A year later, pandemic's full tire industry impact unclear

Even a year into the COVID-19 pandemic that has staggered the U.S., there still are so many questions.

When will vaccinations truly be available to the masses? Where does the economy go from here?

And when will things return to normal, whatever normal is at this point?

What once was normal is normal no more in so many ways for tire manufacturers. And the entire tire industry, for that matter.

"That is the question: 'What is the new normal going to look like?'" Jochen Etzel, CEO of Continental Tires the Americas L.L.C., said. "I guess nobody really knows 100%, but I think it will be a mix."

As the fog of COVID-19 eventually lifts, companies will use a combination of past practices along with what's been learned over the past year to navigate the future.

Virtual meetings, for example, will continue and be used along with traditional business travel and face-to-face gatherings, Mr. Etzel said. "I think that will stick. I don't think that will ever go away."

At the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA), CEO Anne Forristall Luke said the pandemic has caused her to question the idea of normalcy. "I don't know what that means anymore."

Regardless of what is now normal and what normal becomes, living through the pandemic has shown her there is flexibility in the tire industry, she said.

"What I learned about myself, the industry, our team and so many other partners that we've worked with in the past year is just how resilient and devoted to each other's success and well-being we are," she said.

"We are agile and resilient and able to quickly figure out how to navigate and also how to help one another.

"In the tire industry, in particular, the pandemic gave us an opportunity, I would say, to reinforce and solidify how our industry is an essential part of the American economic ecosystem," she said.

With more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. and more than 28 million COVID-19 cases, virtually everyone has been touched in one way or another by the pandemic. That includes Roy Littlefield, CEO of the Tire Industry Association (TIA), who lost a close friend to the illness on Christmas Eve.

"The whole work environment is going to change," he said. "I think there will be long-term impacts on this. I don't know what normal is."

Still, work must go on, and it does at TIA despite the challenges the entire country, the entire world, face.

Financial challenges

COVID, for many associations, has dented budgets as in-person meetings and conferences have been put on hold until the country can steer clear of the pandemic.

"It's really impacted a lot because of the financial challenges that come out of something like this, the health challenges. Everybody in the office has somebody they know who has got it, has passed away because of it, somebody in their family. It's a different environment," Mr. Littlefield said.

TIA has not had to trim jobs or salaries, but with an uncertain future, the organization knows that day could come as the impact of COVID-19 continues.

The association has seen first-hand how the virus has hit member companies.

"I think that we're all coming away from it with so many tragic stories from our members that it has an impact on all of us, that what we do everyday really matters for so many people," he said.

"So I do think it's tied us closer to our members if that's possible."

But, at the same time, he said it's "very challenging and difficult not to see anybody."

Associations such as TIA and the USTMA are built around similar interests. In this case tires. But, at their core, they are really about the people whose work brings them together.

Missing out on that human connection that meetings and conferences provide has been especially difficult, Mr. Littlefield said.

The dramatic rise in the use of virtual meeting services, such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, has created deeper bonds, in some ways, than actually being able to meet in person, Mr. Etzel said.

Past hesitancy to rely on virtual meetings has melted away in the face of restrictions created by COVID-19.

"All of a sudden, we learned that these things do work and it was not as negative or risky as some people thought," he said.

For Continental, that includes not only staff sessions, but also meetings with customers and product introductions, for example.

"I think there were some people that in the past were very hesitant," the CEO said, to rely on technology to connect. He sees a future where online and in-person gatherings co-exist and complement.

"I think we're also at a point where we will be going forward much smarter with combining in-person visits, travel, but also then continuing to rely to some extent on virtual interaction," Mr. Etzel said.

"For me, one of the positive things, again, talking about our teams is really the trust across the organization that I hope will stick.

"Managers and team members have really experienced how they can rely on each other. I think that's definitely something I expect to stick. Also the stronger relationships and the more frequent interactions," he said.

Personal contact

People are interacting much more online compared with less-frequent in-person visits of the past. While these virtual meetings are not as intense as meeting face-to-face, the increased frequency makes up for that to some extent, Mr. Etzel said.

