Huddle Notes from July 6th, 2020
July 10, 2020

Huddle Notes from July 6th, 2020

Business Models

The huddles this week focused on four types of businesses emerging through COVID and an especially innovative business who has built themselves up and over COVID hurdles. Watch the recording here.

Talking Points

  • Four types of businesses emerging throughout COVID those who:
    • Are holding their breath and seeing how things go. Received some PPP/EIDL money and thinking maybe things will go back to where they were…
    • Pivoted to try and bring money in temporarily, not necessarily strategic. Examples:
      • Sheep milk business – business has entirely gone away
        • Sandwiches inside their local store
        • Delivered to their local community, ~100 people buying from them because they want them to stay in business
      • Hard cider company
        • Delivered their product around in trucks
        • Excellent product mix curation – they have an eye for what kinds of products they are offering which is unique and speaks well to their consumer
    • Pivoted and did something strategic and significant that will have legs for a long term. Examples:
    • Are building their business innovatively above and beyond its current state, withthe mindset COVID isn’t going away – See next bullet points for example.
  • Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) Entrepreneuron Panel Series: COVID-19 edition | More information
    • Chris Salm of Salm Partners, a private label manufacturer that does sous vide sausage (which does wonders at managing pathogens) spoke on this panel about how COVID hit their facility and the innovative way they handled it.
      • Their own efforts birthed a separate company that will help meat processing facilities adapt to a COVID environment. A model that our country really needs to do in order to open back up our economy fully.
    • 25,000 employees in the meat industry are COVID positive in the USA which has severely disrupted animal agriculture in the United States from farm to grocery.
    • What did they learn from this influential pandemic? It’s contagious, the speed ofit is rapid, and they needed to learn how to react to it.
      • Started by shutting down plants to change thier infrastructure, did so by implementing CDC, OHSHA, EEOC, and DHHS recommendations to get in front of this virus.
    • They have done something no one in the industry has done to date to identify COVID carriers, by implementing surveillance testing protocol.
      • Within 4 weeks mandatorily tested every single employee 3 times.
        • First Cycle – 10% of the workforce was a carrier, the vast majority were asymptomatic
        • Second cycle 10 days later – 9% asymptomatic
        • Third cycle – less than ½%
        • Fourth Cycle – within 3 weeks, 1 positive out of a workforce of more than 500
        • Will be testing everyone once a month going forwardo Health screenings (temperature taking, etc.) will turn up less than 5% of COVID carriers.
    • This protocol and sampling exist today, the cost is around $1/worker/hour to sample.
      • Within the next 2-3 months they will be composite sampling, with a cost around $125/person to $50/person but looking to drop the cost down to$25/person.
  • Established a business called Covigilance – facilitating sampling for 100% of your workforce anywhere in the US – self-sampling system, currier service tests to lab, 48-72 hours for results.Trends
  • A Striking Image of What’s Going on for Farming…
    • Over the last 5-6 years farming in the US has been a losing money proposition, in big commodity farming.
    • Government payments are keeping these farmers afloat.
    • Exacerbated by trade wars, yet some has been self-induced
  • Grocers in Wisconsin
    • Already planning for another COVID induced breakdown to happen in the fall
  • Independent Business Federation
    • 50% of their membership is saying they can survive 2 more months of the COVID economy and then they’re done
  • Getting Ahead of COVID
    • We do have a way to get ahead of COVID by doing significant testing and isolating those who are infected, including those who are asymptomatic.
      • By not doing this is going to freeze our economy.
    • We don’t have a policy or government response such as Iceland or Vietnam, it’sfalling on individual businesses to do this.
      • Stop the spread in the workplace will greatly reduce the spread overallTips & Next Steps
  • We have an important role in helping those in the food, farm, and beverage industry move forward so they can survive while becoming more sustainable.
    • 40% of the population is not planning on receiving the vaccine even when we have one meaning this could go on for a couple of years. We will lose a lot of businesses along the way, leaving a lot of big companies that have learned to adapt.
      • Bigger companies do scenario planning – looking into the future based on multiple scenarios. This process can really help people advance.
    • Business can take this opportunity to think about change in a meaningful way. More meaningful positive change will be seen in our food system if we can help people pivot in a highly strategic way.
  • Share with Us!