The best intel from CEOs and experts on how industries are changing to adapt with the COVID-19 pandemic?

Insights: Business Adapts to the COVID-19 Pandemic

 MARK HOPLAMAZIAN: We are suspending operations in a large number of hotels. But we view that as temporary. We have to get through this initial crisis phase of COVID-19. We're not exactly sure how long that will be, but we measure this in a number of weeks, as opposed to many, many months. But we'll see. The balance that you describe is exactly the source of this conflict that we feel, because at the core of everything we do is our purpose to care for people. And we will do that. And even though we have to take some actions like putting people on temporary leave, it's the way we do it that matters the most. So we're trying to extend ourselves. We're putting people out on furlough and not layoffs, so that allows them to apply for unemployment benefits but maintain health care. We've established the Hyatt Care Fund to help provide financial support for those who are most in need. And finally, we're partnering with over 10 companies that are currently hiring. Companies like Walmart, and Pepsi, and CVS, and Walgreens, we're very grateful to them for allowing us to plug straight into their application processes online to help our colleagues find work there, if they want to work during their furlough. The stock-based compensation program that we have at Hyatt covers over 400 people. And it is something that is scheduled far in advance. The timing of all of these grants is set two years in advance, because they relate to a schedule, a calendar that we maintain for our board of directors. So this award that was made last week was part of the same process that we've had in place since we've been a public company. We had no influence over the timing of it. But that doesn't diminish or otherwise change our focus on providing resources for all of our colleagues who are in need of assistance. We were committed from the very beginning to making sure that the executive team and our chairman were part of helping to fund this Hyatt Care Fund through foregoing salary or reducing salaries. And we were early, the first company to commit to that in our industry. What we've seen in prior downturns is that travel is one of the first things that does come back, because there's always this desire to get out and engage. Whether that's businesses that are looking to engage with customers or their fellow colleagues, or people who want to take a vacation, I think people are going to be looking to get back on the road. The key for us is, I think that we're going to be restarting our operations and ramping back up before there's a vaccine, which means that we have to really think hard about our processes and procedures, how we reopen hotels so that we instill confidence and are able, again, to reassemble the Hyatt family, and care for everyone who comes to us. 

CEO Mark Hoplamazian talks about supporting Hyatt employees with establishing a care fund and partnering with companies currently hiring.

Insights: Hyatt CEO On Balancing Employee Needs and Financial Demands

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Hyatt established a care fund to help furloughed employees.

Hyatt CEO On Balancing Employee Needs and Financial Demands

[MUSIC PLAYING] ED BASTIAN: We're implementing all the social distancing standards that you could take. We've changed the entire boarding process. Typically, the boarding process, where the people in first class board first and they get the nice room and the luggage space, and the people that gradually move to the back. Well, we thought about it and said, well, that's not safe for the people sitting up front to have people parading past them when you're supposed to be socially distant, right? So actually one of our employees sent me note and said, shouldn't we be doing this the other way? And I thought about it and said, she's absolutely right. So we're now even boarding from the back of the plane to get people settled in the back moving. We've capped load factors so that we will not board a plane with more than 60% full in the main cabin, or 50% full in first class. We're sanitizing. We're providing as much fogging and cleanliness-- our cleaning scores are through the ceiling. We're strongly encouraging the use of masks. All of our employees are using masks. I fly with a mask on now. Having to rethink the entire screening process. I wouldn't be surprised if we come up with a public hygiene group that's similar-- because you know, TSA was born after 9/11, and Homeland Security was as well. We very well may, and probably will, come up with some type of public health agency that's going to dictate not just travel, but overall safety of clean and hygiene in our environment. We've enlisted a panel of medical experts to help us think through this. One of the challenges not just, I'm going through, but many of my CEOs in other industries are going through, is we're rapidly turning into healthcare CEOs rather than-- I'm a good airline CEO, but I'm not sure I'm a great healthcare CEO. So I'm reaching out to the best healthcare CEOs and experts in the field to help guide us in this path. On my earnings call last week, I indicated that I think this is a three-year process just to get to a sustainable level of travel demand, not necessarily even getting back. I don't think we'll be back to 2019 levels in three years. Just to a level of scale that we can expect to build off for the new normal in travel. And a lot of that's going to be dictated by medical advances. Hopefully that comes faster. But until we have a vaccine that's in widespread application and use and people feel safe, not just about themselves, but the people sitting around themselves, I'm not certain you're going to see travel at scale the way we've come to know it in our business, in our industry. 

