- March 29, 2025
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Just about five years ago, much of the world shut down because of COVID.
It was a time of fear and insecurity when no one knew what was coming next. Stores closed, companies sent employees home, the terms "social distancing" and "lock down" entered the discourse.
For those charged with running businesses, the pandemic was even more complicated. Not only did they have to worry about loved ones at home, but they had to be concerned about what would happen to their employees and whether they’d be able to keep their businesses and organizations afloat.
The Business Observer spoke with several local executives about how they approached the lockdown and the health concerns; how they managed their companies through unprecedented circumstances; what they learned during this period; and how, five years later, COVID changed them and their businesses.
Here is what they told us.
(Answers have been edited for space and clarity.)
CEO of the Florida Aquarium in Tampa
I met with our board chair and said I think our approach here, number one, is long term. It's going to be measured. There's lot we don't know, but let's operate from a values perspective rather than from a bottom-line perspective. And that's one thing that we still manage today. We set up a parameter of values to manage in uncertainty, and to provide certainty.
For instance, we said animal welfare would remain our top priority regardless of how long we were closed or how little we're closed.
Two was to have very little, if any, impact on staff. And even though we didn't know what's going on, and even though we knew we were going to have to close our doors and revenue would dry up, we wanted to make sure that we took care of our staff the best way that we could.
Three was innovation. This was a time for us to evaluate all those “stop-doing” lists that everybody puts together but hardly ever enacts as well as look at what innovation we should be looking at because eventually this too shall pass.
And then the fourth was more tangible, which was to make sure that at certain milestones we had enough money and reserves to keep the place going.
That's literally what we did.
No. Everybody wants to say yes but I'm the kind of a person that says, “Everything happens for a reason.”
But I don't know if there is anything I would have done differently.
The statement I told our staff was, “We may not always make the right decision, but they'll always come from the right place.”
So, I'm sure that there are definitely some decisions that I wish I could take back a little bit, but nothing to the level that would keep me up at night. I wish, obviously, I had the ability to do even do more for our staff even though I think we did a lot.
Our retention rate is 96%, which is still pretty incredible. And I think that came out of a lot of the decisions we made during the pandemic because we invested in our people and lived our values.
President of John R. Wood Christie's International Real Estate in Naples
We realized pretty early on that it was going to be a problem, and we took quick action to defend against whatever was going to come our way. We made sure that all company functions could remain intact when all employees were working from home. We had essentially no remote employees before COVID, so that was a learning curve for us.
The fear of the unknown was probably our biggest challenge. Many of our staff and agents had to learn how to work in a completely different manner than they had been in the past. Showings for properties turned virtual, classes and events moved to Zoom and many of us had to work at home with kids in the background.
The major lesson that I still focus on today is mindset. Peripherally you know how important your mindset is, but COVID showed us day in and day out how your thoughts shape your actions and your actions lead to your success. It didn’t matter if it was health, fitness or business, you had to do things in a completely different way, and some of those ways we learned are for the better, at least in my opinion. I still have many of those habits that I started during COVID.
Flexibility in work-life balance has improved since COVID. I think for a lot of companies the thought was if you’re not in the office you’re not working, and COVID proved that people can work from home successfully.
I wish we would’ve focused earlier on the mental health aspect of COVID. I think that we were all running at 1,000 miles an hour and should’ve taken extra time to talk about it.
President and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay
The pandemic challenged us to reimagine how we serve youth. We kept our clubs open while most youth serving nonprofits closed their doors. We provided stability, launched digital programs to reach those in need, expanded meal distribution, and prioritized meaningful connections between youth and caring adults.
Beyond our immediate response efforts, we enhanced our resilience through annual scenario planning. This proved critical during recent hurricanes, as we partnered with school districts throughout the Tampa Bay region to open bounce-back camps, providing thousands of children with a safe, stable environment while parents prepared and schools transitioned into shelters.
In the aftermath, we continued supporting families by offering childcare for first responders, working families, and distributed meals to impacted communities.
The pandemic underscored the disparities in low-income communities, reinforcing our commitment to building a more resilient generation equipped with the skills and support to break the cycle of poverty. In response, we expanded our existing workforce readiness programs, enhanced our mental health resources, and strengthened our academic interventions to zero in on grade level reading.
