Making small changes can produce big impacts on your operations and bottom line. By Rick Karas, RL, CFDI, AFDI “ very success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision and change. A company that stands still will soon be forgotten.” — Richard Branson I must say that Richard Branson hit the nail on the head with that one. One thing is certainly true and that is that the world is always changing, and adaptability is a must. Unfortunately, since COVID-19 arrived, we live in a world that requires face masks, hand sanitizers and keeping your distance and guard up for anybody who sneezes or coughs (talk about being on pins and needles all day). To survive, we must adapt. One such adaptation is keeping your distance from others and limiting your time with them as much as possible. However, as locksmiths and security professionals, we are in contact with people constantly; it’s just part of the job. The challenge that we face is adapting our usual way of doing things to limit the time or amount of contact that we have with our clients/customers. 40 KEYNOTES FEBRUARY 2022 The Situation Working in a large metropolitan area, we have quite a lot of office buildings. The demand for keys in those building is an ongoing event. Office keys, cabinet key, desk keys — you name it, and the demand is there. Here’s a typical sce- nario: You arrive at the office building. Hopefully, it’s your lucky day and you found parking close to the building that you’ll be working in. You put your PPE on (face mask, gloves, etc.) and enter the building. You are greeted by a security guard or concierge (first contact). You are then asked to check in at the front desk (second contact). Your temperature is taken (third contact). You need to take the elevator to the floor that you will be working on, and, of course, there will always be somebody in the elevator with you (fourth contact). You arrive on the floor that you are working on and meet your point of contact for the work (fiſth contact). By this time, you have made close contact with five people you don’t know, not to mention all the other peo- ple passing by in the lobby or hallways. To complete your task, you need to make some keys, so back down through the building and out to your service ve- hicle you go. You have likely encountered more people exiting the building, plus additional people on the sidewalk on the way to your service vehicle. Then, once the keys are made, it’s time to go back up and test and deliver the keys and then back down to your service vehicle when the job is done — encountering even more people along the way. I got to thinking about this and thought, “How can I adapt and change to limit my exposure when doing these types of jobs and be more efficient? I need a revision, a new or different way to do business in this new environment. But how? What could I do differently?” I was used to my old way of doing things, and those ways always worked, and I felt comfortable with them. Do I still? Not so much, given the current pandemic. I knew that I had to figure out a way to be more efficient so that I would only have WWW.ALOA.ORG E
