At Paragon Group, it is ‘business as usual’ in these unusual global circumstances. As a company, we are strong. We have the resources and sufficient reserves to remain committed to clients and projects.

We can theorize for years and plan for crises. But there is nothing like being forced into behavior change. In the past week, we have learnt to know what ‘Business Continuity’ is and how to build.

Paragon Group has closed its physical office and has spent the past week setting up remote working methods for all team members. In South Africa, we are ‘locked down’ until midnight on 16 April 2020. Fluidity remains our reality, and the unexpected is normal.

Many people have asked us: ‘How will government make this lockdown happen?’ As if a lockdown is something you get served on a platter and which ‘government’ has to ‘deliver’ to us. The answer is this:

We are the lockdown!

It is our obligation to make the lockdown happen, to influence all people in our reach, and in our communities.

If we do not activate this lockdown in our personal and business lives, we will pay the highest personal and economic price.

Paragon Group is totally committed to making the lockdown a success, as only one measure to manage the economic and social impact of COVID-19 on our economy.

We urge our team members, our consultants, our clients and our larger project communities to join us and to influence their respective communities to make the lockdown happen.

Our obligations are:

• Make the lockdown happen by changing our lifestyle.
• Place our individual interests as people second, third or even further down the list.
• Continue to work and provide value to clients through great design and good communication.

How do we achieve this?

• Trust our team members and our project community.
• Appeal to the best side of people and their intentions.
• Be open to negotiated processes in all aspects of project delivery.
• Seek the positive side of this global development.
• Find opportunities for innovation and new ways of thinking and working.
• Innovate through this crisis, and emerge as a stronger group of companies.
• Enable change and adaptation through the application of technology.
• Encourage personal responsibility and autonomous decision-making.

You can expect the following from Paragon Group:

• Reliability and consistency as a business partner.
• Willingness to listen to all within our project community.
• Empathy for the needs of our people in our project community.
• Curiosity about the present and the future.

Thank you

First of all, a great thank you to our Operations Director Cindy Faux for managing office health and safety and supporting us with physical requirements and practical tools. Next, we have relied heavily on Shadownet, our IT service provider, who have made the changeover as fast and as efficient as possible.

Then there are our teams, our project community, clients, consultants and our suppliers who have all joined forces to change the way we work. We thank you and salute your commitment to our working world at Paragon Group.\

We have always embraced change. We are excited by this change.

 The Directors: Paragon Group

Thulani Sibande | Claire D’Adorante | Estelle Meiring | Cindy Faux |  Anthony Orelowitz | Henning Rasmuss