One of the shifts we made during COVID was embracing flexibility — both for our team and the kids we serve. We moved to a hybrid work model, making sure our staff could be efficient while staying deeply connected to our mission. At the same time, we expanded virtual programming so kids and teens could continue learning and connecting with mentors, even beyond club walls.
What started as a response to a crisis became a lasting improvement.
Five years later, our team still benefits from a flex schedule that supports work-life balance, and our virtual club, Club Re-Imagine, continues to provide meaningful experiences for kids in new and innovative ways.
Chief operating officer at BayCare Health System in Clearwater
BayCare was already known for its supportive culture, and the pandemic heightened our focus on the well-being of our team members. The community was counting on us to provide care, and it was critical that our own people felt the support they deserved through this unprecedented time.
It is also worth noting that the increased use of technology has made healthcare better since the pandemic. Online scheduling and appointments, virtual meetings, and new ways to connect were expedited by COVID and remain available today.
If I could do one thing differently, it would be to provide even more communication about what we were doing, why we were doing it and how it would impact our team members’ work. You really can never overcommunicate.
This experience reinforced the importance of balancing patient comfort and safety in the most challenging of times. We were reminded how essential family and friends are to the healing of the whole patient.
The situation also highlighted our team’s ability to be flexible and adaptable. Guidance on how to treat patients and protect team members changed frequently as information and resources became available. Our team, as always, rose to the challenge (and) we learned how to better support our team.
Our focus on team member wellness and well-being is now even more ingrained in our work.
President and co-owner of Metal Supermarkets in Sarasota
Probably the biggest lesson was that you have to plan for unexpected events that surround your business and do your best to be prepared when they happen. It will not be perfect, but customers will know you tried your best even when the situation was grave or concerning.
We also learned that communication is key, not only with customers but with employees and other stakeholders as well.
Because we were considered essential, we made the decision to stay open when others in our space chose not to do so. This allowed us to gain several new customers who still come to us today, and it created a tremendous amount of goodwill when we could help organizations who were on the front line serving those most impacted by the virus.
It was a stressful time, but our business did grow during it.
President and CEO of Wilson Creative Group in Naples
Our client's needs virtually disappeared and the calls coming in were to drastically reduce or cancel their retainer fees.
Marketing dollars are typically the first items on the budget to restrict, and 80% of our clients called in this request. Of course, this was our biggest worry.
However, there was also an about-face for some to pivot quickly, so we provided clients what marketing tools they needed to operate with the newfound conditions. For others, we worked out agreements for proceeding with the work and postponing funds, something, fortunately, with our client trust, we were able to offer. And others proceeded with limited budgets to remain well-branded and somewhat operational.
Our employee needs were very limited. All our team members remained agile and available, and I was quickly able to reset with confidence that our team would be able to remain intact. With PPP funds, we achieved this.
I was quickly reminded our views and perspectives on our health, the risks, the government impacts.
It is, and was, my responsibility to support each person's perspective and accommodate them. This improved my tolerance, understanding and overall flexibility. I was better for it.
Today, everything is less of a crisis. I'm even more flexible than before, more accommodating and more empathetic to each individual.
Owner of Couture USA
I realized when the government started to mandate the closing of businesses that were not essential.
The Couture store front generates more revenue than the website, about 65%, so several weeks of closure meant a significant drop in revenue. In such critical times, luxury purchases were not really a priority, and we were not sure how this would impact sales in the long run.
If we look at the luxury market, a lot has changed after the pandemic! All the luxury designer brands increased their price, gradually, every year or even every 6 months. At first, because they had to actually reduce their production, because their workshops and plants were closed and ran at a lesser capacity. They created even more scarcity, which came with a price for customers.
In the meantime, social media exploded even more. Everyone, at all ages, started to spend hours of their time online browsing for trends. Kids at elementary school would know Gucci is a luxury designer because they would see something on social media. That was not the case before.
Be it a concern for the environment in mind, or the need for quick cash, the concept of buying and reselling luxury items became widely popular and totally accepted. Everyone today wants their piece of timeless luxury and most people know that luxury resale is a smart choice. Couture’s revenue has roughly doubled between 2019 and now.
Elizabeth King and Laura Lyon contributed to this story.