CEO Ed Bastian says Delta changed the boarding process and keeping planes booked at a capacity of 60% during the pandemic.

Insights: Delta Is "Rethinking The Entire Customer Experience"

The boarding process was changed for planes at 60% capacity.

Delta Is "Rethinking The Entire Customer Experience"

[MUSIC PLAYING] MARGARET KEANE: There's a team looking at it. We haven't made all those decisions. But what I will tell you, it's going to be very slow, very thoughtful, and methodical, and using data as the primary source of our decision making. I think the number 1 topic is people are still very nervous and looking for clarity. And I think there is not a lot of clarity now. There's still a lot about this virus we don't know. We do two calls. We do a Ask Us Anything call, which is our leadership team, and they ask us anything. And then the second is we do a weekly call with an infectious disease doctor. And I've been quite surprised. We started out thinking those calls would reduce the number. We're getting over 2,000 people every single week asking questions. Last week's-- last week was a lot about wearing masks. Should I wear masks? Some of the states we're in have opened up, so people are asking a lot of questions around that. So I think, you know, we'll get those questions, and we're continuing those calls. We feel like we have the right protocols that we're going to lay out to bring people back safe, but I think there's two things that we have to keep in mind. And I've been talking about this. We need to think about going from what I've said a year out, which is hopefully we have a vaccine and working our way backwards. A vaccine gives us the surety that we're all safe. So in between a vaccine and where we are today, we have to make sure that our employees feel comfortable coming back. And we're going to give them choices. And if they are high risk, they don't have to come back. If they have someone in their family who's high risk, they don't have to come back. And, you know, we're going to learn a little bit through this as well, I think, as we bring people back into their sites. And we are going to have to adjust and be flexible. The number 1 thing is keeping our employees safe and making them feel comfortable coming into the workplace. [MUSIC PLAYING]

Margaret Keane says Synchrony will let high-risk employees work from home until a vaccine is developed.

Insights: Synchrony CEO Margaret Keane On Addressing Employee Concerns During Covid-19 Crisis

High-risk workers can work from home until there's vaccine.

Synchrony CEO Margaret Keane On Covid-19 Employee Concerns

[MUSIC PLAYING] DREW HOUSTON: Certainly, speed to getting up to running is really important. We had a publisher of children's books who was using file servers. And then suddenly, no one could go to work anymore, and they needed a solution to be able to continue working from home, and they needed it fast. And they were able to use Dropbox to get up and running in a week. But more broadly, it's a big management challenge. So how do you-- you lose a lot of the human connection when you're in an office, and so how do you rebuild that? That's certainly been the biggest challenge for us is how do we recreate that sense of human connection, especially when people need a lot of emotional support? This has really upended people's lives. There's a lot more we could do to make our tools better for this environment. And I think we're going to-- even after we physically go back to the office, we're going to be in a state of hybrid remote work perhaps forever. And so we actually have-- I think there is a lot of way that technology can contribute. So some things that are really easy when you're in an office become difficult when you're working from homes. Just basic things like, how's my team doing? Where is everyone? What are the most important things that happened today? Today, in this environment, you have to sort through a lot of emails and chat messages, and it's very overwhelming and fragmented experience. And so we see a lot of potential for Dropbox to be an organizing layer to help you focus and pull it all together. And that's what we do for a lot of our customers today. Because our customers need a platform-agnostic way to pull all these tools together because they might be using Office, but more and more, they're also using G Suite and Slack and Zoom. And Dropbox helps you pull all those different tools together. So being able to provide a more organized experience for your work, we think there's a real need for-- a heightened need for that when you're working in a distributed way. We've completely reimagined the Dropbox experience and transformed it from a folder full of files on your desktop to a collaborative team workspace for all your content, so that you can have your Google Docs next to your PowerPoints, and you can send content to a Slack channel or to a Zoom meeting, and those integrations have been really popular. And as you imagine, our integration with Zoom is up 20 times. And we've seen a 60% increase in the number of active, weekly active users on the desktop app in the last few months. [MUSIC PLAYING]

CEO Drew Houston on how DropBox is taking on the challenge for new users working from home to recreate the sense of human connection making their tools better and also says the company has been "laying the tracks for these milestones" for a while.

