00:00:00: [Music]
00:00:01: impulses and perspectives the dikt
00:00:04: expert talk hosted by Nikolai Behr good
00:00:09: Aloha and welcome to a new edition of
00:00:11: impulses and perspectives the dikt
00:00:15: expert talk today joining us Kevin Paetz
00:00:20: from Edmonton Canada kevin has been in
00:00:23: the business for over 30 years and since
00:00:26: 12 years he is also an entrepreneur he
00:00:29: has been a president of large companies
00:00:31: nationwide financial institutions
00:00:34: software companies and now he's also
00:00:36: business coach and helping other
00:00:38: companies to grow Kevin what's the
00:00:41: situation right now how can you help
00:00:44: people in this crisis yes you know it's
00:00:48: very interesting because one of the
00:00:50: things that I'm telling people to do
00:00:51: first of all is first of all be safe
00:00:54: make sure that you your family your
00:00:56: people are in a position where they're
00:00:58: safe for many of you that means stay
00:01:00: home for many others of you that will
00:01:03: still need to be working then to make
00:01:05: sure that you have the resources and the
00:01:07: tools and the procedures and processes
00:01:08: in place to maximize your safety and
00:01:11: maximize the safety of your clients and
00:01:13: the community that you're affecting the
00:01:16: next thing I'm going to ask I'm asking
00:01:18: all of my my businesses is to do is to
00:01:21: go deeper you know we are not just in it
00:01:24: this is not just an economic situation
00:01:27: this is a humanitarian situation and
00:01:30: what I'm asking them to do is to go
00:01:32: deeper dig deeper into what your clients
00:01:34: need right now a lot of times what
00:01:37: you're offering may not be exactly what
00:01:38: they need right now people are needing
00:01:40: essential things you know as I've often
00:01:43: said you can't feed a starving man
00:01:46: philosophy you need to provide bread
00:01:48: milk eggs veggies whatever you need but
00:01:52: do they need basic substantive things
00:01:54: and right now for a lot of our clients
00:01:55: they're going to need basic substantive
00:01:57: things and so it may not be obvious to
00:01:59: you exactly what it is that you can
00:02:01: offer it and it may be but what I'm
00:02:04: suggesting is that there may be other
00:02:05: things that you can offer people right
00:02:07: now that go beyond what you would
00:02:08: normally consider for instance maybe
00:02:11: have contacts
00:02:13: you know somebody who maybe you have a
00:02:16: fleet of trucks you know you're in the
00:02:18: you're in the you know hardware
00:02:22: distribution you know and you have a
00:02:24: cleat of trucks and maybe your trucks
00:02:25: aren't busy right now but they could be
00:02:27: delivering essential goods and services
00:02:29: for someone else maybe you have a
00:02:30: contact somebody in another field that
00:02:34: might be able to connect with someone so
00:02:36: what I'm suggesting is go deeper than
00:02:38: understanding the resources that you
00:02:39: have you know they're beyond just your
00:02:41: products and services this the
00:02:43: intellectual capital it's the experience
00:02:45: of your people you might have people who
00:02:47: understand how to sew you know and there
00:02:51: could be a people who be collecting you
00:02:53: know cotton shirts and we can be turning
00:02:55: those in 10 asks for non-medical mats
00:02:57: for people for example just one example
00:03:00: because right now we have to understand
00:03:03: what it is that people really are
00:03:06: needing you know and it so when you're
00:03:09: thinking about what you can offer I want
00:03:11: you to think about it from from your
00:03:14: clients perspective but also go bigger
00:03:16: you know what does your community need
00:03:18: right now how could you be assistance to
00:03:21: your community as well how could you be
00:03:22: assistant to what your country needs
00:03:25: right now you know my generation we
00:03:29: didn't go through a war you know and a
00:03:32: lot of us haven't haven't had that
00:03:34: experience thank God that we haven't
00:03:35: been through those kinds of things but
00:03:38: this might be our moment you know I was
00:03:41: just recently going back over the
00:03:44: experience of Winston Churchill you know
00:03:46: when when Britain was was bombed and it
00:03:49: was in rubbles
00:03:50: and he had this one speech where he said
00:03:53: they're going to look back on us in a
00:03:55: thousand years and right now they will
00:03:57: say this is our finest hour you know is
00:04:00: this our finest hour
00:04:01: is this our opportunity to come together
00:04:03: as a species as people has all of us our
00:04:07: allies and say to one another we are
00:04:10: allied and I will help you and I'll do
00:04:13: whatever I can to help you so that we
