Bonavox: Ron, you’ve been known to say that change is exquisitely hard. Can you explain what experiences have shaped this belief? 

Ron Kraft (RK): Not to be too cute, but Bonavox, and a lot of other businesses, would not exist if it were easy. Remember that according to Harvard Business Review, 70% of transformational change initiatives fail. That’s a number that’s hard to deny.

Do you have a favorite change management story?

Bonavox helped a large biotech protect about $1,000,000,000 in revenue on an annualized basis by supporting the adoption of a document management strategy that allowed them to protect their intellectual property from a challenger. Sometimes the results of a change management effort can be a little squishy, but a billion dollars is about as real as it gets. It felt great to make such a tangible difference.

If you could wave a magic wand and every client would instinctively do one thing related to change management, what would it be? 

I wish every client understood that 100% of their employees are human beings and need to be treated as such.

What about Bonavox makes you the most proud today?  

When I look at everything we’ve accomplished since 2011, what makes me most proud are the people I have hired and the culture we have created. Bonavox employees are people of character and real-life characters, as well. We take our work very seriously, but not ourselves, and that’s the way I want it to be. If you keep reading these spotlight stories, you’ll see what I mean.

How has Bonavox been impacted by COVID-19?

I am not going to talk about the impact to the business, I want to address the impact on our people. COVID-19 has created all sorts of additional stress and complications and I want my folks to know that both personally and as an organization, we understand and care. We have a weekly staff meeting during which people update the company on their projects. In mid-March, I started asking people to talk about what they were feeling before going on to what they were doing. I care about both.

What are you looking forward to right now? 

Hugging all my friends once quarantine is over. #hugslut

Give us a “hot take” on what COVID-19 might mean for the workplace.

COVID-19 has created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to inject empathy back into the workplace. I feel for my entire career, empathy has been leaching out of the company / employee relationship. Now, we have an amazing opportunity to pivot to a more human approach. I’m actually working on a seminar as we speak where I’ll share some key observations to support this thesis and about a half-dozen concrete steps attendees can start using immediately. We’ll be sharing more details about the seminar on LinkedIn so be sure to follow us there.

Bonavox prioritizes a work-life balance with each of its consultants. What does this look like for you personally? What are some of your hobbies or interests outside of the office? 

Something that is true for me and my team is that the most important thing in life is not work; it’s friends and family (birth and/or family of choice.) Personally, I destress by weightlifting, yoga, and cooking. Also, every day I try to give back the incredible love my dog Bowie and my cat Misty give me.