#WayForward with Bilge Apak, CEO WeWent.com, Zurich, Switzerland

In the #WayForward series, CEOs tell us what’s on their mind in coronavirus times. Read how Bilge Apak, CEO WeWent.com, sees things.

As a startup, we had our most important event coming up: “Shake Up The Workplace” is about building the future of the work ecosystem. 300 participants, a budget of CHF 100’000. We decided to postpone it a few weeks before the government would have forbidden it anyway. At the time, our vote was divided 3 to 2. Taking this decision physically and mentally took a toll on us and the first thing we did as a team was to recover for a few days.

Today, we know that almost all participants stay with us. Even better, we opened the community which was initially part of the event. Plus, the workplace has already been shaken up and the event in October will take place in a very important time for most companies.

My top tips for CEOs:
1) Keep investing in your people. Many need rest. Others need learning opportunities and whole teams have the chance to become better together.
2) Trust in autonomy. Trust that your people do the best they can from their home offices.
3) Being clear is being kind. If something is not going right, tell your employees. Give them the big picture at least.
4) The best time to shake up things is now.

Bilge on what they did first on WeWent.com: “Our main business is a platform for team services. After the lockdown began, we went immediately through the 200 workshops and we checked which of those can be transformed into digital experiences. It was an exercise in prioritization and we talked with about those 10% of our 180 providers who have experience with online delivery. Our clients on the other end of the marketplace now can – as teams – learn about managing remotely or how to thrive in a new reality. They can also engage in team-building exercises such as a virtual race in nature or a treasure hunt online.”

#WayForward Table Of Contents: Click here to get to the #WayForward series’ Table of Contents with all the posts we did with CEOs plus recordings of media events where the WayForward insights are discussed.