00:04:16: can think back that when this is done we
00:04:17: can think back and say what did we do
00:04:19: how did we help how do we contribute
00:04:22: so think about your clients deeply
00:04:25: deeply what can you do how can you help
00:04:26: them right now it's not necessarily
00:04:28: about selling as much as it is how can
00:04:30: you really assist how can you really
00:04:31: help the second thing is what can you do
00:04:34: in your community mister things that you
00:04:35: might be able to do you know he's
00:04:37: thinking of you know business coaches
00:04:39: will welcome what is a business coach
00:04:40: going to do in this particular type of
00:04:42: situation
00:04:42: well actually quite a lot right there
00:04:45: are connections that are music right now
00:04:46: to source products from China services
00:04:49: medical products in China there are
00:04:50: business expertise that we can bring
00:04:53: together and Link people together to
00:04:54: form different partnerships that will
00:04:57: allow them to manufacture stuff or to
00:05:00: sell stuff or distribute stuff for
00:05:01: people that people really need right now
00:05:03: so so your clients your community what
00:05:06: is your country need to you know how can
00:05:09: you be of service and even if you can't
00:05:11: be of service right now even if you're
00:05:13: really stumped you can't do that who can
00:05:14: you encourage who can you reach out to
00:05:17: who could you shine a light on to
00:05:19: inspire them to help them to do more so
00:05:23: what I'm asking you to do I'm asking
00:05:24: those people and asking myself these
00:05:27: same questions is how do I help Mike how
00:05:29: do I help help and protect my family
00:05:32: how do I help him protect my clients how
00:05:35: do I help him protect my community and
00:05:36: how do I help him protect my country
00:05:38: because I really think it's that basic
00:05:41: now where it's not an economic situation
00:05:43: it's an existential situation and so
00:05:47: once we have this onus is existential
00:05:49: right now because they lose all their
00:05:51: contracts and I don't know how to pay
00:05:54: their associates yeah so first of all
00:05:58: they have to look into their own
00:05:59: financials in that end they probably
00:06:02: could offer help to others absolutely so
00:06:05: in that regard and I've just finished a
00:06:08: series on that as well in that regard
00:06:10: you really do need to look at what you
00:06:13: can what what you can sell or offer now
00:06:16: that would be valuable okay to people
00:06:19: because there will be things maybe it's
00:06:21: not as quite as apparent but there will
00:06:22: be things that you can do okay the
00:06:25: second thing is that you have to manage
00:06:26: your cash you have to get your liquidity
00:06:29: to a situation where you understand take
00:06:31: a look at your expenses and what your
00:06:34: revenues coming in now your revenues
00:06:36: might
00:06:36: traditional sources of revenues there
00:06:38: may be some government subsidies that
00:06:40: you need to access there may be some
00:06:42: other sources of revenue you may have to
00:06:44: access lines of credit you may have
00:06:46: access other other sources of cash that
00:06:49: you that you wouldn't normally have to
00:06:51: access and then to skinny down your
00:06:53: expenses to match those revenues there's
00:06:56: lots of negotiations going and there's
00:06:58: everyone everywhere understands the
00:07:00: situation that we're in right now
00:07:02: so negotiating with landlords
00:07:03: negotiating with suppliers negotiating
00:07:06: with distributors etc everybody
00:07:09: understands that this is the time that
00:07:11: we're all going to need to cooperate for
00:07:13: the mutual benefit of all of our
00:07:15: existence and so everybody understands
00:07:18: to it to an extent some will understand
00:07:21: it better than others but I think this
00:07:24: is the time when you need to be
00:07:25: negotiating and this is the time when
00:07:26: you negotiate yourself not only for now
00:07:29: but also for later to start to be able
00:07:31: to plan for coming out of it as well so
00:07:35: would you recommend to have all people
00:07:39: are still on board or to send some home
00:07:42: or lay off people and better to keep
00:07:45: them in the company and try to think for
00:07:49: your clients and for the community what
00:07:51: to help I think each each situation
00:07:54: needs to be assessed on its own merit
00:07:56: you know certain companies will have the
00:07:58: liquidity to be able to do that others
00:08:00: won't and so it doesn't do anybody good
00:08:03: if your company is is defunct so so the
00:08:07: first thing that you need to do is you
00:08:09: need to understand how do i how do i how
00:08:12: do I protect myself my family my clients
