After 2020, how are we feeling? Views from around the global auto industry...

Our top priority throughout the health crisis has always been to protect our employees’ health. We developed a health protocol, which was introduced first in China in February and then deployed across all our plants, research centres and head offices worldwide. These measures have been maintained since the start of the crisis – we know the only way to be effective is to apply the same protocol everywhere, at the same time and to the same standard – and there have been no clusters at our plants. By consistently and rigorously applying the strict health protocol, we have also been able to continue our operations, which has – of course – been our second priority.

There were lots of concerns about our industry: would we be able to reactivate such a complex supply chain? The answer is yes.

Companies have worked extremely hard and effectively to absorb the shocks and ensure the industry didn’t come to a standstill. At Valeo, we closed and then reopened 154 (out of 189) plants worldwide, without any disruption to our supply chain, which has proven to be incredibly resilient. It was completely unprecedented.

In the short term, the crisis has shown the need for the company to be able to adapt quickly. The challenge for the longer term is to stay the course to ensure business continuity and secure our future. In both cases, communication has been essential for keeping in contact with our teams, reassuring and mobilizing them and, above all, showing them the way forward

I feel pride. Across the world, Valeo employees have shown exceptional commitment and professionalism throughout the crisis.

Large companies have shown that, when the call comes, they can work together. A joint project involving Schneider, PSA, Valeo and Air Liquide helped to substantially ramp up the production of ventilators, which society needed at the peak of the crisis. Together, we manufactured 10,000 ventilators in 50 days. It was an extraordinary feat. Each of the four companies contributed their expertise. At Valeo, we can manufacture very large quantities of highly reliable products, while managing the complexities of our supply chain.

All recent surveys reveal the popularity of the individual car, which is seen more than ever to be the safest means of transportation – an assessment that can be found in all countries across the world. In the post-Covid world, the energy transition – which is already a deep-set trend – is going to accelerate, thereby placing CO2 emissions reductions among the key priorities.

The post-Covid outlook validates our strategic choices, which have seen Valeo become the leader in vehicle electrification with a longstanding track record in using our technologies to make mobility cleaner and safer. We are ready.

Which sector stands at the crossroads of so many of the transformations that are having an impact on our daily lives today? Mobility, of course! And the car plays a very specific role.

First, the key challenge was keeping the team spirit high, as the situation placed a huge burden on our team members and their families. The second challenge was to keep our customers engaged and maintain the strong relationships we’ve built, despite the distance and the lack of face-to-face interaction. The third challenge has been to grow our funnel without the ability to attend conventions and tradeshows.

I’ve learned that our ability to work remotely is far greater than I thought, especially in terms of generating new opportunities without flying all over the world.

Our adaptability to change - as humans and as an organization – is fascinating. It’s amazing to see how innovation flourishes in situations like this. People find ways to solve problems they’ve never experienced before. Times like these cause a change in mindset and can enable the rapid evolution of new concepts and methodologies.

We are careful with our spending in some of the areas we operate in, which we believe will slowly evolve. On the other hand, we are very bullish about markets and technologies that will enhance our position once this is all behind us.

Serious global crises have happened many times in the past. When you look at them on the macro level, the world has always changed for the better as a result. It could take several years to recover from this, but the key is to focus on emerging in the best possible position to seize new opportunities once the recovery is complete.

Not surprisingly, for us as a start-up that helps ML engineers working on automated driving to better interact with their sensor data, the biggest challenge was the impact of COVID-19 on our customer base. Most automakers reduced employee capacity and reduced budgets for cutting edge technologies. The need to work around these obstacles was the major challenge of 2020.

I learned that hard times can be quite beneficial for measuring the true nature of a team. During COVID we were able to make great progress on the company’s strategy and product development, some of our best ideas and achievements (like our partnership with Motional) actually came during the most challenging months.

I can’t overstate how proud I am of my team that pushed forward during these times of uncertainty.

They say that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, this is very true! We come out of 2020 full of confidence with exciting things ahead. This year showed the strength and resilience of our team and the potential and interest in our technology even as budgets get squeezed.

We are approaching 2021 as the year of growth. We hope that soon the world will have a vaccine for COVID, and these crazy times will be behind us. We identify a real thirst in the market to go back to the way things were before and are more optimistic than ever to bring our solution to more customers. But as the auto industry will continue to move slower for a few more months, we are taking this opportunity to expand our reach to additional verticals and use cases. We’re frequently getting approached about unstructured data management from different companies working on computer vision and are seeing potential to capture this interest going forward in 2021.

My message to the readers is to not get discouraged when times are hard and uncertain. We should always stay optimistic and make sure to find creative ways to turn obstacles into opportunities. And if you’re engineers are dealing with data manually, don’t despair either, we’re happy to help with SiaSearch.

2020 certainly will not be a fond memory for so many. APIS North America was in a position to continue operations virtually with moderate success. The biggest challenge was, and will continue to be, steady revenue due to wavering industry operations. Fortunately, because we service such a large territory between North and South America, we have maintained a fairly steady year with a longer than foreseen downturn, but enough recovery that we continue to be hopeful.

We are very grateful to our customers and all of their support even with their own companies struggling at times throughout the year. We supported them in response, by remaining flexible and agile to meet their needs.

So many things! Our team has resilience that none of us would have had the opportunity to understand if this year had not gone in so many unforeseen directions. Personally, that our daughters are also extremely resilient, strong, and passionate about helping others. We all got to see new opportunities for ourselves and for those that need support. It was a year of growth, maybe not financially, but growth.

