CBF Archives

Early on in the coronavirus pandemic, Joanna Pinkerton and her team and her team at COTA realized they had a problem.

At a time when public health officials were encouraging people to keep their distance, entering a bus and paying a fare required passing within 6 feet of a driver. The COTA team quickly realized they needed to pivot, asking passengers to enter in the rear of the bus – where there aren't machines available to accept fares.

The solution? All COTA rides are now free.

"It was a pretty easy answer," Pinkerton said. "We knew it was the right thing to do."

Still, with ridership down dramatically, fares zero and the sales tax receipts that make up the lion's share of COTA's income taking a hit as people stay home, COTA's readying for challenges when it comes to its budget.

Check out the latest episode of our Crisis Management podcast to hear how Pinkerton is navigating through those issues, and the other challenges that come with running a transit service during a global pandemic.

There's an irony about decision-making during times of crisis, Pelotonia CEO Doug Ulman says.

"You have to make tons of decisions with imperfect information," Ulman told Columbus Business First in the latest episode of our Crisis Management podcast. "That can be really challenging, but the opposite of that is paralyzation."

Ulman is in charge of the annual Pelotonia bike race that attracts thousands, and raises millions for cancer research.

Scheduled for August, Ulman's team is weighing how the race can move forward – or adapt – this year in order to comply with health recommendations and mass gathering restrictions in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

All the while, Ulman said, the group's mission for cancer research has never been more important.

Ulman, a cancer survivor, said throughout his life, he's dealt with a lot of crises, "whether it be personal health crises or professional crises."

"But this is the first actual massive crisis that I've dealt with where everybody is dealing (with it)," Ulman said. "The beauty of that, in a sad way is that you don't have to provide any context."

But he acknowledged that making decisions in a stressful environment is hard – especially as new information keeps emerging.

"You don't want to make big decisions from a position of weakness," Ulman said.

The key, Ulman said, is to realize that you can't think short-term or "worry about what people are going to think."

"Our filter is, 'is this in the best interest of the community and our mission?" Ulman said. "At the end of the day, that's the decision we're going to make."

Dublin-based Updox LLC added video chat to its secure physician communications network last year, but adoption was middling, about 220 telehealth visits per day.

In the coronavirus pandemic, it's soared to 45,000 a day. The health IT company signed on 10,000 clinician users in the space of just three weeks.

"We did feel fortunate, but not so much just straight to business opportunity, but more: If we’re sincere about this, that we have been able to help," CEO Michael Morgan said.

An emergency prompted the shift, but the changes to healthcare likely are here to stay.

"How do we take that and then use that to continue our mission forward, helping basically everybody in healthcare communicate more effectively?" he said.

Check out the latest episode of our Crisis Management podcast to hear more from Morgan on how the company responded to the pandemic while also moving its own staff to their homes from the Bridge Park office.

Lisa Arledge Powell started to journal at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic to track her learnings and leadership at this trying time.

She ended up with quite a story.

The president of MediaSource, a Columbus-based communications agency, didn’t just have to figure out how to best serve the company’s clients, she had to do so while having the coronavirus herself.

Both Arledge Powell and her son were diagnosed in March.

She talked with Columbus Business First about that personal experience and about the virus’ impact on the company she runs. It just so happens that a large portion of MediaSource’s clients are hospital systems, both in Central Ohio and elsewhere. That’s created new demands for the business and resulted in shifting around staff duties.

Faced with pandemic-related restrictions that make its traditional direct-sales model unworkable, Dublin-based IGS Energy opted to retrain its employees for different roles rather than laying them off.

"Our first concern was for our employees and heir safety and our customers," CEO Scott White said.

Check out the latest episode of our Crisis Management podcast to hear more from White on how he's managing a sales-oriented company in the midst of a global pandemic.

It didn't take the coronavirus pandemic for Christie Angel to become aware of racial disparities in public health.

Angel and her team at YWCA Columbus were already studying the ways that racism is considered a public health crisis in itself. So the racial disparities playing out in the coronavirus pandemic – which looks to be "infecting and killing black people in the United States at disproportionately high rates," according to The New York Times – don't surprise her.

“This … is no different than what we saw with the AIDS pandemic, or what we’ve seen when we look at infant mortality," said Angel, a former Columbus City Hall staffer who now serves as CEO of YWCA Columbus.

That's why Angel is using this time to think about how the country can invest in its public health system in order to better serve communities of color, and in turn increase equity.

“This has put a bright light on public health services overall, and our need to make significant investments in public health," Angel said.

Check out the latest episode of our Crisis Management podcast to hear more of Angel's thoughts on that topic. She also talked about how the YWCA is pivoting in order to stay financially viable during this challenging time for nonprofits, including by moving its signature Women of Achievement event to the virtual world.

One note: our conversation with Angel took place last week, so a few things have changed. Most notably, you'll hear her say that the YWCA had submitted an application for a Paycheck Protection Program loan but was awaiting approval. The organization has since gotten that approval, but declined to disclose the size of the loan.

How can customers experience a treasure hunt when they can leave their house to go hunting?

That’s the quandary that face The Book Loft, the historic German Village book shop known for its 32 rooms filled with potential finds for voracious readers.

In our latest episode of Crisis Management, Gary Lovely, a bookseller and marketing manager at the shop, talked to Columbus Business First about how Covid-19 has impacted the business — from staffing and operations to the creation of the Malamarkus Mystery Box, staff-curated grab bags of books that have been a hit and revived some of the experiential elements of physically shopping the store.

The battle with Amazon is discussed — including the small ways in which that fight is shifting — and there are tips for supporting independent booksellers beyond just ordering online.

Covid-19 has disrupted many businesses across Columbus, but the pandemic poses a unique challenge for those with new leaders.

Jonathan Moody was named CEO of Moody Nolan Inc. January 1 after several years as president, taking over management of the 230-employee firm his father founded in 1982. But in a matter of weeks he went from managing 12 offices around the country to hundreds of work-from-home people.

"I've been pretty fortunate to have a leadership team around me," Moody said, "It's definitely an interesting time to be CEO."

In the latest episode of our Crisis Management podcast, Moody talks to Columbus Business First about how the company is running through the disruption and the long-term opportunities that come from difficult days.

"This is completely different from anything we've seen in the last 100 years, so let's use the tools we've got, let's pull back and let's propel ourselves forward," Moody said.

Wolf’s Ridge Brewing had been anticipating its biggest year ever.

It expanded production in January but by March — like all breweries and restaurants — business restrictions caused by Covid-19 sent it scrambling.

A new home delivery program for beer went live right as the state closed dine-in business.

Co-owner Bob Szuter said through the first month delivery sales have actually offset the loss in taproom sales. But the Wolf’s Ridge business in normal times is far more than that with bustling restaurant and event components as well, so though those delivery sales are something, the overall numbers are well below historic levels.

The CARES Act is providing some assistance, but still is creating plenty of questions as well.

That and more is discussed in this episode of Crisis Management, Columbus Business First’s new discussion series with area business owners and leaders about how the coronavirus pandemic is changing the way they do business.

Heather Whaling founded her businesses during the Great Recession, so running a business amid an economic crisis isn't totally new for her.

But the coronavirus pandemic and its ensuing economic impact have forced her to take steps she never had to before – including laying off a few team members – while helping clients navigate a rapidly changing environment that’s thrown everyone’s Q2 marketing plan into chaos.

Check out the latest episode of our Crisis Management podcast to hear how the Geben Communication president is handling those challenges, and what advice she has for business owners searching for the best way to communicate both with the broader world and with their own team.