Insights: DropBox CEO Key Takeaways On Working At Home Transition

CEO Drew Houston on taking on the challenge for new users.

DropBox CEO Key Takeaways On Working At Home Transition

[MUSIC PLAYING] JOSE E. ALMEIDA: We have a physician who is a infection control physician. And she works with our chief medical officers, as well as our control tower. We go through an assessment that is very comprehensive. We also launched in a app internally to the company to ask questions before people go to the office. We check temperature. We require masks. We provide masks if they need. And we want to make sure that in every aspect, people are not congregating. There is space in between them. So all the things that you hear that the CDC speaks about, we're taking those instructions. Plus internally, we have also evaluated a significant amount of testing if we need to do it, where it's going to be done, and who is going to be doing it. So we have this team. We have the fortune to be a medical technology and pharmaceutical company. So we have the staff to help us navigate through these difficult times. Strong planning. Make sure that you are prepared with all the things that you need to do before you even think about opening. China is a little different. There's more traceability in terms of how people are being monitored in several cities. We have five factories in China which never closed throughout the pandemic while in China. So we want to make sure that our employees get temperature checked, they all get monitored, and don't rush to it, because today, the virtual tools are so effective. So there's no reason for taking risk with people's lives. 

​José Almeida on launching an internal app asking employees questions before enter offices in addition to checking their temperature and requiring masks while observing social distancing.

Insights: The Measures Being Implemented By Baxter International For A Healthy Reopening

​José Almeida on launching an internal app for employees.

What Health Measures Is Baxter International Implementing

[MUSIC PLAYING] ANTONIO NERI: I think the workforce will change dramatically. We see that in our own place. I think upwards to maybe 50% of our workforce will never return to an office. I think we'll learn quite a bit using our own technologies and new processes to maintain or even improve productivity and then use our [? massive ?] [? footprint ?] to turn into more collaborative, innovative spaces than just coming in and docking at a desk to do your day-to-day job. And I think technology is going to play a phenomenal role in enabling these new remote work experiences, and we have the assets with our Aruba portfolio and our cloud services to deliver those new experiences. So I think that it's a challenge, obviously, to navigate through this crisis. But also a ton of opportunities where our company can play a significant role in improving productivity, efficiency, and also help some of the societal problems we have seen because, ultimately, technology has to be equal to everybody. And I think if we do this right, we can improve, again, the way people live and work. [MUSIC PLAYING]

HPE CEO Antonio Neri on the learnings of adapting new processes to improve productivity with more collaborative spaces in the way people live and work.

Insights: HPE CEO On What "The New Normal" Will Look Like

Antonio Neri on the learnings of adapting new processes.

HPE CEO On What "The New Normal" Will Look Like

[MUSIC PLAYING] JENNIFER JOHNSON: For us, we say we're going to be slow followers going back to the office. We don't need to rush it. Things are going fine working from home. We are starting to open some offices up where we can provide safe social distancing. For those who need to be home-- not everybody has a great home work situation, and so we know that there are some that just need some priority. So we've given priority to the folks who need to be back in the office. I think it's a little bit hard to predict right now what the path of this virus is going to be. I think it is-- I'm skeptical that we can have a scalable vaccine even within 12 months and whether you'll have an antiviral. I think that the ability, one, to produce it, even though the world has never had a situation where so many resources are being coordinated and working towards a goal. But I think it's a difficult thing to do. So until people can predict where the end of this virus is and this pandemic is, it is hard to both price and make plans. And so I think that impacts any business because none of us really have certainty around that. [MUSIC PLAYING]

CEO Jenny Johnson of Franklin Templeton stance on being "slow followers going back to the office".

