Martin Tripp Associates Covid 19 Archives

Return to theatres

James Dodd 2nd September 2020

A theatrical entrance

This week I went to the theatre. You read that correctly. Some six months since the coronavirus pandemic forced theatres around the globe to lower their curtains and close their doors, I stepped into Regents Park Open Air Theatre for a performance of their great revival, Jesus Christ Superstar.

The irony was not lost on me. This was the very same revival, in the same venue, with many of the same cast and musicians I watched some four years ago, while I was undergoing chemotherapy. I survived, and as I sat there amongst the socially distanced audience, engulfed by that same intoxication only a live performance exudes, I found myself utterly convinced that theatre will survive too.

Even though it was an outside performance, the same strict protocols you’d expect inside remained: facemasks throughout the performance were mandatory; audience members were mostly

The value of values-based interviewing

Sophia Garibaldi 1st September 2020

Getting to know you

Across industry, companies have naturally become more apprehensive about recruitment processes during the lockdown. Earlier this month, MTA conducted an industry survey to explore how business leaders felt about remote hiring and onboarding. We found that the majority of companies across the media, information, technology and entertainment sectors are still making hires during the pandemic. However, 69% of leaders were found to be less confident when hiring and onboarding new team members.

This is understandable: hiring and onboarding have been converted to online practices with the use of virtual meetings for interviewing, induction and mentoring. But according to our recent survey, a staggering 75% of business leaders are concerned about using such remote tech to assess candidates’ abilities to work as part of a team, and 72% were worried about candidates’ wider cultural fit within the business.

Constraints foster innovation, and the constraints imposed by covid-19 have shone a light on the importance of values-based interviewing. When we cannot meet face-to-face to understand

Can the creative industries help restart the economy?

Martin Tripp 19th August 2020

Lights, camera, benefaction.

Our friends at Olsberg SPI – the creative industries strategy consultancy – have published a fascinating report which illustrates how the screen production industry could play an instrumental role in post-Covid economic recovery.

The argument is sound: direct economic benefit (effectively production costs) from the industry were $177bn globally in 2019. But that only accounts for around two fifths of the overall economic benefit, Olsberg estimates. Last year, the industry supported or indirectly contributed to 14m jobs, and $414bn into global coffers.

Our offices, when we can use them, are in Gray’s Inn in central London. It, and other nearby locations, are popular sites for filming: you’ll have seen them in everything from The Children Act to Oliver. When cast and crew descend, for some weeks at a time, cafes, barbers, supermarkets, and numerous other businesses benefit from the increased activity. A study on one (very high budget) film showed that an additional $10m per week was being spent in the locality. In now largely deserted city centres, their presence would be particularly keenly felt.

Amanda Nevill – CEO of the BFI for 17 years until stepping down this year, and now an adviser to Olsberg – talked in our Business People podcast this month about watching the credits at the end of a film: “all of those credits are individuals who have jobs, and what is so fantastic about our industry is… there is a job for every skill imaginable: from marketing and finance, to nail technicians, hair, drivers, caterers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians.”

The magic of screen production is that it can be rapidly deployed and make its positive impact quickly. The UK government has talked about

Corporate technology at home; balancing privacy and productivity

Eleanor Morum 22nd July 2020

Managing from home

My webcam is covered with a googly eye, but I’ve seen band aids, sparkly butterfly stickers, and purpose-made spyholes with sliding covers. For millennials and Gen-Zs, the idea of someone on the other side of the camera of every device we own is something of a given, to say nothing of the security of our personal data. For us, invasion of personal privacy by internet giants via our technology has been something to adapt to rather than eradicate.

But the pandemic has pushed many more of us to consider how closely we are being watched in a new sphere. Forced to work from home, many of us have brought corporate technology into our homes for the first time. And with many hailing ‘the death of the office’, it may be here for some time.

