Lockdown-The alternate universe.

Many of us are waiting to get back to work and wanting this lock down to be over next week, or the week after that  and then we can just slip into our office attire and pick up the “to do" list pretty much where we left it last week. There is comfort in this linear thinking. 

Not happening. !!

While we were at home the world changed in the last few weeks. Optically it looks the same. The buildings are still there and my office is where it was. I can find my way to work. But I can’t find my way to the time where I was. Pretty much as in the serial “Fringe”, I went to sleep at night in the 20th century. I woke up in the 20th century, but in the alternate universe.

I went to sleep in a world where globalisation was the magic word. Interconnected & Intercontinental. Networking. We sold in India, made in China, designed in Germany, and quite possible that the F&A organisation sat in Bhatinda. 

Global supply chain!

My ambition, virtually the ambition of the entire globe was pinned on a highly social and networked civilisation & economic model. That's the model we have been developing for centuries. Bigger, better, complicated and more networked.  "Borderless World" (Kenichi Ohame). "The world is flat" ( Thomas L Friedman)

The fragility of this model has been badly exposed and seriously damaged in the last 2 months. We can have the comfort that after this “temporary” phase is over we can rebuild it. But it wont be the same. The world changed after 2007 and it is safe to believe that it will rapidly change in 2020. The “death of distance” as Kevin Sneader, global managing partner at McKinsey calls it. 

What world will I wake up in.?  

What does this alternate universe look like? What is the Global CEO now sitting in his office and thinking of doing as they and their businesses emerge from the biggest lockdown in human history. 

I cant predict the future but I can see the present. What is their day 1 thought ?

1.    Get in touch with my people. Where and how are they? What do they need to get their lives together? How have their priorities changed ? Believe me they have. Employee cost has also emerged as a number 1 conflict with stated values.

2.    Get rid of the clutter on my desk. Ask the question -is this initiative, activity going to help me navigate my organisation over the next few weeks and months. ?  Many will surround me asking me to do the usual to create the illusion of normalcy. Please don't. My time is precious. I must use it well.

3.     If it worked in the past, its probably irrelevant in the future. The strategy, vision, mission, values & definition of talent may have changed. Adopt a new idiom and a new narrative.

4.    Take a critical look at the business model. Where is the biggest opportunity? Am I  the company whose design studio sits in Italy.? Am I the auto component Company with 80% of the revenue coming from Europe.? Am I  the door manufacturer whose factories all sit in China.? Am I the virtual meeting solution company who cant get enough of the lockdown. ? How am I going to prioritise and respond? There is no one answer.

5.    Relook at digitisation strategy. How can I leverage to manage my business, remote working, sharing of information. Not a relaxed 3 year program, but an urgent 2 week agenda.

Oh yes and finally…please remember that its not democracy and consensus which will get us out of this mess. Its executive action. It will save lives.

We are imagining the alternate universe that we will live in. You are at the cusp of a new creation and the reins are firmly in your hand. 

Good luck and stay safe !