The pandemic was treated as an event. I saw it as a process.
It hasn’t ended because it shifted from being sanitary to structural. It changed habits, accelerated technologies, exposed strategic weaknesses, and tested the cultural resilience of organizations. Some brands developed antibodies. Others couldn’t withstand the fever.
In June 2020, I wrote about an interesting move by the Brazilian underwear Lupo. The brand quickly brought a functional mask to market, leveraging its industrial expertise in knitwear. A product suited to the moment with agile execution. But something essential was missing: visible brand identity. A minimal icon to reinforce identity and symbolic ownership.
Shortly after, the adjustment came. A small double “L” was integrated into the product. Better. Still, the episode illustrates something larger: in times of crisis, speed is vital, but brand clarity is survival.
The pandemic functioned as a violent and dramatic global stress test. And it was aggravated by geopolitical shocks like the war in Ukraine, which amplified economic uncertainties and supply chain disruptions.
But let’s be frank: the corporate world was already living under chronic epidemics before 2020—digital transformation, social polarization, ESG pressure, hypercompetition, margin erosion, and regulatory volatility. The virus merely removed the anesthetic.
Corporate Immunity Cannot Be Bought. It Must Be Built.
Over decades advising companies and boards, I’ve learned that crises don’t create organizational character. They reveal it.
Businesses with adaptive culture, trained leadership, and strategic vision reacted quickly. It wasn’t just about budget. It was about mindset.
During lockdown, small local restaurants responded with impressive agility to delivery. They learned logistics, packaging, digital communication, and relationship management via apps, which propelled e-commerce and poured wealth into new businesses. Meanwhile, larger operations hesitated, stuck in the paradigm of “in-person consumption.” It wasn’t size that determined who would survive. It was agile flexibility.
I’ve defended for decades that Branding is, above all, a strategic discipline. It’s not aesthetics. It’s not campaigns. It’s the ability to generate consistent meaning in unstable environments.
The Capsule Case and Silent Erosion
I also analyzed in depth Nespresso, whose premium proposition I’ve followed since its arrival in Brazil. The brand built desire, experience, and elevated pricing sustained by patent protection and sophisticated communication.
When the patent expired and the pandemic altered consumption patterns, competitors advanced with compatible capsules, lower prices, and acceptable quality. The barrier ceased to be technological and became purely symbolic. And symbols, if not constantly nurtured and valued, dilute.
Major crises expose how much boards and leadership can anticipate movements, revise dogmas, and question internal certainties without fear. Continuous competitive vigilance, including over players that “don’t seem like competitors.” This becomes a strategic obligation.
Governance in Times of Permanent Waves
An efficient board doesn’t protect the company from the unexpected. It prepares people to navigate through it.
This requires:
- Constant review of purpose and priorities
- Structured questioning of paradigms
- Real encouragement of innovation
- Recognition of the adaptive efforts of teams
Crises are successive waves. There’s no definitive interval between them. The illusion of stability is the greatest strategic risk of the 21st century.
The Story That Sums It All Up
I once spoke with a professional who worked for years at a Toys”R”Us store. She cried as she recounted the effort to adapt to changes that, in the end, weren’t enough to save the operation.
The question that remains is simple and uncomfortable: are we really changing or just reacting superficially?
Dealing with unpredictable transformations will be the great challenge of coming generations. And, let’s be honest, we still haven’t fully learned how to change. Much less how to enjoy changing.
Conclusion
The Covid sanitary pandemic may have subsided, but the strategic pandemic remains while new threats are on their way
Companies will continue facing technological, social, environmental, and political shocks. Some will develop organizational immunity through culture, governance, and robust branding. Others will succumb to their own rigidity.
In the end, it’s not the virus that determines who survives. It’s the ability to question “all of this that’s out there” before the market does so mercilessly.
The pandemic hasn’t ended.
It just changed form.
JR Martins — GlobalBrands®
