Towards the end of April, I had the pleasure of hosting a Teams call with Colm Greene, Channel Sales Director at Dell Technologies.
I’ve known Colm for a few years now, and I wanted to understand how Dell’s local, national and international teams were dealing with the ever-evolving Coronavirus pandemic. I also wanted to find out how its cross-industry and multi-sized partners and customers were coping and what Colm thought a successful organisational ‘reaction’ looked like.
Colm spoke to me about his own team’s working arrangements, and about the vital camaraderie that he had witnessed across the wider Dell network. As you’d expect, the Dell team were comfortable pivoting into an exclusively home-working arrangement, and obviously have the technological and structural capabilities to transition into ‘pandemic working’ with a level of agility and confidence that’s an example to many of us.
Fast-tracking systems for their customers and helping organisations to survive and thrive has been filling much of their diaries since the end of March. In our call, Colm and I discussed how Dell has prioritised the things that really matter to ensure it’s fully servicing its most important assets - its people, its customers and its business.
Colm has always hugely valued empathy for customers, and he talks about the importance of considering and assessing each customer’s needs and specific situations at all times, but especially during the pandemic. How we treat our customers and make them feel in this, their time of real need, will have implications (on either end of the spectrum) that last long into the future.
I couldn’t hold a conversation about Covid-19 without dropping the ’new normal‘ bomb (sorry!), but Colm makes a superb observation about some companies having digital transformation plans ‘in theory’ but, when they’re truly needed, they’re not able to execute them. He sees this as a key differentiator between successful and troubled organisations.
Finally, and most importantly (especially during Mental Health Awareness Week), Colm reminds us to make the most of these unprecedented days to look after ourselves and to enjoy the precious time we have with our families… and nobody here could argue with that!
