The Art of Pivoting (or What Dinner Taught Me Tonight)

by Monette Iturralde-Hamlin / September 7, 2020

September 1, 2020.  Sometimes, things just turn out fine despite seemingly insurmountable challenges. Like dinner tonight. Before my board meeting, I put out angus beef patties I had bought at a village fair to defrost, thinking I would make burgers tonight. And since the mussels I ordered were delivered this morning, I thought I would bake some appetizers to start the meal with.  To get the family excited, I announced what our dinner plans were.

All day I was caught up in virtual meetings with our management team and some clients, with writing a business case and preparing for my lecture at the Philippine MICE Academy and Enderun on Thursday, and with a two-hour board meeting of the Women’s Business Council Philippines.  

When I got down to the kitchen at 6:45pm, my mom announced that she had washed all the remaining salad greens (about two and a half kilos) so I can make lettuce soup to freeze.  No problem, I thought, as I could cook the soup while preparing the mussels. Then, my son came by to ask what time dinner was as he had an 8pm virtual date.  Will have dinner ready by 7:30pm, I assured him.  That said, I was on the clock to finish cooking in 45 minutes.

While dicing garlic, I remembered to look for the burger buns, only to be reminded by Dada that we had them last night. Oh no! What will happen to my burgers? Thinking quickly, I got some potatoes and started to have them boiled. No buns? Use mashed potatoes instead.

After chucking the mussels, parboiling them, and preparing the lemon-butter-garlic seasoning, I heard my mom complain that the angus patties were too soft and wet, and would not hold their shape.  So, I suggested that we make patatas rellenas instead, something my mom would cook for me when I was little.  I checked Google for a recipe to see if I had everything I needed to make them.

So that’s what we did.  From burgers and mash to patatas rellenas. The kids loved it! As they did the baked mussels.  As for the lettuce soup, it’s now safely in the freezer. Oh well! Another quarantine meal down.

Later that night after washing up, cleaning the kitchen, and ironing clothes, I stumbled into bed and began to reflect on the day.  It occurred to me that the way I was quickly adapting to the challenges of preparing dinner was similar to what is happening in business and my life now.

Before COVID-19, we had our business strategy in place, plans in the pipeline, clients to service and events being organized. Our vision was clear and we knew where we were going, very much like my carefully laid out plans for dinner.

The global pandemic put a stop to all that, and turned everything upside down.  We had a strategy and prepared for it (defrosted the angus patties, bought the mussels) and communicated it to the organization during strategic planning sessions, Mancom meetings, and town halls to ensure everyone was aligned (just as I had announced that our dinner was going to be angus burgers and baked mussels).  We had a set timeline (45 minutes to cook dinner) and clear deadlines (my son’s 8pm dinner date).  We had an Internal Risk Assessment Team to evaluate possible problems that may happen and be ready to adjust (my mom’s request to prepare lettuce soup).

Midway, something totally unexpected and irreversible (COVID-19) happened that forced us to give up certain things we had our hearts set on (no more buns for the burgers). Doing a SWOT analysis, we reviewed our resources to see what we can do now that business events have all been cancelled and the quarantine period kept being prolonged (aha! There are potatoes in the pantry that can be made into mashed potatoes to go with the Angus beef patties).

We drew on our strengths (our triad of Creatives, Content and Digital Marketing), carefully studied the situation, and decided to pivot to virtual events.  We launched our weekly podcast, Breakfast to Business, which has amassed a following and is now ranking on Spotify; our integrated publication called The Red Circle that provides readers with valuable insights from news and current affairs to the latest happenings in the lifestyle scene; the Virtual Arena which puts events and activations online; TeamAsia Training Online which provides upskilling sessions by industry experts for professional success, especially on effective communication and strategic leadership; and our very own proprietary strategic marketing approach called Integrated Marketing Experience (IME) that empowers consumers to actively take part in a brand’s story by engaging them across different channels.

We constantly review our numbers and how we are achieving our KPIs, meet as a team, and adjust when necessary if the plan isn’t working as expected (deciding to make patatas rellenas instead because the patties were too soft). Constantly, we strive for Next Level Experiences, and the satisfaction of a job well done makes our hearts fat, just as dinner did tonight.  It may not have been what we wanted at the start, but challenges have a way of making us come out better.  Yes, we definitely can rise up to the challenge of a Reimagined Future!

Read also:

• The future of the Philippine MICE industry in the midst of a pandemic
• Addressing women empowerment in light of COVID-19