The COVID-19 pandemic has definitely accelerated our process of incorporating new business technologies. We were in the process of upgrading our systems and adding new technology before the pandemic hit, and now more than ever is the right time to invest in technology in a rapidly evolving world.

At Target, we were able to find many new and creative solutions to keep our staff employed. We are proud to have retained all of our employees since the pandemic and lockdown hit us. To keep staff occupied, we did two things, the first of which was to engage them in online learning to improve their skills. Local association and freight bodies regularly organize learning sessions for the logistics and moving industry, and our employees whenever possible are encouraged to attend such events to increase their knowledge base and improve skill levels.

Secondly, the sales team made a concentrated effort to get registered and pre-approved as a vendor with various local and multinational companies and banks to offset the slowdown in our traditional business sectors. They worked hard over the past year to open up new avenues of business, and in that respect, we are now registered as approved vendors for the top three banks in Pakistan and several multinational companies, and approved to handle all local and international moves for their employees. Needless to say, we have been regularly handling shipments for the banking sector, and this has enabled us to recover some lost sales. Plus, we handled moves internationally as well for both incoming and outgoing employees—mostly to the Middle East, but a couple to Europe as well and few moves for South East Asia.

Our company culture has not changed a great deal as a result of the pandemic, though one thing which I will add here is that I hope the culture of cleanliness and overall sense of community well-being is maintained and not forgotten once everyone is vaccinated and we go back to our normal lives. I deeply hope that we will all continue to care for other people and our environment as we have learned to do over the past months.