#WayForward with Boris Duhamel, CEO Baseline Studio, Hong Kong

In the #WayForward series, CEOs tell us what’s on their mind in coronavirus times. Read how Boris Duhamel, CEO Baseline Studio, sees things.

We’re wearing masks but can go to a restaurant again where we sit 1.5m apart. We have asked our 10 staff of the HQ to come back to the office. Working in the same place is good for the spirit.

We still meet our clients online and I see the positive effects of video conferencing: the meetings are shorter and we get the full attention of everyone. People are less easily distracted when they have to look at this one screen in front of them. We see the same effect at school: my two sons of 14 and 17 get the full curriculum delivered in online lectures and after 3 months of the lockdown, both of their classes are about 1 month ahead of schedule.

My best tip for CEOs is that clarity is key. Since we became dependent on video calls, we needed to make sure everybody speaks of the same thing much more than before. We have practised asking back and rephrasing questions. We invest in understanding vs. interpreting. It pays off to take the extra time to clarify. This is a new skill that will stay with us beyond the crisis, I believe.

Boris on using the crisis wisely: “We had planned to redesign the website and to implement a marketing automation solution. We used the lockdown to get going and actually do these things. The main goal is to automatize our lead generation. On top of that, we also focused on innovation and created new concepts in the field of sensory marketing where we want to touch people’s emotions through the use of lighting. The crisis has given us the time to pause and work on it.”

#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.