Any crisis could be an opportunity.

I belong to millennials and I am happy about it. We are the generation who witnessed rapid change in technology. The technology which affects the way we do business, the way we communicate with others, the way we travel and various things that we see, hear and do in our daily lives. In my childhood, we used to travel thirteen kilometers to make Telephone call. We had to wait for several years to get telephone connection after applying for it . Back then, public telephones used to be a business like cyber café (library). They use to call it STD booth. It is called STD booth, because people who have landline phone at home with local connection cannot call someone in other district, city or state. So, it used to be local, STD and international calls. I heard my dad telling me that there used to be something called 'trunk-booking', where the caller who has telephone connection at home will have to book the long-distance calls in advance. I am sure that those who are born after millennials have no idea about it. Today, we can buy and activate a new phone connection in less than ten minutes. We can make international voice and video calls in less than ten minutes after buying new phone connection. And we no longer have those Cyber cafes, which occupied the space of STD booths. Oh yes, back in those days we also had gaming centers as well.?

We millennials had some sort of formal computer education at some point of time in our life. Many of us learnt basic computer skills from institutes which today's kids will learn?while in their diapers.?I remember our school purchasing three or four old desktop computers. And we had a stunning figure on high heels, walking into our school. Our new computer teacher. She was very nice to all of us. A modern young lady with a modern subject, who stood out from the rest. Back then I was very young, but used to loof around in the town. I found our new computer teacher's house in the town in less than a week. My moms friend used to reside in the same lane. I actually knew the houses of all our teachers who were residing in the town. These four huge expensive machines were meant for some five hundred odd students. Altogether, we have had three or four classes and we learnt nothing at all. The new computer teacher left our school and the school couldn't find a new teacher. That was the end of our computer education in school. But I used to visit gaming center in the town to play Mario. So I knew how to turn on computer, open and close the game. In my early days of schooling, our school van used be a Force Matador. Back then, it was the only medium-size passenger vehicle in that segment in India. It was neither comfortable, nor was safe to travel and used to breakdown every now and then. Now we hardly find them on roads.

My first email ID was with Yahoo. Back then the Google was not as popular as Yahoo. Default search engine was Yahoo for most of us. iMac was not popular. Then came mobile phones where Nokia became the market leader. But they failed after Samsung started imitating iPhone. Nokia tried different strategies including windows phone, but failed in market. Google launched several unique products and gained dominance in smart phone market. On 7 April 2008, Google started its Cloud Platform (GCP). By the end of 2008, Google launched Chrome browser. Till then, Internet Explorer was the default browser for most of us. Soon, people started using Google for email and search than Yahoo. Gradually, Yahoo lost its vigour and merged with Microsoft to start Bing. Microsoft's 'Internet Explorer' was no match for Google's 'Chrome' browser. Microsoft was lagging far behind Google in search engine and in several other products.?So, Microsoft launched their Chromium browser called Edge on 29 April 2015. In-between we also witnessed, Facebook replacing Orkut. Google also started manufacturing their own devices like Chromebook, Pixel smart phones and smart watches.?Now, there is a fierce competition between Google and Microsoft. Microsoft is rewarding its users for using EDGE browser. I do not want to confuse readers with more data on how Big tech companies and their products evolved in the last two decades. I just want to remind all of you readers about this rapid change in the industry and technology in every sphere.?

One of the main worries for those working in big tech company is that they could be the next one to be fired. It makes them worry because of their home loan, car loan, SIP investments, Kids education, etc. And those who are on H1B Visas should pack their bags or should find job in 60 days. On any given day, your employer would like to retain problem solvers and not those who are week. The weakness could be one's ability, efficiency, or behavior. Frequent leave requests, unplanned leaves, irresponsibility, not being able to meet targets, how you treat your colleagues are some of the behavioral issues. In other words, companies like problem solvers and not a burden. Not just Cactus and camels, most of the flora and fauna have gone through adaptation over the years for survival. Similarly, even the companies have changed the way they do business to sustain. This means, even employees can adapt, learn new things and should be ready to accept changes. But this alone will not guarantee continued employment in this rapidly changing world. These big tech companies are firing thousands of their hardworking employees, because they foresee a crisis and do not want to run into losses. This crisis also could be an opportunity to improve and beat competitors. Think of an innovative product like Google Maps, the Chrome browser or AI chatbot, which will guarantee continued employment for your team.?There could be some product or service that your company or team could develop which probably can make your company a market leader. Think of possibilities and discuss it with your team and managers. It is people like you who have turned a crisis into an opportunity.

The out-sourcing companies in India make more profit, every time when US dollar value goes up. Economic recession in 2008 resulted in many Americans defaulting their mortgages. It increased business revenue for out-sourcing companies in India who were into mortgage servicing. Think of possible options to turn this ongoing crisis into an opportunity.??