00:08:15: my staff right and for some it will mean
00:08:19: temporary layoffs for some it might be
00:08:21: permanent layoffs for others it but what
00:08:23: it means is that you do need to come
00:08:25: down to where you have a match of
00:08:27: revenue to expenses as well as you
00:08:29: possibly can okay
00:08:31: because you're going to need whatever
00:08:33: cash reserves that you had to be able to
00:08:35: last this through we don't know how long
00:08:37: this could take this could take weeks
00:08:39: months and then there could be a second
00:08:42: way so the idea is what we have to do
00:08:44: now is we have to make sure that we're
00:08:46: managing the cash our liquidity and such
00:08:48: in such a way that
00:08:50: will allow us to come out the other side
00:08:51: listen this will be the largest economic
00:08:54: adjustment in our history the quickest
00:08:56: economic adjustment in our history but
00:08:58: it should also be the quickest snapback
00:09:01: in history as well there's five trillion
00:09:04: dollars among the g20 that's going in to
00:09:06: support the economy and as this we start
00:09:10: to come out of this that cash is going
00:09:12: to start to really multiply and so there
00:09:14: will be other we there should be a quite
00:09:17: a demand surge coming out of this as
00:09:20: well so it's not only surviving for now
00:09:22: but it's preparing for the future so now
00:09:25: a lot of companies are first time using
00:09:29: video conference Home Office and using
00:09:32: more digital tools do you think that's a
00:09:34: part of a digital revolution we are now
00:09:37: in midst of I think it's if if there is
00:09:40: a silver lining out of this I think the
00:09:42: silver lining is is that it has now
00:09:45: leapfrogged many companies into a level
00:09:47: of productivity that wasn't that they
00:09:49: weren't availing themselves on but in
00:09:51: the past think about how quickly you can
00:09:55: meet someone now think about how quickly
00:09:57: it's no longer necessary to get on a
00:09:59: plane every time you can really grab
00:10:02: some attention and you really come to
00:10:05: some conclusions with with potential
00:10:07: clients or partners by just reaching out
00:10:09: to them and people will have accepted
00:10:11: this now because we've all used it we've
00:10:14: all come to understand that this is a
00:10:15: normal and acceptable way to do business
00:10:17: and in fact in many cases desirable
00:10:20: because of the cost savings that that it
00:10:22: applies so I think there's some real
00:10:24: opportunities here for people I think
00:10:26: there's some real opportunities for
00:10:28: people to embrace technology even
00:10:29: further than this and to integrate it
00:10:32: both into their offline and online
00:10:33: strategies so if you it is really
00:10:37: pulling people kicking and screaming
00:10:39: many in many ways into 2020 and what's
00:10:43: available to them now so they're coming
00:10:45: out of this they may see that their
00:10:47: expenses are permanently reduced but
00:10:50: they can still maintain the the prior
00:10:52: productivity at least as it comes to
00:10:54: marketing and sales
00:10:56: how important is a personal discipline
00:10:58: in these times I think it's absolutely
00:11:05: essential well what it saying is if you
00:11:08: need motivation also you need to do or
00:11:10: is to just look beyond yourself look
00:11:13: around there's so many ways that that I
00:11:15: think people can actually engage and be
00:11:18: helpful if there's one thing that I'm
00:11:21: telling my clients for those people who
00:11:23: literally can't sell if you can't sell
00:11:25: right now look for ways to be helpful
00:11:27: just look for ways to help your clients
00:11:30: look for ways to help your community
00:11:31: just look for ways to be helpful you
00:11:34: know you will find or look for ways to
00:11:36: encourage others who are both of those
00:11:39: things would be very very helpful and I
00:11:41: think you'll find that coming out of
00:11:42: this people will remember they know who
00:11:46: treated them well they know who were
00:11:48: helpful they knew who were really
00:11:50: valuable to them they are not they will
00:11:53: not forget that
00:11:56: so your advice is keep a steady schedule
00:12:01: get up in the morning and talk to your
00:12:04: teams try to motivate them and try to
00:12:06: find new ways to talk to your customers
00:12:09: and find out what they really need the
00:12:12: company as well as the people yes
00:12:15: yeah I think for most people you need to
00:12:18: like for instance or if you've got a
00:12:21: situation where you're working from home
00:12:22: right I think more than ever it's
00:12:25: important to get up keep a schedule keep
00:12:27: communications stay with them because
00:12:30: they're going to need that type of