The supposed death of the office brings some benefits: less wasted time – both on the commute and at people’s desks, improved employee retention, and company savings on office space. Contrary to Boris Johnson’s belief that working from home is a ‘skiver’s paradise’, a Stanford study found that workers at home were 13% more productive

Business People Podcast – Sandeep Saujani interview

Martin Tripp 13th July 2020

The aim of the Business People series of podcasts is to explore how businesses, and the people that run them, are coping with the challenges of a changing world: the Covid-19 pandemic, changes in technology, expectations of staff and customers, and all things human.

A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed Sandeep Saujani, CEO of Contentive Media, for the “How to Stage a Virtual Conference” blog. The conversation was much wider ranging than just about virtual conferences: we talked about the future of his business, socially distanced working, how changing working habits will impact people’s interaction, and the future of media among other things. All neatly edited into 27 minutes.

I hope you enjoy it.

How to stage a virtual conference

Martin Tripp 13th July 2020

Distance learning

Covid-19 has put a stop to face-to-face events for now, and this has hit many companies hard financially. But over the last few months, we’ve been impressed by the innovation and agility of businesses that have transformed their events into virtual experiences, keeping them central to their communities.

One such business is Contentive, who have run the HRD Summit for the past fifteen years, taking the whole thing online this year. The event brings together senior HR and people leaders to discuss their challenges, with a particular focus on the future of work. We were invited to join to see how it all worked, and afterwards I interviewed Contentive CEO Sandeep Saujani.

He gave a fascinating insight into how the conference was conceived and run, and talked eloquently about the pros and cons. We thought it would be helpful

Remote hiring and onboarding: an MTA survey

Matt D'Cruz 9th July 2020

We want to hear your thoughts.

We would like to invite you to participate in our industry-wide survey on socially-distanced, remote hiring and onboarding. We’re interested in your views whatever your circumstances, and whether or not you have been involved in hiring or onboarding new team members.

Over the past few months, we’ve spoken to hundreds of business leaders to find out how they’ve been coping and adapting. Many of you have had a hugely challenging time, with revenues hit, staff furloughed and redundancies made. Others have seen more resilient revenue streams, or a sudden increase in demand. If anything, we’ve been surprised how many organisations have continued hiring at various levels throughout the pandemic. But the question of how they’re hiring perhaps hasn’t received as much attention.

Nearly all of that recruitment has needed to take place over video conferencing, including for senior team members. For many businesses,

Dark times for theatre unless government acts fast

James Dodd 22nd June 2020

An empty stage

• Two thirds of performance venues have lost over 70% of revenues, our survey shows

• Government help covers less than 30% of those losses, 87% of venue leaders say

It is clear that the UK is about to suffer a severe recession. But some industries will be hit much harder than others. We have conducted a survey of CEO’s and leaders of theatres and performing arts businesses, and the results are shocking.

A formula for success in tricky times – perhaps

Martin Tripp 18th May 2020

A roadmap to success…

Over the last few weeks we have had the opportunity to talk to hundreds of business leaders to understand how they are adapting to the current crisis. These range from global corporates to early stage start-ups across media, information, technology and entertainment – or MITE. Even with such a broad range of organisations, there’s a common thread that unites them.

It sort of works as an equation – and though it may not offer a panacea, it may be a predictive shorthand for which companies will come out of the crisis strongest.

We think you can boil it down to this: Community + Content + Delivery = Habit.

(Reductive, we know: but this is a blog, not a book, and we only have a thousand words.)

First, let’s start with the right-hand side of the equation: the answer.

HABIT

All MITE businesses depend on habit. We need people to have

Antonio Zappulla: Media freedom must not fall victim to covid-19

Martin Tripp Associates 6th May 2020

The pen, being mighty

We have written many times about the importance of a free press, and the dangers of governments – including ours – deliberately undermining media credibility. May 3rd was World Press Freedom Day, and Antonio Zappulla, CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, wrote a powerful op-ed piece which was published widely overseas this weekend. As far as we know, it has not yet been published in the UK other than on the digital sites of overseas media. We think it is an important piece, and asked Mr Zappulla if we could print his column in full. We are delighted that he has consented.

