…one year later

Today marks a year since the first quarantine began, locking us all in our homes. An experience I had never lived through, and something that undoubtedly changed all of our lives. I had returned from Italy a few weeks earlier, and I isolated myself for 15 days as a preventive measure. I remember thinking about how complicated everything would be if we were put into quarantine, as was already being discussed in other countries, and although I wasn’t very scared about it, I was a little anxious. Of course, my lack of fear was due to my deep ignorance on the subject and the fact that, just a few days before, in Rome, everyone was acting as if nothing was happening. I even had an encounter with a pharmacist just a few meters from Piazza del Popolo, where she told me, “all this is nothing but a social phenomenon, caused by Trump’s problems with China”. Believe me, I thought the same thing, hehe.

A few days later, on RAI (Italian public television), they aired a 2015 documentary that was already discussing a “coronavirus” and how it was being studied in China. I remember they even mentioned that one of the risks (supposedly very remote) was that the virus could escape from the laboratory and spread worldwide. I remember sitting on the couch, feeling distressed, because things were starting to take a different turn. A few days later, on my way back to Rome from northern Italy, I encountered a lot of activity at the station. There were military personnel and many announcements on the screens. The announcements had already taken on an alarming tone (because I hadn’t seen anything like that in previous days anywhere). Although when I arrived in Rome (a few weeks earlier), I found the Red Cross checking temperatures with thermal cameras, apart from that incident, there weren’t many precautions in place anywhere in the city. I must confess that I didn’t take any precautions either, and I didn’t wear a mask at any point. What madness.

Well, upon arriving back in Rome (at Termini station) in the early morning, I was surprised to find that all communication routes across Italy had been closed, and I almost didn’t make it to Rome. Just imagine that the Venice Carnival was canceled because of this, and that an event with more than 700 years (seven centuries) of history was suddenly canceled, just like that. You could sense the magnitude of the crisis. What madness. You can imagine the situation.

Arriving in Lima (where I wasn’t checked at all, neither in Amsterdam, Bogotá, nor Lima, by the way), besides deciding to isolate myself for 15 days, we began organizing for the possibility of a long period of confinement. I was reluctant to believe it, but it was inevitable. If it was happening “out there,” it would be much worse here.

As I’ve mentioned on several occasions, to ensure the continuity of our business, years ago we invested in implementing a parallel operation running in the cloud. Although we hadn’t fully utilized it until then, it seemed like the moment of truth was approaching. From home, I started coordinating with the team about what might happen and what we could do. We prepared the laptops, digitized everything that might be useful, and began testing. Fortunately, we had time. I kept organizing everything as if we were going to isolate ourselves, though I held out hope (naive, perhaps) that it wouldn’t be necessary in the end.

We manage two business units: Consulting and Training. The first, Consulting, didn’t present many problems since we had always operated in collaborative environments, with cloud tools for storage, process design, documents, and everything we needed. In that aspect, although we weren’t excited about it, we were prepared for any eventuality. The second, Training, had “a little problem” because the service was offered in person, and everything was organized that way. In the case of Training, we would have to act quickly to avoid being overwhelmed by this situation (which I felt was inevitable, even though we were still 10 days away from lockdown, and I didn’t know it yet). We started thinking, organizing, making checklists, even having some meetings of “what are we going to do?” and finally concluded that we had enough brand and reputation to “migrate” our services to cyberspace and that our own value network would support, protect, and bless us (it doesn’t hurt to have faith). Those who know me know I’ve always liked using a whiteboard and markers, but there was no other option but to “adapt” so that the inevitable wouldn’t become, in addition to everything, catastrophic for the business.

We held our last in-person course during the weekend before the lockdown (Risk Management. ISO31000), and the following day we began the Information Security course (ISO27001). On the afternoon of March 15, 2020, after posting a photo from the end of the Risk course, we received the news that as of Monday, March 16, we would enter a strict quarantine and everything else that came with it. That same night, we all went to the office to collect our equipment and anything else necessary because, even though they said “15 days,” the truth is that no one with a bit of common sense believed that such a serious health situation (on a global scale) could be resolved in 15 days (not even in 15 months). The inevitable question arose: “Tomorrow, how will we start the course?” To which we responded with good humor, something like “Release the Kraken”, and so we launched our beloved #PMCLiveTraining into orbit.

Immediately, we launched the campaign we had prepared in case this happened, and we promoted the call for various webinars (before the huge wave that came later, haha) to renew our databases with leads from other countries, since, thanks to the lockdown, geographic barriers had fallen, and we had to take advantage of what life was offering us at that moment. The next day, while many were still stunned and unsure of what to do, we were announcing that “we’re not stopping here”, and through our webinars, we were offering a “taste” of what our style would be through #PMCLiveTraining.

During this past year, many things have happened, we experienced sadness, joy, discouragement, frustration, anxiety, anguish, but we also experienced what it means to have hope and dreams. It hasn’t been an easy year, it’s been extremely hard and complicated, but we achieved many of the goals we set from the very beginning: we stayed united. It’s no small thing to say that our organization remains composed of the same people we were when the pandemic started, that we managed to keep setting the pace in our market, and that we made a remarkable entry into different markets where we previously only reached by traveling. This year, we were honored with the preference of more than 1,500 professionals who, from Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Honduras, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Canada, and Spain, joined our alumni community, proving that quality knows no borders, that language is the same with all its peculiarities, and that when you want something and work very (VERY) hard, it’s possible to achieve even the unimaginable. In terms of consulting, we have to thank our clients who, despite all these changes, continue to choose us to help them achieve their goals. It’s been a year full of learning, new experiences, and new approaches, where the trust of many professionals and companies has been our main incentive.

Did the pandemic affect us as a business? Of course. Did it make things more complicated and cause us to abandon some of our goals? Certainly. Did it teach us and confirm who we are as a team? Without a doubt.

I always talk about the power of “collaboration”, but especially about the importance of knowing who you do it with and what truly drives you to do it. This past year brought me many new friends and business partners, many opportunities seized together, and a true sense of win-win. It’s no secret to anyone that I have a competitive spirit, and that I calculate every step carefully. That’s just the way it is. However, this year taught me to be patient, to be grateful for each day, to close my eyes with hope every time a friend overcame the virus, to bite my lip in frustration and courage when someone didn’t, and to see that solidarity is a healthy way to express ourselves. This year taught me that we have many things to stay alive for, to keep trying for, and to keep being original. We are a team, all of us who form the PMC family (this definitely includes you).

We’re still together. We’re still alive. We’re still here, friends. I send a big hug and thank you for this entire year together, where not only did we learn a lot, but we also strengthened ourselves as a team and as adventure companions. In a few years, when you think back on the pandemic and everything that happened, you’ll remember me as I’ll remember you.

Thank you very much for making it this far. I couldn’t let this day go by without writing something like this.

A huge hug.