00:12:31: encouragement so you need a discipline
00:12:34: to be able to manage it a distributed
00:12:35: environment and it's different from
00:12:37: having everybody at the office in many
00:12:39: ways I found and with my team is it's
00:12:42: actually in many ways it can be more
00:12:45: productive there are certain drawbacks
00:12:47: of course but in many ways it's more
00:12:49: productive because there's less less
00:12:51: distraction coming in so there's a
00:12:54: better opportunity to concentrate but
00:12:57: it's all about making sure that your
00:12:58: team you know has the right environment
00:13:00: in their home that they keep a schedule
00:13:03: that you ask of them certain hours and
00:13:05: of course you need to be flexible I mean
00:13:07: with kids being out of school and things
00:13:09: like this there may be flexibility that
00:13:10: you need to keep take up some slack but
00:13:13: absolutely I think that that's something
00:13:15: that that you would need to keep as
00:13:17: close to discipline as you would to
00:13:19: mimic the office that you had before and
00:13:22: perhaps you don't need the same hours
00:13:24: perhaps you don't need what you do need
00:13:26: the same intention in other words we're
00:13:29: here we're going to be productive we're
00:13:30: going to be helpful and useful to our
00:13:32: clients into a community what would be
00:13:36: the first step you would recommend to
00:13:37: someone if the crisis is over I think
00:13:43: that what I would do is I would start to
00:13:47: reach out to my clients and particularly
00:13:49: the ones that I had been reaching out to
00:13:50: all along and offering and making things
00:13:52: what I would be reaching out to them is
00:13:54: saying okay what is it that you need now
00:13:58: how can we help you get restarted what
00:14:01: is it that what is what do you need in
00:14:03: terms of supplies resources expertise
00:14:05: whatever it is that you supply and then
00:14:07: making whatever deals you can to
00:14:10: kick-start their that relationship again
00:14:13: because I think people will have a
00:14:15: pent-up demand there will be a
00:14:16: significant amount of pent-up demand
00:14:18: start with your with your best clients
00:14:22: why I would say start with your best
00:14:23: clients the ones that were most integral
00:14:25: to your business making sure even during
00:14:27: these times that you're keeping a great
00:14:28: relationship with them and then as you
00:14:30: start to see as you're coming out of it
00:14:32: you know making plans with them and for
00:14:34: them as well that will dictate your your
00:14:37: order flow will dictate you know how
00:14:39: quickly you bring back people on to full
00:14:41: time a break you have how much capacity
00:14:44: that you need etc so it all starts first
00:14:47: with the marketing and the sales it all
00:14:49: starts first with with business
00:14:51: development and then your capacity flows
00:14:53: from that do you think a lot of people
00:14:56: have to adjust their business model
00:14:58: after the crisis now will people travel
00:15:02: as much as beforehand today should
00:15:04: transfer more into the digital world I
00:15:07: think we're gonna see quite a shift and
00:15:10: a lot of things I think the travel
00:15:13: industry is going to be transformed I
00:15:16: think the hospitality industry will be
00:15:19: transformed I think how we're doing
00:15:22: business now much of that will carry
00:15:24: forward and I think we're still going to
00:15:27: travel I think we're still going to
00:15:28: attend seminars etc we may not just we
00:15:31: made find it it's much more of a of a
00:15:34: combination so we will be traveling as
00:15:38: much instead we'll be reaching out more
00:15:40: immediately and so you can pull people
00:15:42: together maybe smaller groups you could
00:15:45: have smaller groups from which are
00:15:47: highly expandable from maybe ten to a
00:15:49: thousand people but the fact is you can
00:15:51: set them up in an instant and you can
00:15:54: invite people in an instant so
00:15:56: information new technology innovation
00:15:58: can all be distributed at the speed of
00:16:02: electrons right rather than waiting for
00:16:04: something to actually convened in a
00:16:07: hotel grabbing everybody together etc
00:16:09: now the downside of that is
00:16:12: and most of these conventions it's the
00:16:14: meeting after the meeting where a lot of
00:16:15: stuff gets done and so that's what I'm
00:16:18: saying is I think there will still be a
00:16:20: mix of both I just don't think it will
00:16:22: be as many and I think we'll take speed
00:16:24: and immediacy and add that to the mix
00:16:27: through technology and then we'll have
00:16:29: the opportunity to actually meet
00:16:32: physically again I think that will that
00:16:34: will still be there I just don't think
