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Schneider Electric, a global leader in energy and automation, is a Fortune 500 company of more than 140,000 people that is constantly working to maintain its best in class culture, products and services standard. The CEO made a bold move in 2011 when he chose to scatter his leadership team around the world. While at the time, many would have considered the decision to be risky, it turns out that this decision (and many others along the way) laid the ground for Schneider Electric and its leadership team around the world to navigate this new COVID-19 world.

As Jean-Pascal Tricoire, the chairman and CEO, articulated then, "When you are in a place, you see the world according to the news and what's happening in the place, so you're kind of narrow-minded on what is around you."

What Tricoire realized then, that many companies are realizing now, was that the continued growth of Schneider Electric required the company to have an established leadership presence in many different places around the world in order to understand the culture and requirements in all of the company's major markets and to be in a position to react rapidly, locally and globally.

One quickly understands the values of Schneider Electric and why it has been so successful in implementing its business continuity plan during this pandemic after looking at the company through the lens of its global legal team. Specifically, when you are facing a crisis like COVID-19, you need to focus on your people, communicate effectively and often, prioritize what is important, and maintain a strong compliance program.

Consider Your people. Communicate.

Schneider Electric is making strides throughout the company on many fronts and, as part of its ongoing evolution, the company and its leadership team focus on communication of every kind. The company adopted video conferencing, FaceTime, Skype and other similar technologies many years ago to better communicate as a team across many locations.

As the Chief Legal, Compliance and Risk Management Officer of Schneider Electric, given the recent challenges that our team is facing in geographies around the world, I think it is critical to have calls regularly with my direct reports to understand issues that they are managing, whether related to balancing workloads, while some employees move to part-time status or juggle home schooling, or dealing with business considerations and the implications that COVID-19 may have on our supply chain or customer requirements.

We are fielding questions daily from other key business executives of Schneider Electric to interpret government safety orders, interpret key contract provisions, and, on occasion, to assist the company in supporting any employees whose families may be affected by COVID-19. Fortunately, I have had the privilege of managing Schneider Electric's global Legal, Compliance and Risk Management teams for more than a decade and with a company as geographically diverse as ours, with employees and customers around the world, we are no stranger to managing teams and client concerns remotely.

In fact, shortly after taking my position and just before the Schneider CEO's announcement to disperse its leadership team, I took on the task of centralizing the global legal and compliance departments in order to provide consistent advice to our clients and to position the legal team to look for "best talent" regardless of a person's location.

Given our set-up and prior experience with remote work, as states and countries enforced stay at home orders, our legal and compliance teams could seamlessly transition to a working from home model given the great line of communication in place prior to the pandemic. Moreover, given the diversity of Schneider Electric's legal team both in terms of location and capabilities we continue to be well situated to serve the needs of the business at any time and with the right level of local legal support (or specific area expertise).

Prioritize. Consider Your Customers. Responsiveness, Reliability and Safety.

During this COVID-19 crisis, Schneider Electric's operations meet the criteria of an essential critical infrastructure as defined by most governments, by supporting mission critical infrastructure for hospitals, data centers and other critical distribution facilities. As a result, many of Schneider Electric's employees are working remotely or in alternative work environments to address our customers' needs. Many, if not all, of the members of Schneider's Legal, Compliance and Risk management team are addressing real-time concerns each day about local government orders, local laws or other legal transactional or compliance matters related to our business.

While this crisis certainly stands out from other day-to-day business for any company, the Schneider Electric legal department is structured to address any business requirement in any location. Having centralized the legal department more than a decade ago with regional general counsels leading commercial and compliance matters specific areas, as well as having specialized expertise in leaders of the legal department around the world, the senior leadership team of Schneider Electric has been able to look to its internal legal department for local answers to all of these new requirements and has been able to rely on the specialized experts within the team.

This substantive and geographic team diversity has made Schneider Electric's legal department resilient during this period and capable of managing its expenses by counting on the depth of its internal expertise. These teams have also worked extensively with their business counterparts around the world and have been able to partner with the company's business leaders to anticipate local requirements, whether it be to address supply chain consideration, critical infrastructure requirements for a customer, force majeure or manufacturing considerations.

Community.

As the world continues to face this pandemic, we must remind ourselves of the importance of community and that this time forces people to identify their true character. As an organization, Schneider Electric has joined together with other industrial companies to manufacture ventilators, which remain in short supply in some locations. Schneider Electric is also ensuring power and IT connectivity in hospitals. Where possible, our company has expanded its existing global benefit standards for all our employees worldwide for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis and deployed special measures to maintain business continuity with it partners, paying special attention to small and medium enterprises.

What Is Next?

At Schneider Electric, we are focused on our customer and supplier relationships and, of course, our people. Given Schneider Electric's diverse commercial platform and our talented teams, we are confident that we will emerge stronger together and committed to our values.

Peter Wexler is Senior Vice President and Chief Legal and Compliance Officer of Schneider Electric, a multinational corporation specializing in energy management, infrastructure, industrial processes, building automation, and data centers/networks.