Pulling a Quarantine Solution Out of a Hat

Pio Pio Orlando on Precision Drive worked hand-in-glove with digital strategy studio, Plasmechanica, to triumph in this time of quarantine and shutdown.

Pio Pio’s New Years resolution was to define our digital strategy. We had already done much needed work on evolving our corporate identity, but it wasn’t until we engaged a professional strategist that we understood all that was involved in putting together all the pieces.

Peter Hansen with Plasmechanica, a Canada-based consultancy firm came in with a fresh set of eyes. He took us through a deep inquiry into our operations, focussing on our corporate purpose, resulting in a shortlist of strategic objectives that were, frankly, hiding in plain site. Seeing them was one thing, having the capacity to act on the tactical plan was another thing all together.

These objectives were very much customer and community directed. Economic growth was the principal, but the path leading to it ran through increased brand awareness and customer loyalty. You get those two right and the economics fall right in line.

And Along Came a Quarantine Tsunami

Well, that was the theory before we were all flattened by the double tsunami of quarantine and business shutdown.

Tactical plans rely heavily on baselines to measure progress. Baselines are a reflection of “normal”, and as we’ve all experienced, normal went away in late February.

The 22-page strategic plan presented by Plasmechanica suddenly turned to educated vapor. As astute as all the recommendations were, we no longer had a business to run. Dine-in restaurants were cut off from their lines of revenue. Unlike fast food and pizza vendors, we did not have a developed takeaway and delivery business to fall back on. We could engage in rebranding, but we were blinded by critical life-support issues.

We’re extremely grateful to Plasmechanica for sticking with us through those early days. Peter deftly manoeuvred us through a fast-tracked infrastructure build that gave us a robust online ordering system to support a pick-up/delivery profile. Many thanks to our loyal customers embraced the change, allowing us to keep most of our staff in place and the rotisseries churning.

Parallelling the change in operations, Plasmechanica built out our website – first to house the new ordering system, but also as an integral piece to our digital marketing initiatives. Their success was committed to us hitting our objectives, pandemic or not.

So, what were we able to do?

Those of you who’ve been monitoring us have seen our brand evolution occurring. Those subtle changes have been apparent in our Instagram posts (thanks for your appreciative comments), our Facebook page, Twitter and the website.

Having survived the worst of the shutdown, we’re now preparing for all that the re-opening will require of us. Thanks to you, our customers, and the attention and deferments of Plasmechanica, we feel sure-footed for the future.

Faced with catastrophe, we’re grateful for the tender mercies that got us this far. We’re really excited by the prospect of getting back to full production, following through on the strategic plan that holds great promise for us, our customers and community.

Be safe and hold the course.