While COVID-19 was tanking countless businesses across all industries, nearly every company had to rethink their activities to overcome this period of global uncertainty. In a recent episode of The Creative Minds podcast, Flavio Stiffan and Stuart Cording investigated how Elektor found a successful way to serve its audience during the past year and a half. Elektor's managing director, Erik Jansen, explained how implementing some key business actions in the years just prior to the pandemic put the company in a good place to weather the storm.
 
“I think the transition that helped us through the pandemic was actually started already a couple of years earlier,” Jansen noted. “I think it was in 2010 that we concluded that to remain relevant we had to reinvent ourselves a little bit.”

And Elektor, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, did just that. Check out the interview.

Elektor on The Creative Minds


Content, Community, and Commerce

Since the 1960s, electronics engineers and makers have looked to Elektor for reliable and accurate technical content. But as Jansen noted in the interview, Elektor had to level-up its digital capabilities in the 2010s. It did so by investing in talented staffers, growing its technical community, and implementing innovative publishing tools. 

First and foremost, Elektor focused on developing high-quality engineering content by expanding its global expert network of electrical engineers, developers, and academics. It grew its expert network and streamlined both the print and digital publishing processes.

With growth in mind, management also invested time and resources in building its online community and developing the Elektor Labs platform. Today, thousands of engineers from the around world use the platform to post electronics projects and share ideas. 

In the early 2010s, smart media executives started preparing their companies for a digital future. To this end, Elektor implemented custom digital publishing tools that enabled editors, engineers, and community members to collaborate effectively across time zones and in different languages. Currently, Elektor uses a variety of connected tools to deliver content 24/7 in four languages via a variety of channels, including digital magazines, websites, print magazines, E-Zines, and several social media platforms (e.g., YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram).  
 
Elektor Store - discussed on The Creative Mind

And last but certainly not least, Elektor's continuous focus on improving its e-commerce strategy has helped it weather the COVID-19 storm. Jansen spearheaded the needed technical integrations and upgrades while he served as the company's Chief Technology Officer. During the past three years in particular, Elektor's e-commerce team has reimagined and improved its online store (www.Elektor.com), which enables engineers and makers in English-, German-, Dutch-, and French-speaking markets to access “never expensive, always surprising” electronic kits, equipment, and educational material.

“It's absolutely commendable,” Stiffan commented during the discussion. “So many companies have been looking into figuring out how to deal with COVID-19, and your story is a beautiful one.”

Check out the Elektor Helps Initiative for more information about how Elektor addressed the COVID-19 crisis. 
WEEF

World Ethical Electronics Forum 2021

The inaugural World Ethical Electronics Forum (WEEF) is slated for November 18, 2021, in Munich, Germany. You can attend online or in person as engineers, executives, politicians, and journalists discuss the most pressing ethical issues facing the electronics industry.  
 
WEEF presenters and attendees will consider the following questions and more.
 
  • Should electrical engineers, programmers, and executives feel an ethical responsibility to use their technical skills, products, and innovations in positive ways?
  • How much of a role should ethics play in how electronics companies conduct their business?
  • How can executives at electronics companies incorporate sustainable development, green manufacturing, and social responsibility in their business plans?
  • How do sourcing and logistics decisions impact local communities and the environment?

The WEEF team's mission is to inspire global innovators in electronics with an open discussion about ethics and Sustainable Development Goals. Join us!