Standing together while apart: Clarivate APAC faces the pandemic as one team

A virus knows no boundaries. In less than four months, the novel coronavirus has spread to all continents except Antarctica, earning the classification of pandemic from the World Health Organization and surpassing 1.7m cases globally (as of April 12). As the virus continues to spread around the world, the news and facts surrounding it continue to evolve. For the latest global update, please see the World Health Organization’s daily coverage.

When the outbreak began in January, countries in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region were most impacted. To assure consistent support for local colleagues, Clarivate established COVID-19 taskforces in each of its APAC locations: China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. These taskforces have closely monitored and quickly reacted to the spread of the virus.

 

Putting colleagues first

Clarivate has taken all recommended precautions to ensure colleague safety, including restricting travel and customer visits, monitoring temperatures, providing masks at work and implementing strict processes to access offices. Colleagues in countries significantly impacted by the virus, including China, South Korea and Japan, continue to work from home to lower the risk of virus transmission.

 

APAC offices support one another

When the virus outbreak began in China, my location, our colleagues in Japan supported us with an encouraging message on the Clarivate intranet:

 

Dear colleagues in China,

We cannot imagine how difficult the situation can be for each of you to cope and continue business with strong anxieties, and you and your family/friends may be fighting to save people right now.

What we can do is to send our thoughts and prayers to you…中国加油! 我们支持你!

Warm regards,

Japan office

 

Clarivate colleagues in our Japan and China offices send messages of support to one another.

 

One month later, when our colleagues in Japan and South Korea were suffering from the pandemic, the China office sent 900 masks —received from an order placed over 40 days prior — to the office in Japan. Both the Singapore and China offices also sent 300 masks to the South Korea office. Together, we have worked as one team to help each other through this challenging time.

 

Fighting the novel-coronavirus

In China, we launched a local language microsite to share complimentary resources and leading coronavirus research (to view the Clarivate resource site in English, click here). Our Chinese analysts consolidated information from Clarivate knowledge bases Cortellis™, Web of Science™, Derwent Innovation™ and Darts-ip™ to provide rich content on coronavirus disease research, clinical trials progress, drug reports, related patent and IP case analysis, and news updates from BioWorld™.

The microsite, updated regularly with new content, has quickly become one of our most visited pages. By empowering human ingenuity, we believe we can help our society fight COVID-19 and save people’s lives.

 

Visit the Clarivate coronavirus resource site in Chinese at clarivate.com.cn/coronavirus-resources.

 

Delighting our customers

Visiting our customers is important to maintaining strong relationships and supporting their evolving needs. In order to prioritize the safety of our customers and colleagues, our sales team has maintained consistent communication and excellent service remotely. In an effort to delight our customers, we launched the “Hubei Program,” offering three months of complimentary access to five databases including the Web of Science. We have since provided online training to more than 20 universities in the Hubei province, the most effected province in China. Our customer service team has also continued to offer consistent, responsive service, supporting our customers as they navigate remote access and other changing needs.

 

Digital tools allow for seamless remote communications

In our world today, people are connected via various digital tools. Despite global disruption, we continue to organize online meetings with customers to plan for the year ahead. We have introduced digital communication models to share customer case studies, offer product training and foster information sharing about customer success.

Internally, to support emotional well-being and boost morale, the Chinese COVID-19 taskforce has conducted several surveys with Chinese colleagues and organized online sharing activities such as a photography club and cooking competition! Colleagues also shared their feelings about the situation and fun facts about their home life in our local internal newsletters.

Digital resources keep APAC teams connected despite disruptions.

 

Volunteer donations

Clarivate takes its social responsibility very seriously. In order to help fight the coronavirus in Wuhan, colleagues in Greater China gave a matched donation to the COVID-19 fund managed by the Wuhan University Education & Development Foundation. This donation was dedicated to support three hospitals in Wuhan.

The virus may hinder us from seeing each other, but our dedication and consistent service to customers continue unchecked. By continuously working as one team, we are confident we will get through this difficult situation and continue to improve the way the world creates, protects and advances innovation across the APAC region and the world.

 

Access the world’s leading research and late-breaking news on the novel-coronavirus COVID-19. Visit our complimentary resource site here.

Interested in more stories like this one? Discover #LifeatClarivate with voices from our global colleagues.