2020 behind the scene – Few words from Elitmind’s Head of Operations
31 December 2020
FY20 is almost up, so it’s a great time to summarize it from my perspective. New role, the new company, and great challenges. My responsibility is to prepare Elitmind for growth by building standards, structure, and help to define and provide rules on how to cooperate more efficiently. I couldn’t help but wonder – was there anything that could possibly go wrong?
Struggles
However, instead of fine-tuning above, we as the leaders had to face endless changes as a result of Covid-19 pandemic. As challenging as it may seem, we have faced the inevitable and started working in short sprints based on the most current market analysis. On a regular basis we were defining the trends that were most up to date and…. adjusting to them. Easier said than done, it was an engrossing experience to make a rapid shift to an agile approach as the whole company. During a sprint planning, we decided what is required the most and could be provided during the next 2 weeks.
At the same time, Elitmind team morale was a priority for us. Because of the remote work and overall isolation, overcoming the daily technical and mental obstacles was more important than ever.
When the situation stabilized a little bit, the biggest struggle was to strike a balance between my prescriptions of what I wanted to provide, and the company’s DNA. My first enthusiasm that all we need is to establish new rules without considering the human factor evaporated quickly. Lessons learned.
Fulfillment
On the other hand, the biggest success that I’m really proud of was to build from scratch a new business line for the company such as video online courses. The window of opportunity came, and it was a cut-and-dried decision for me to be in charge of this project. We aimed high but not too high: build the best online course on the Polish market.
Was it a challenge? Definitely! We didn’t have any background in such activities; any automated systems to handle the massive sale and share materials to students, or even any experience in recording our knowledge in an approachable manner to the business and technical customers. The pressure was very high, expectations for the quality was even higher, and things that could go wrong were countless.
Did we make it happen? Based on the opinions of our students … definitely yes 😊
With great team willpower and determination, we overcame doubts and obstacles and released a really great educational program. Moreover, as result, we assembled the whole virtual factory to produce additional online training in the future. Sometimes it requires burning a candle at both ends, but eventually, now we can bear the fruits.
Conclusion
This year shows me that adapting to new circumstances combining with humility are the crucial skills. I don’t assume that FY21 will be easier, nevertheless, I’m sure that we will handle upcoming challenges as a team. One thing that I appreciate the most is that I’m not boxed in my role. I have an opportunity to travel beyond the horizon and work among great people who inspire me to work harder and smarter as well. Now it’s time to recharge the batteries. Let’s call it a … year.
Happy New Year 2021!