Insights: Franklin Templeton Transition To Remote Working

"Slow followers going back to the office".

Franklin Templeton Transition To Remote Working

[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER: Unfortunately, we were in the same position as a lot of industries and the restaurants in particular that we had to deal with preserving cash and making sure that we were going to be able to survive. We unfortunately, on our corporate side, on the IHOP brand, we did have to do some furloughs to make sure that we were preserving cash for our business, and we were going to be in good shape. We are paying all of the benefits, as far as insurance for people that are out on furlough, including their portion that they would pay, so they're not paying anything for that. We did make that commitment to our employees. You've got to keep in mind, though, that we are a fully franchised organization. We don't own a single restaurant ourselves. All of the IHOP locations are actually franchise-owned, so the franchisees have all those employees. And, in some cases, they have to do furloughs as well, but they'd been calling people back to work on it at a pretty rapid clip right now as restaurants have been reopening. It's going to be a little different experience, but some of it will still be the same. You're going to walk into the building. You're still going to have that big smile on the logo over the door, so it's going to look normal-- till you get inside. Once you get inside, that's where it's going to start to change a little bit. When they walk in, now, they're going to see sanitizer stations or bottles. They're going to see employees that have facial coverings on now to protect the employees and the guests. You're going to walk past a lot of open tables. There's social distancing going on. We're following the CDC guidelines-- six feet in between all the guests and the tables. Some will bring you a menu. It's not going to be the typical old laminated menu that you saw. It's going to be a single two-sided piece of paper that you're going to have your own dedicated menu that we're going to throw away as soon as you leave. So there's no reusing of menus. There's even going to be a QR code on that menu that if a guest wants to take a picture of it and then use the menu on their phone, zooming in if they want, they can do that as well. So there's going to be differences. The other big difference for us is we have syrup and coffee, and those things are you to be on an as order basis now. So when they walk in, they're not going to see anything on the tables. Tables are completely clear. That makes it clutter-free and way easier for us to maintain cleanliness and keep things looking fresh and looking perfect for the guests when they walk in the door. 

IHOP President Jay Johns says the locations will feel the same but restaurants are outfitted with new sanitary protocols.

Insights: IHOP Reimagined Their Dining Experience With Sanitary Protocols

The restaurants are outfitted with new sanitary protocols.

IHOP New Dining Experience With Sanitary Protocols

[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER: There's a couple of things happening down here in the Caribbean. We have written industry-leading health and safety protocols, which really, if I'm being frank about it, have been shared between some of the world's leading organizations. In addition to that, we have been working with associations like The International Association of Travel Advisors, which is a very powerful association in the United States of America, which deals with travel advisors, aviation, best practices. And then at a local level, on island, we in the Caribbean, of course, are going to be guided by the local health and safety protocols. In my country of Jamaica, I have been put on the National Economic Committee for reopening the country. So it's broader than tourism. It takes into consideration manufacturing, and agriculture, and entertainment, seeing the cooperation between both sides of the political debate, seeing the maturity of the private and public sector coming together. It's hugely encouraging. And I don't think ever before, certainly in our generation, have we seen a situation where we could truly say, we're all in this together. I think the long term effect here is that resorts and hospitality, whether it be an airline, whether it be a cruise ship, whether it be a nightclub, whether it be a bar, they are all about people moving back and forth in volumes. And there will be a new norm on how we clean and what we call sanitary measures. The world is an unbelievably curious place. So people travel out of curiosity, and they want to learn cultures, and they want to learn history. And they want to see how people do things differently. And hospitality is about energy. It's about, how does it make you feel going out there and widening your perspective? So I don't think any of that's going to change. I don't think curiosity is going to change. I don't think that the idea of exploring different cultures is going to change. But what I do think is going to change is we're going to be a little more aware-- some would say hyper-aware-- of how well an operation really is run. And who are we going to trust to take care of us to do those things? What are the brands? What are the tour companies? What are the airlines that do it best, that keep us safe? Because at the end of the day, it's about our friends, and our family and our loved ones and wanting that peace of mind. And peace of mind in travel is a critical thing. So I really think the only layer that's going to change really comes down to there will be a new norm on sanitary measures. And over time, that's going to evolve. 

