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Business organization & corporate response: How did Matmond react to the Covid crisis?

Corporate Life - 17.03.21

Business organization: What was our response to the pandemic? Like many businesses around the world, we faced the pandemic and its repercussion on our business was overwhelming. Unlike many we had some level of preparation. How did we ensure business continuity in an unprecedented world? We tell you all about our answer to this major event! 

The key to survival ? Anticipation and responsiveness! 

As soon as the lockdown was announced by the French Government, Emmanuel, Matmond CEO, placed all the staff whose presence in the office was not essential, in a work-from-home position. On 10 March 2020, the entire administrative part of Matmond disappeared from our site in La Chaize-le-Vicomte while half of the technical staff was placed in furlough. Luckily, two weeks before lockdown, Matmond’s teams had been trained on Teams, Microsoft’s tool that has since become essential. All of a sudden Matmond had 24 hours to master it as it became our main platform for coordination. Only a handful of engineers under the direction of Cindy, our logistics manager, remained on duty in the warehouse to ensure order shipments and receptions of used photocopiers until the end of the month. 

In less than 3 weeks, our business activity had dropped to the bottom. Matmond was facing a 50% decrease in supplies and an 80% cut in turnover. The whole world had just stopped working. Western Europe no longer went to office for work, thus generating a complete halt in new photocopiers sales and in turn a drastic slowdown in deliveries of used equipment to Matmond. In a matter of days, the rest of the world followed suit and came to a standstill, putting to sleep imports of used photocopiers. 

Despite unheard-of figures, Matmond set out to rise to the challenge. The stake being nothing less than the survival of the business, the management team worked very hard to take stock and define a course of action: 

  • Attention was given to the analysis of work processes in order to identify areas for rapid improvement. 
  • A major communication campaign was launched to both remove doubts about the real impact of the crisis by consulting customers and suppliers, and reassure historical partners on Matmond robustness and ability to get through the crisis  
  • A new activity forecast and a subsequent business projection were drawn up, which made it possible to define a crisis management strategy likely to bring together the teams in a common and extraordinary effort 
  • A significant internal communication push was made throughout the duration of the lockdown to reassure our teams and maintain their cohesion and ability to work together. 

Business organization is also about giving oneself the means to start again 

Bounce back and start again … It became possible as soon as we gave ourselves the means for it ! that’s how, Matmond put all chances on his side and defined a better business organization

Matmond focused its attention on its immediate survival while preparing for business recovery. We decided to postpone all non-essential projects and activities until the situation cleared up. We took advantage of the drop in activity to clean up our stocks and to revisit our work procedures. Finally, since the covid crisis was not just affecting our company, we joined in the collective effort of mutual aid through one-off actions together with Charities. 

As soon as it became possible, we applied for governmental financial aids (Taxes postponement, Government loans, deferral of debt amortization, etc.). We then concentrated on generating and capturing new business opportunities by investing in communication and digital marketing, the only tool capable of creating and strengthening ties with our partners stuck at home on the other side of the planet. 

To close this chapter, we would like to relay the words of Emmanuel Caboche which illustrate Matmond’s ability to react quickly to complicated situations: 

“The health crisis: a surprise but not a strategic breaking point. Analyze, reflect and act as a team. Turn problems into opportunities: Seek to understand and learn to recover. ”