Exhausted, impressed with colleagues' resilience, but also closer than ever before to our customers and suppliers. And full of hope for the future.

I am in a constant strategy session. That is not to be funny, but aside from our team’s strategy meetings, I am continuously strategizing what next year will look like. At this time, it looks as though it will be a year of growth that we expected in 2020. But, with so much uncertainty remaining, I believe this will be how many executives go into 2021. Hopeful, but with some trepidation.

Focus on yourself, your family, and your ability to maintain a path forward. It may not be the one you saw at the beginning of 2020, but with this comes opportunity to create how you want the future to look. Focusing on good things and being thankful for what you do have. Work to not focus on the difficulty by maintaining connections to friends, family, colleagues, and other support avenues. Talking to others is important to not feel alone.

I also find that helping others has provided me great happiness because I am fortunate to be able to and because my colleagues have also been involved in philanthropy and giving.

Yes, 2020 has been crazy. Thankfully, moving to remote working has been relatively smooth. Full credit has to go to the team at Embed who have been great at getting on board with the new working routines. I was impressed at how quickly and effectively the new communication channels worked too. We have been watching our productivity metrics and we know that working from home is successful. Occasionally items have fallen through the cracks, but nothing we haven't been able to sort out. Some activities have been a lot more challenging, such as integration testing and system testing. But by reorganising our facilities, repurposing the boardroom and being strict with the booking systems we have managed.

The biggest challenge has been successfully bringing new people on board. Normally people 'get' the ethos of Embed by osmosis. By being soaked in our way of working, doing things right with a blend of passion and rigour which seeps into the new staff as they work alongside us. So, the challenge is really "how do you make sure the new starters feel part of Embed?" They are not coming into the office, they have never physically met their colleagues, but they need to work as part of our team, as one of us. We really struggled with this, and it slowed our progress as we were cautious about how to proceed.

But we hired a number of new engineers throughout 2020 and we had to tackle it. To overcome the onboarding issue, I now deliver a culture workshop. Ensuring what makes us Embed is understood and brought into everything the new people do. This brought into focus what we are about and has re-energised us. I ended up giving the workshop to everyone and it has strengthened our vision.

From a purely personal point of view, I learnt how to better mix family life with work life. This was especially true when the schools were shut. With the kids at home and getting school work via their phone-apps they needed some project management to keep them motivated and on track. So, to kick-start the day we all did Joe Wicks sessions in the garden before we went to work. I reviewed the Gantt chart with my son about his work for the day, and how he needed to stay on track to hit his deadlines. We all ate lunch together. We all got a better appreciation for one another and the different difficulties we are each facing.

From a business point of view, I have now learnt that we do not need to spend money on a larger office to grow Embed. We can work remotely very effectively. Our office is designed with the desks in double rows, with a small divider between the opposite desk. Simulating sitting on our own facing a wall, so we can better ignore one another and focus. We need to use the shared office space for working cooperatively. We are looking at remodelling the main area into collaboration zones. So, teams can work together creatively on projects, defining what they each need to do individually. Then everyone can get back to their home offices, work on the agreed tasks before coming back to collaborate again. This would be a great work life balance; I hope we can move to this soon.

In 2020 I have also learnt that I am incredibly privileged. I had no idea. I am a white male. I thought my life was like everyone's. I am not ignored, belittled, or looked at suspiciously. I don't get racially insulted, shouted down or have to endure unwanted and inappropriate sexual advances. Prior to this year I had no idea great swathes of the population don't experience life like I do, and I was shocked. We have to change this, and it is all our responsibility.

This year has been so mixed. From being forced to spend a lot of time with the family, and really enjoying it, to being cut off from friends and colleagues. Many things are harder to do and require a little more thought and planning. Seeing friends and colleagues having a very tough time, losing their jobs and struggling to find new ones has been sad. Watching big companies lurch through financial crises (and some crash) makes me feel as if nothing is certain and everything is temporary.

Mostly I feel lucky to have the people around me in Embed that I do. Generally, though, I have had enough of Covid and I will be very happy when we can get back to some sort of normality.

We are excited about 2021. Throughout Q2, Q3 and Q4 we have been developing our own IP here at Embed. The government grants have been wonderful in helping companies like us to back ourselves. To invest out of Covid and emerge stronger than before. Working with our industry partners, STMicroelectronics and Carling Technologies, we will be releasing exciting new products. We think this will shake some things up and disrupt the marketplace in a few areas.

Please do keep tuned to Embed in Q2 2021!

The world is smaller than ever. I have discovered that video-conferencing tools, that have been around for decades, are effective. We can work, collaborate and meet with people anywhere. Use this to improve your life, other people's lives and be generous and kind.

Global installs have been a challenge and has caused delays for customers at an exciting time.

It’s a cliché perhaps, but how well our team can pull together and how much people care - both our staff but also our customers!

Super excited! We've used the 'downturn' to continue to innovate and customer conversations have moved on from having to educate them on why they need AI automated vehicle inspections, to 'how quickly can we get one in for them'.

It's been a tough year, and not as expected but we've come out of it stronger and future looks very bright.

Having grown consistently over the past few year, we are set to really kick on in 2021, as we build out our team to deliver the current pipeline and support our existing customers.

Use the opportunity to connect with your customers and listen to what they need, the best ideas often come from listening!

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