Ms. Luke agreed there is a dichotomy that being separate in some ways is bringing people closer together.

"If anything, these challenges have shown us in the last year, and the major disruptive forces that we see, the power of partnership, of collaboration, of working together. I think it's going to really define success going forward. Even more so than it has in the past," she said.

Despite the ability to connect online, Mr. Littlefield said there still is no substitute for certain face-to-face meetings, whether that means advocacy work on Capitol Hill or conference gatherings around the country.

"You can't go downtown right now and see any congressmen or senators. No reservations. No group of more than 10. You don't know if you are going to have Vegas in November," he said about the automotive-related trade shows held annually.

"That personal contact is very important for everybody. I'm concerned about that. I'm concerned about membership. We were very fortunate last year. We still had a very large membership increase. But that's unusual for an association right now," Mr. Littlefield said.

For Michelin North America Inc., the past year has been all about living through change, Chairman and President Alexis Garcin said via email.

"As a result of COVID, we're experiencing a tremendous transformation — in the way that we work, travel, consume, socialize and network — to name a few. In addition, our Michelin supply chain and manufacturing processes have evolved to address this transformation," he said.

"One clear example of this transformation is how we have approached communications since last March. We quickly evolved our communications with both customers and our employees to be much more transparent and frequent," he said.

"Before the pandemic, our internal communication with employees was 80% top-down through monthly or quarterly meetings. When the pandemic began, we were all faced with a great deal of uncertainty.

"As people, we were looking for connections and reassurance. So, we completely flipped our approach and began to reserve 80% of our time to answer employees' questions, and on a much more frequent basis — weekly via company-wide town halls," Mr. Garcin said.

"And we have been going through this pandemic as one, generating trust, engagement and agility. This is something we've learned, and we will never come back to where it was before," he said.

Mobility is key

COVID-19 also proved there needs to be a balance between mobility and protecting the environment, Mr. Garcin said. And that will help guide Michelin in the future.

"The pandemic confirmed that we must balance the needs of people, profit and the planet with the same intensity: this is what we call our all-sustainable strategy. We saw the mobility being reduced sharply in the first half of 2020. The planet flourished. But look at the impact on the people side in society: furloughs, layoffs with more people facing poverty. This is not sustainable," he said.

"So, clearly, this crisis confirmed that we must promote mobility — which is a proxy for the economical and human development — while protecting the environment. There are no other options. This is what is at the heart of our sustainable strategy that we anchor around people, profit and planet," Mr. Garcin said.

As for the outlook for 2021 and any return to normal:

"We are in a situational crisis, the full extent and consequences of which are yet to be measured. We will continue to enforce our stringent safety protocols that have helped to keep our employees safe for the past year. It is hard to predict how the pandemic will continue to evolve, so we remain vigilant," Mr. Garcin said.

Michelin has been focusing on "transforming through this challenge," the president said. "I have been amazed at the tremendous agility and resilience of our employees."

Michelin also has seen customer satisfaction grow during the pandemic as company employees set up weekly remote meetings with customers and adjusted to their needs, Mr. Garcin said.

"We have learned to be more agile, humbler, too. Given the uncertainty we face, I think it is critical for us leaders to be humble and listen to our teams. There is much power in collective intelligence, a lesson our employees taught us, and especially taught me, in the last months through their tremendous agility and perseverance," he said.

Ms. Luke said despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 brings with it goals the USTMA wants to achieve, including continued work on safety pertaining to the industry's workforce and consumers as well as work on ensuring regulations allow association members to continue to innovate. There are also bridges to build with the Biden administration.

Last year saw many forces at play, maybe like never before, and this sets the stage.

"It's not just the pandemic, right?" Ms. Luke asked. "2020 had multiple transformational forces, whether it was the public health crisis, the economic crisis, the racial reckoning our nation went through starting this past summer and also the political divisions we had to deal all at the same time," she said.

Tire companies, she said, can help keep "a spotlight on the opportunity and responsibility for businesses to lead toward a better society, to be a constructive force in the midst of all these transformational forces."