adaption of technology and new systems into a very short timeframe. So we’re probably doing a lot of things that we just started off to do. I can’t even in my own example, you know, we started looking at Internet phones, and we’d already started working on cloud and pushing things to teens and all those sorts of things. It just accelerated that process. People just had to really get on board. And I think that’s for a lot of businesses. They’ve had to pivot in some some a better place to do that than others, you know, as being a consulting business. It’s easy to move online, but I really feel for others that haven’t been able to adapt, but we’ve seen some great that even you know, in a local cafe where you adapt or die, you do. You know, it’s a bit of a mantra of ours.
Lisa
Something that we’ve always focused on in the business, I’ve seen really great organizations within my sector lose their relevancy because they can’t evolve or don’t want to evolve with changing times. So quite early on in the piece and made it a business of ours to make sure we’re a little bit ahead of the curve, or at least we like to think so.
Tony skinner
I guess there’s an issue of with businesses, not wanting to adapt, because they’re in their comfort zone, and now being forced to adapt. What’s some advice for him?
Lisa
It’s been really one of the ways that we got on top of the event, so to speak, was to think well for a lot of our clients, a large corporates, how do we make ourselves useful? And given how unprecedented this was, we decided that we’d start getting out and actually speaking to people and finding out, you know, what they expected from businesses and, you know, it was really Early on, but it was actually a really great opportunity for businesses to do the right things and set their brands up big and small, without self interest, but a real sense of community that we’ve never really seen before. So in ways, you know, the first the first rule was stop doing anything that can be misinterpreted as insensitive or hurtful, certainly from any kind of advertising, point of view or insensitive, so people pulled ads that were no longer relevant and those sorts of things. And then the next thing was to start to really tap into how you, again, make yourself useful. And that was providing solutions to people whether that be really quickly implementing social distancing, to allow people to get their coffee, to helping people understand how you’re going to give them a credit break, if they were in financial difficulty. So it was less about the business and more genuinely tapping into what customers really need in this moment. Right now, gloves off Hands down, what do we need to do to come out the other end of this as a survivor, and really quickly, we thought it was a chance to make yourself more relevant and stronger at the other end, assuming, make the business work through. Or alternatively, if you took the wrong tone, or did the wrong sorts of things or seem to be taking advantage and trying to profit here, from what people really rightly perceived as a crisis, then you’d be doing real harm to business. 
Tony skinner
It’s interesting, we should mention that I got a few emails from a few software companies. So Oh, because of this unprecedented time, we’d like to help sort of say, we’d like to help you. And we’re here to help you and what we’re doing. We’re giving you our product at 40% off.
Yeah, no. Hang on.
Lisa
That sounds a bit tone deaf. Yep.
Lisa
Yep. Yep. And, and I think in you know, in defense of those sorts of businesses to immediately how they make themselves you know, what can we do right now, and it’s really About, it’s a knee jerk, I guess, eye to eye, you still gonna need the software. And be to think that it’s simply a pricing issue. But I think we all got inundated with those kinds, you know, we’re here for you. And very quickly that just became a platitude that really had no meaning, unless it could be backed up by something that started to make the life of the customer or the business easier. And so really quickly, we started to tune out and get a little bit tired of that kind of communication and really want to I mean, 40% snow gorge if you can’t actually use this service anymore.
Tony skinner
Well, and I, what I didn’t mention, and I should have is that you’re a fourth thinking research company. So we didn’t mention that. So that’s that’s your bones. Yes. And how’s it going? We’re trying to reach people at the moment.
Lisa
Well, it’s really, really interesting. You know, obviously, there was, you know, a lot of talk about this We could do that people. There’s a whole sectors of our industry that are really struggling in that we can’t do focus groups we can’t be face to face. So we’ve had to pivot everything online. On one hand, people are easier than ever if they’re still working. On the other hand, there’s, you know, time times available. So we haven’t noticed any real drop off in terms of being able to get out online and speak to people or get people to participate in things in online forums and that sort of thing. The bigger issue is really whether it’s the appropriate time to doing any kind of research about what used to be business as usual, because we don’t know what that will or how things will change coming out the other end. But from a research perspective, it’s a fascinating period in time looking at how people respond to what is essentially a crisis.
Tony skinner
Yeah, that’s actually true. And I’m referring to what’s next. I’m not talking about the new normal. I’m just saying, well, what’s next, I mean, What’s Next is that there could be other lock downs, like in Melbourne or whatever it may be. retailer are going to struggle, but they’ve been struggling for a long time. Exactly. Mm hmm. That’s where that
Tony skinner
I’m sorry. Sorry. Go ahead.
