Overcoming the COVID-19 Crisis Impact on Business 

Matt Symes Leads Us Through The Importance of Safety, Liquidity and Creativity for Surviving The COVID-19 Business Crisis

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In This Episode

Today we share a special episode to help businesses dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. Our friend Matt Symes of Symplicity Designs joins us to talk through his expertise area in getting businesses through a crisis. Matt shares how to Forecast, Plan and Act to make sure you can push your business through this timeframe and come out the other side. Besides sharing fantastic information in this episode, Matt and Symplicity Designs are also offering daily webinars and other resources for free for all small and micro-businesses. If you are struggling right now, have a listen and check out what Symplicity Designs is offering our business community. 

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

 

Episode Breakdown

First 10 Minutes
Matt Symes joins Dave and Greg to talk about what is happening personally to him and his business. The group talks about the crisis playbook that Symplicity Designs uses in their work and how they are using that now. Matt explains some of the steps people should be looking at to move forward. Matt describes how many people are being driven by Fight, Flight or Freeze responses right now. 

10 Minutes – 20 Minutes 
The group talks about the long term changes to the business market that will most likely happen because of the COVID-19 impact. Matt says there are three phases are Forecast, Plan and Act and walks us through the steps in each.

20 Minutes – 30 Minutes 
The group talks about single points of failure within their businesses and how they are handling it in their businesses. Matt gives feedback on the frequency and structures for meetings. The group talks about shifting services to meet market needs. The group talks about how important it is for leaders to make sure they are doing the things they need to to make themselves succeed before they focus on others. The analogy of using an oxygen mask for yourself first before helping others is employed.

Matt Symes

Matt Symes

Founding Partner, Symplicity Designs

Matt is a Founding Partner at Symplicity Designs. Over the last decade, he has helped introduce more than 350 organizations to the Principles, Methods, and Tools of Performance Excellence. Over the last 6 years, he has guided the deep transformation of numerous organizations in all sectors. He has led the successful transformation of companies as large as 30m in revenue to as small as a 2 person, 250k PR firm. His passion, though, is to help Small and Medium sized Businesses scale – They are the engine of our economy.

Matt has also worked to help Government improve and co-led Symplicity’s largest and longest transformation with the Francophone education sector in New Brunswick. As a part of being B-Corp certified, Symplicity has given more than 3.2m in Low-bono, Pro-Bono, and cash in support of various Not-For-Profits. Matt has led most of these efforts, including the most recent work with the IWK Foundation.
In addition to guiding the growth of organizations across Atlantic Canada, he is also charged with leading the growth internally at Symplicity. He is in the trenches with you, scaling an organization right here in Atlantic Canada and living the same Problems, Challenges, and Opportunities as all of you.

About Symplicity Designs

Symplicity Designs Recognized as a “Best For The World” B Corp for exceptional community impact in Atlantic Canada
(Moncton, NB) Symplicity Designs, a Certified B Corporation, has been named a Best For The World honoree in recognition of their significant positive impact on their community and for how they’ve built this level of care into their business model. Symplicity was one of three companies recognized in Atlantic Canada in the Changemaker category. The category celebrates this year’s most-improved Changemakers, whose impact score improvement ranked in the top 20 percent of all global B Corps.

Ranking in the top 10 percent of all 3,000 B Corps for their positive impact on their community, Symplicity Designs earned this honour because, after achieving B Corp status, they used the B Impact Assessment as a springboard to seek out more ways to improve their impact on the world and in their local community. Symplicity Designs was also assessed on their practices and policies around community service and charitable giving, including whether their product or service is designed to solve a social issue, such as access to basic services, health, education, economic opportunity and the arts.
“When we founded the company, we pursued the B Corp certification because we believe that their critical set of measures will guide us on our journey to improve the world, through every business we work with,” said Matt Symes, Managing Partner. “It’s not just about profit, but about purpose”.
Best For The World recognition is administered by B Lab, the global nonprofit that certifies and supports Certified B Corporations, which are for-profit companies dedicated to using business as a force for good. Today there are 3,000 Certified B Corporations across 64 countries and 150 industries, unified by one common goal: to redefine success in business.

B Corps meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corp Certification doesn’t just evaluate a product or service, it assesses the overall positive impact of the company that stands behind it—like Symplicity Designs. Using the B Impact Assessment, B Lab evaluates how a company’s operations and business model impact its workers, community, environment, and customers. To achieve the B Corp Certification, a company must achieve a score of at least 80 points on the assessment.
1,000 B Corps from 44 countries were named to the 2019 Best For The World lists, including Patagonia, Beautycounter, Dr. Bronner’s, TOMS, Seventh Generation, and Greyston Bakery. The 2019 Best For The World honorees are determined based on the verified B Impact Assessments of Certified B Corporations. The full lists are available on https://bcorporation.net/.