Sandals’ Adam Stewart outlines the long-term effects the coronavirus outbreak will have on the travel industry and the measures implemented to restore customer confidence.

Insights: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic On Tourism For Sandals Resorts

Sandals’ Adam Stewart outlines the travel industry impact.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic On Tourism

[MUSIC PLAYING] BRIAN NICCOL: We used to be able to get shoulder-to-shoulder so that we could just move a lot of people through really fast. We're not going to be shoulder-to-shoulder. So, instead of having seven or eight people on the line, we'll probably only have four. So the trade-off will be in the restaurant we can't go as fast. Luckily for us, though, we've got the second access point, our digital kitchen, which can really compensate for the fact that we can't go as fast in the dining room. I definitely think the app/web web experience is going to be arguably as effective as the store front. It's gotten to be 70% of our business today. But we saw a lot of people that were, call it in-store customers, didn't use our digital experience, and vise versa. And now, for the first time, we're seeing a lot of those customers that used to be in-store exclusive being digital customers. And they're signing for the rewards program. And I think what we're going to find, and what we're starting to see is, the digital occasion serves a unique occasion. The in-store occasion serves a unique occasion. But I think as we reopen our dining rooms and people start to come back in for the in-store experience, I think it'll still hover around that 40% range. And depending where you are in the country, it might be 30 or 50. But it's going to be a multibillion dollar business for us. And it's going to represent almost half of the business. 

Chipotle Mexican Grill CEO Brian Niccol talks about the changes implemented to decrease crowding behind the counter and the huge uptick in mobile orders.

Insights: Chipotle Transitioning Customers To Online Ordering

The CEO talks about the changes behind the counter.

Chipotle Transitioning Customers To Online Ordering

[MUSIC PLAYING] STEVE SLEEPER: There's always a state board of cosmetology or a state board of health or some equivalent agency that's responsible for the health and cleanliness and safetiness of salons and licensed professionals, so that's the baseline we start with. But we've built, obviously, a lot of new recommendations as we've worked with governors' offices across the country to help reopening. And we did publish and put out back to work guidelines. So everything from how to manage new client flow, like I said, how to implement the new cleaning protocols, the PPE requirements, all of those things-- it was pretty comprehensive-- we published and pushed out Most of the salons that we've worked with and have been talking to, they've had weeks, unfortunately, to prepare. So most of them have been gearing up to be ready. And they've been training their teams and going through the new protocols, having kind of a trial run, having the teams come in. And they're walking through those new protocols in how they're handling clients, how they're cleaning their stations after every client, how they wear their PPE, what they should and shouldn't do while they're donning and doffing it. And it's pretty rigorous. It adds a lot of extra work to the process. But, you know, it's necessary so that we can help our clients and guests feel safe again. [MUSIC PLAYING] 

Professional Beauty Association Executive Director Steve Sleeper explains the industry-wide safety recommendations being implemented to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Insights: How are hair and nail salons adapting To Covid-19

Professional Beauty Association Executive Director Steve Sleeper 

Safety recommendations are being implemented.

Insights: Business Adapts to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Insights: Hyatt CEO On Balancing Employee Needs and Financial Demands

Latest video

CEO Mark Hoplamazian talks about supporting Hyatt employees with establishing a care fund and partnering with companies currently hiring.

Videos (11 videos)

Insights: Hyatt CEO On Balancing Employee Needs and Financial Demands

Insights: Delta Is "Rethinking The Entire Customer Experience"

Insights: Synchrony CEO Margaret Keane On Addressing Employee Concerns During Covid-19 Crisis

Insights: DropBox CEO Key Takeaways On Working At Home Transition

Insights: The Measures Being Implemented By Baxter International For A Healthy Reopening

Insights: HPE CEO On What "The New Normal" Will Look Like

Insights: Franklin Templeton Transition To Remote Working

Insights: IHOP Reimagined Their Dining Experience With Sanitary Protocols

Insights: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic On Tourism For Sandals Resorts

Insights: Chipotle Transitioning Customers To Online Ordering

Insights: How are hair and nail salons adapting To Covid-19