Innovation Prevails During Times of Crisis


4 min read
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On Thursday, March 12, I woke up in London to the frantic ringing of my phone. In town to celebrate the opening of our brand-new European headquarters of my live experience company RWS Entertainment Group, I went to bed the night before excited about the next day’s launch event. After all, this day had literally been years in the making — global expansion has always a goal of mine since I started RWS in my living room in New York City 17 years ago. With the help of an incredibly talented team and the support to our wonderful clients, we knew we were ready to expand with an official EU HQ across the pond.

Little did I know, the entire world dramatically changed while I slept as the growing outbreak of the coronavirus threatened our very way of life. Amidst so much uncertainty, including the proposed suspension of travel from the EU — I wasn’t even sure I’d be allowed to travel back to New York. That said, I innately knew one thing for sure: My team, including 4,500 seasonal employees worldwide, needed leadership more than ever.

Here’s the thing: There is no rule book for running a business during a pandemic. That’s where tried-and-true leadership principles become your compass. It doesn’t matter the circumstance, good or bad, and here’s how I lead my team:

Of course, that’s not to say that it’s all smooth sailing, especially now, when much of our country is working remotely. All 110 of my New York employees are currently working from home — and, honestly, none of us know for how long. This is uncharted territory, and something I’ve found to be incredibly helpful and imperative to my continued approach to moving forward is maintaining a daily schedule. A little structure goes a tremendously long way in keeping me and my company on task and feeling productive and energized for the day ahead.

As a point of reference, here’s what my daily schedule looks like right now:

For anyone running a business, small or large, I would highly recommend maintaining a sense of normalcy. You must impress on your team the need to move forward so that, once we come out of this, we come out with a continued sense of who we are and what we are going to achieve.