MEDIA FREEDOM MUST NOT FALL VICTIM TO COVID-19

Antonio Zappulla, CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation

As the world grapples with the speed and scale of the devastation wreaked by Covid-19, the need for access to trusted, accurate and independent information has never been so acute. With global mortality rates showing no signs of slowing, the world’s economy knocked off its axis, and society at a standstill, there is no precedent to this emergency. We are fighting it blindfolded. Each day is costing us thousands of lives. But without the vital free-flow of information – learnings from other countries, warnings from medics, expertise from scientists, guidance to the public – we stand no chance of fighting it at all.

A free and vibrant media is more important than ever. Yet one of most catastrophic fallouts of this crisis is that it is paving the way for a crackdown on press freedoms across the world. A dangerous pattern seems to be emerging; it sees some governments

Arts funding in the time of coronavirus

Eleanor Morum 30th April 2020

In February, I read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, a novel that jumps back and forth on a timeline before and after a pandemic that wipes out much of the Earth’s population. Even pre-lockdown and social distancing, it felt a little too pertinent to be a comfortable read.

One of the book’s few hopeful takeaways is its certainty in the re-emergence of Shakespeare and orchestral music, re-enforced by the refrain ‘survival is not enough,’ a quote borrowed from Star Trek.

In our own pre-apocalyptic timeline, Rishi Sunak announced our 2020 budget on March 11, a week and a half before the beginning of lockdown. On initial glance, the budget looked remarkably positive for arts funding, including a £250m fund for local, small museums and libraries, as well as a £90m Cultural Development Fund for outside of London. There is a new allowance of £25k for every primary school to invest in ‘arts activities’, and the DCMS will see a rise in their budget from £1.6bn to £1.7bn.

And, overall, this feels incredibly positive. It’s a surprising turnaround from several years in a row of cuts to arts and cultural funding. And, while not wanting to look a gift horse in its mouth, I did ask why there should be a change of heart now?

At the time, I thought these developments must reflect the changes incurred by Brexit – back when that was the all-consuming story. I assumed the budget was taking into account the sizable loss of funding from the EU at the end of the year. Most significantly, our government announced their withdrawal from Creative Europe, a €1.46bn fund for arts and heritage institutions around Europe, which has been worth €74m to 334 organizations in the UK since 2014. (Our withdrawal seem to be driven purely by nationalistic politics, given that 13 non-EU states happily participate and benefit from the Creative Europe fund.)

But now, I wonder if neither regret for the years of budget cuts, nor preparation for the loss of EU funding explains the sudden investment in the arts. Instead,

Mental Heath and Wellbeing during and beyond lockdown

James Dodd 6th April 2020

Steps to help you deal with remote working and social distancing.

Since the outbreak of Coronavirus began, we have been speaking with business leaders about how they are dealing with the sudden need to change the typical working practices of their businesses and their employees.

While the logistics of remote working are challenging, the real challenge lies in ensuring the health and wellbeing of home-working employees. It is important not just for their own mental health, but also to ensure your business stays productive. With this in mind, we have been attending webinars organised by our friends at Thrive, the mental health specialists. As a result, we were able

Future recruitment strategies, post-Covid

Martin Tripp 24th March 2020

Social distancing, people.

How will the current pandemic affect the way you recruit?

For most companies, this may feel like a strange question right now. After all, few people are rushing to recruit people at the moment. But it will be interesting to see how this crisis not only affects short-term thinking, but to speculate on the longer-term impact it will have. We should stress that this was written on 24^th March, just after lockdown in the UK, and the situation is evolving very quickly: but these are some general themes which seem to be emerging.

It may not be the people you think

I had a long conversation with a business today, about 70 employees, but growing until the virus hit. The partners have dispersed their employees to work from home: but using a CRM, they are able to monitor everyone’s activity. The client has been

Tag: Covid 19