GLIDE Founder & CEO, Travis McAshan, Talks Business Changes Due to Covid-19

GLIDE founder and president, Travis McAshan, was recently featured in a report by B2B resource UpCity. The article discusses one of the most impactful topics of the last several years: COVID-19 and its effect on the business world.

It’s unlikely that a single business went unaffected by the pandemic, and how it shaped society for an extended period. In fact, most industries expect to see permanent changes due to the way businesses have been forced to adapt. In UpCity’s article, Travis had the chance to share personal insights from GLIDE’s own business changes due to COVID-19; the challenges, new discoveries, and our model for the future.

Here are the highlights of what we’ve discovered:

Decentralization & The Shift Away From In-House Resources 

Recent surveys of businesses, including UpCity’s survey in partnership with Pollfish, are finding that there is a shift away from in-house branding. GLIDE LLC has found that this restructuring of the traditional business model makes a lot of sense. So much so, that GLIDE had already begun adopting outsourcing strategies before the pandemic accelerated the need for it.

Why do we like it so much? A combination of automated operations through the implementation of AI tools, and an increasingly decentralized, remote workforce, comes with multiple benefits:

• it widens the scope of hiring options, and exposes GLIDE to a greater pool of experts
• it helps the business overcome employee shortages and other hiring challenges

While these benefits have always been important, the need for them augmented dramatically during the pandemic. The challenges of hiring and retaining employees that are a good fit for your company have been exacerbated. But a comfort level with recruiting talented team members all over the world, with little-to-no geographical limitations, has allowed GLIDE to stay ahead of the curve.

The Benefit of Outsourcing 

Hybrid/remote work forces are becoming the new normal, and GLIDE has embraced a remote business structure since its inception.  As Travis points out in the UpCity report, “the lines between in-house and outsource partners are more blurred than ever”.  

This has increased the ease of leveraging agencies, consultants, and other 3rd party contractors to augment the pool of talent. This smoother integration of outsourced consultants and contractors has facilitated greater and faster innovation and is much more scalable (both up and down) than in-house efforts.

There’s little doubt that today’s business environment is some of the most turbulent we’ve seen over the past couple of decades. Supply chain obstacles, inflating prices for wholesale and retail products, The Great Resignation: there are countless reasons why a business may need to pivot quickly. The flexibility of outsourcing makes this infinitely more possible.

Maintaining The Human Center 

GLIDE’s mission has always included a human-centric and relational team structure. Our culture is one of connectedness.So how does GLIDE stay inter-connected in such a remote structure? Managing the challenges of remote work takes intentionality. Leveraging tools like Slack to keep open flows of communication, gathering for fun virtual retreats, and investing in a greater work/life balance for employees by implementing a 4-Day Workweek are crucial ways that GLIDE keeps its remote team healthy.

Check it out!

Interested in the details of this deep-dive into business changes due to COVID-19 and the future of the business world? Check out the compelling UpCity report right here!

And if you’re interested in GLIDE, whether you’re looking for a website design, opportunities, insights, or just poking around for something cool to discover, we would love to get to know you. Get in touch with us or visit our site to see what we’re all about!