00:16:35: it'll be as much and there are also new
00:16:38: ways of communication I've seen this app
00:16:41: it's called house party so you could do
00:16:44: the afterword party with something like
00:16:46: a house party then you certainly can the
00:16:49: next invention yeah I one of my
00:16:52: companies that the technology company we
00:16:54: have a beer o'clock at 6:00 p.m. on
00:16:56: Fridays virtually everybody all the
00:16:59: technicians get together for a hosted
00:17:03: hosted app on zoom' I hosted party on
00:17:06: zoom' and they everybody drinks the
00:17:07: beverage of their choice and it's just
00:17:10: an opportunity to be social and it
00:17:12: actually works quite well and nobody has
00:17:15: to drive home so you personally are
00:17:19: working for a long time and with video
00:17:23: conferences you have clients all over
00:17:25: the world what really changed for you
00:17:30: what changed for me was the offering
00:17:34: that I offered my clients and that was
00:17:37: to get more essential about what they
00:17:41: needed right now
00:17:43: and so what it was about was for a lot
00:17:46: of my clients was about survival it was
00:17:47: about managing liquidity it was about
00:17:49: you know getting the companies to
00:17:51: realize what products services expertise
00:17:56: resources they had that mattered in this
00:18:00: environment not in the regular
00:18:03: environment but in this one and it's
00:18:05: surprising when you bring the thought
00:18:07: process together when you bring your
00:18:09: people together to really discover what
00:18:12: it is our people need right now what can
00:18:14: we do to help them you'll find a lot of
00:18:16: times you'll discover things that may
00:18:19: have been dormant there may have be
00:18:21: dormant expertise dormant opportunities
00:18:23: within your company that can matter not
00:18:26: only to the other people right now but
00:18:29: also in the future
00:18:30: this probably will come back again and
00:18:34: so next time they may they caught us off
00:18:36: guard this time they shouldn't catch us
00:18:38: off guard twice right so how are we
00:18:41: doing how are we helping our community
00:18:43: prepare and how in my business is going
00:18:46: to be prepared for the next time around
00:18:47: okay
00:18:49: liquidity is probably is an important
00:18:51: factor in the future so how long would
00:18:54: you recommend should a business have
00:18:57: liquidity for such a case well we
00:19:00: probably will never have such a big case
00:19:02: again but right yes you know it's it's
00:19:06: really hard to say and I would I would
00:19:08: typically say in in this type of
00:19:10: situation six months liquidity makes
00:19:12: sense you know and if you're less
00:19:16: capital intensive maybe less you know
00:19:19: maybe if your capital intensive business
00:19:20: maybe more but I would suggest that
00:19:23: probably six months makes sense in this
00:19:25: type of environment typically you
00:19:26: wouldn't necessarily want that much
00:19:28: capital you know not not producing the
00:19:32: ROI that you're normally used to make
00:19:34: but these are extraordinary times you
00:19:37: know and like I said with this maybe
00:19:40: just round one so we need to make sure
00:19:43: that we're prepared and so there are
00:19:45: many different sources of liquidity as
00:19:47: well I mean this would be the time that
00:19:49: I would be talking to you know you know
00:19:52: setting up what I call alternate
00:19:53: strategies for liquidity many of you may
00:19:56: not need it but there are may
00:19:57: that might you know you might want to
00:19:59: look at you know additional investors
00:20:01: you might want to look at at lending
00:20:04: facilities non-traditional lending
00:20:06: facilities like factoring you know
00:20:09: adding additional you know bank lines or
00:20:13: operating lines of credit as well so
00:20:15: there will be as as we start to come out
00:20:17: of this that might be the time as well
00:20:20: to start to look at how does my
00:20:22: liquidity situation stack up do I have
00:20:24: access maybe I don't have it in my bank
00:20:26: account but do I have access to six
00:20:28: months liquidity so if this does come
00:20:30: again I have a way through this okay
00:20:34: thank you very much Kevin
00:20:36: so all the business people out there
00:20:39: first look for your own health look for
00:20:42: your employers and then look for your
00:20:44: customers how can you help them and we
00:20:48: all hope that it soon will be better and
00:20:50: we will soon overcome this crisis and
00:20:54: stay safe and thank you again
00:20:56: bye-bye bye now if you would like to
00:21:02: watch all of our new episodes please
00:21:04: subscribe to our YouTube channel
00:21:08: you
00:21:10: [Music]
00:21:12: [Applause]
00:21:14: [Music]