Lisa
No, it’s almost, you know, in the same way we’ve had to speed up technology and the adaption of that or you know, embrace change. There’s things that we probably prefer not to have the unfortunate consequences and like you said, retail, has been struggling my offices near here on chapel straighten, you know, every second or third shop is empty and Felice and so this has just exacerbated that trend. I think it’s somewhat of a catalyst for good and for bad outcomes.
Tony skinner
Yeah, and the way I’m looking at things is there’s a lot of call them micro, I’d say pretend businesses that that is the people Who goes into markets and sell crystals and a lot of the coaches and those sort of people, I don’t interview coaches on my podcast if I can avoid that think they’re in business and I go well, okay, so how did your bass go last quarter and then go, Oh, I don’t have to do I don’t have to pay GST? I think well, hang on. That’s just turnover of 70 grand, the first quarter of my business, because I have another business clicks for profit, digital marketing, as payment in my first quarter, and I keep thinking, Well, are you a real business? Or are you a pretend business? And now they’re getting more money from the government? Mm hmm. They’re going to be the ones who are going to die?
Lisa
Yeah, I think I think so. It’s going to, you know, change people’s habits, businesses like that will struggle and, you know, and there is that there is a line between, you know, creating a job for yourself versus building a business and the infrastructure and all of the things that go on with that and I think lots of those smaller operators, including small retail and small hospitality really going to struggle, come out the other end. Because we know that people are creatures of habit. And one of the things that the event has done is to break those habits. So you know, if you’re always going to a particular market or buying from a particular coffee shop, and then, you know, you may never go back to that. That’s what each might look like. And also, you know, the first thing to go is things that are potentially periphery, and it can be things like training, or things that are more discretionary. For us outfit, you know, the first thing was knuckle down, and really look after the people that we’ve got, and do the core of our business really, really well. 
Tony skinner
And I was talking to people and I’m in business, it could be x, and I said, Look, don’t panic, keep marketing. And that’s what I’ve been doing doing podcast interviews like yours and what have you. And that was it.
Lisa
Yeah, absolutely. You know, we see time and time again, we do a lot of work in communications research and advertising space. And the first thing our clients want to know is do we pull everything? No, you don’t, you know, you need to just adjust your tone and be there and be present. You don’t leave whitespace and avoid. You just need to keep going one day at a time, you know, step by step and making yourself as relevant as you can each day. So absolutely you keep I wanted to just keep business as usual for as long as possible, whatever that might look like.
Tony skinner
Hmm, yeah, it’s interesting. And again, there’s a story out I met with you know, this one about Cadbury during World War Two. In England, they they kept advertising during the war. They didn’t have a product to sell.
Lisa
Yeah, exactly. It’s so important to building the brand and one of the outcomes of that today is you see put You think Cadbury because it’s generic, continuous, always on reminding and being there as a presence in if you’ve got nothing to say. And we saw companies do that, you know, with the likes of McDonald’s, and so on. So, absolutely long term, you need to keep investing in the brand and be there when people are ready to speak with you.
Tony skinner
Exactly. So looking at the research that you’ve been doing, what do you see? Or what would be a couple of things that businesses should be focused on now to create a brighter future for themselves?
Lisa
Yeah, and, you know, I think the obvious ones are around and looking at doubling down on what what you absolutely need is your call getting any getting rid of things that are peripheral, and I think not hunkering down and waiting for this to be over but to what’s kind of been the mantra of our conversation, you know, adapting to change and looking for ways to You can pivot your business, whether that means more online, whether it means you know, some, some stores have done things like online appointment setting for consultations, anything that you can do and not be afraid even of opening up something as a segue, if you’re a florist, maybe it’s time to talk about online forestry courses. Think about ways that you can run similar, you know, offers or aligned offers to broaden out in what is this this landscape because I also think that a lot of the things that businesses can do now like that, double down on the call, look for things that are complimentary in its current environment, or things that they can keep going on with that a good for business growth, even if this all turned around and changed, you know, back to how we were yesterday, you know, earlier in the year and, and I think also, the really important thing is, you know, if you’ve got people In your team, one of my big challenges has just been trying to keep everybody on some happy You know, this is it’s not that people are being a working from home, they’re being asked to work from home in a really difficult time. And so there’s been a real adaption period. And the thing that I always say is you’ve just got to really be kind and keep the lines of communication open and try and work through that as a group. Because for me, one of the important things is keeping that team and the support around you in place to help you through it and be stronger coming out the other end as well.
Tony skinner
It’s quite important. Good. Okay. All right. Well, thanks very much, Lisa. Thanks for your time. And that’s
Tony skinner
l e w e r s.com.au. Thank you.
