How To Succeed in Business Post-COVID

Local leaders share insights about today’s work world.

With the growth and development in the Peachtree Corners area, it’s easy to lose sight of the diverse businesses located here. The May 18 Peachtree Corners Business Association Business After Hours Speakers Series convened a panel of business owners and administrators to give their take on the current business climate. Moderated by Allison Reinert of ALR Marketing Solutions, the speaker panel was made up of Russell Reece, Atlanta office managing partner of Hancock & Askew; Marilyn Margolis, CEO of Emory Johns Creek Hospital; Matt Bettis, director of marketing at Brightree; Sue Storck, general manager of The Forum on Peachtree Parkway; Diana Wheeler, community development director for the City of Peachtree Corners; and Darrell Creedon, owner of Diversified Resource Group.

Challenges and opportunities for change

For the first question, Reinert asked how businesses are adjusting to the current economy and the “postCOVID” world.

“On the retail side, the brick-andmortar retailers have definitely had to change their position,” responded Storck. “They’ve had to

By Arlinda Smith Broady Photos by Tracey Rice

change their way of doing business because so many people are not coming out. Buying online and picking up in store has really become very popular with many, many retailers because the customer can still get the merchandise and local stores are still able to gain their sales.”

“The good news is we had a lot of projects already in the works, so they didn’t miss a beat,” said Creedon. “Since people are going back to the office, for the most part, we’re still seeing a tremendous amount of activity, just maybe a slightly different picture.”

He added that instead of a room full of cubicles, there may be more breakout space and temporary spaces for employees who only come to the office occasionally.

“Our industry is really changing. Employees want different things now,” said Reece. “They have different ideas about what they’re doing, where they wanted to work. And we’ve seen a real contracting in the number of accounting students available for us to hire.”

With the decrease in the supply of accounting graduates, the demand is up in the workforce, so wages are up as well.

“I think the opportunity is to embrace change and growth …and to figure out how to respond to those changes,” Reece continued. “We’ve seen a real acceleration in technology. We’ve just got to embrace AI; we can’t just do things the way we’ve always done them.”

The City of Peachtree Corners has seen the pause caused by the pandemic.

“Over the last couple of years, people slowed down. Then there was the supply chain issues …but we’re moving past that now,” said Wheeler. “Everything that should have happened gradually, methodically over the last three years is now in a compressed timeframe. We’re seeing a lot of accelerated growth — a lot of building permits and a lot of construction.”

She predicted that the City will continue to see a lot more building due to the pent-up demand. “People didn’t stop needing housing and jobs and other things,” Wheeler pointed out.

A healthcare perspective

Since Brightree is in the home medical equipment industry, the COVID pandemic kept the business busy.

“Home medical equipment can be anything — wheelchairs, crutches, CPAP machines, diabetic supplies, anything like that — that will be used in the home,” said Bettis. “If I could wave a magic wand and say COVID never happened, I would. But since COVID happened, it was actually a positive for Brightree in that people were trying to get out of the hospital and get into the home.”

With more home equipment, navigating health insurance reimbursements can become more complicated. “That puts a little bit of pressure on these home medical equipment providers, because now there’s a lot more attention to detail on some of these reimbursements,” he said.

Hospitals had almost the complete opposite experience of everyone else, said Margolis.

“We were in hospital every day …having to worry about whether you’re going to get sick, whether your family is going to get sick. And if that happens, how are you going to care for patients?” Margo- lis said.

“One of the things that became very clear was the need to have a family-oriented environment with a lot of engagement with the staff, a lot of cooperation with the community and making sure that we were able to provide what the staff needed, what the patients needed and what the families needed,” she added.

Another issue was that information changed pretty much daily. What was allowable one day may not be allowed the next. Procedures, policies and protocols were constantly changing. But when the government realized that hospitals needed funding for space, staff and equipment, Emory Johns Creek got $100 million to add two floors to the hospital.

“That’s 80 beds,” said Margolis. “We also added three floors to the medical office building suite to double our size.”

The post-COVID working mindset

One thing that all the panelists agreed upon is that the current generation of employees doesn’t want the same things that the workforce of the past sought. They gave advice such as allowing for a healthy work/life balance.

“I had the mindset that probably will never change as a small business owner: I’m the first one in and the last one to leave. I had that expectation of my teammates, my employees. But I realized years ago that doesn’t always work,” said Creedon.

All the panelists agreed. Today, hybrid work situations and flexible work schedules have become standard.

“The new generation doesn’t want to work every day. They want to work for a couple of days, and then go do something else,” said Margolis. “When I talk to my grandkids, they don’t care about our retirement benefits. They just care how much money is going to go into their pocket.”

Even though salaries are important, every one of the panelists mentioned that strong, positive, nurturing work relationships are just as important.

Regarding her team at the Forum, Storck said, “My whole philosophy is: if you can’t have fun and laugh during the day while you’re at work, you need to go someplace else. We’re a very close-knit team. …And if we can’t have fun while we’re working, we’re not going to have successful events.” ■