Coronavirus....the good, the bad and the ugly

Everyone is talking about Coronavirus. One cannot open a newspaper without reading articles on the subject. It screams out from TV screens. News anchors remind us of the increasing daily count. Social media is abuzz. Every second message on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter is on the subject. If someone is visiting earth from outer space, the person can be forgiven if they mistakenly believe Coronavirus is the omnipotent ruler of our planet.

But one thing is for sure. The virus is ruling over the collective mind of the human race like no other event in recent memory.

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The soft power of India is in full view. The traditional Indian greeting of Namaste (where we put our palms together and greet others) has gone global. Leaders of countries as diverse as those of US, Ireland and France are championing the greeting to ensure that they set the right example for everyone. Apparently our hands are fertile ground for transmission of the virus. And given our penchant of touching our face, they are the single biggest aid in the spread of the virus (by the way, I read somewhere we touch our face 23 times each hour!) Shaking hands, giving a peck on the cheek or giving a hug are well established ways of greeting others both in a personal and professional setup – but maybe humanity will now move away from these greetings and embrace Namaste.

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This is probably the first global disease in the age of social media. But whether platforms such as WhatsApp have aided or hampered dissemination of information is a debatable point. I have seen forwards where people have claimed that eating onion and then drinking water will cure the disease in 30 mins. Another claimed that a leading medical institution has recommended that consumption of a particular alcoholic beverage is the best way to combat the virus. Not to mention people claiming to have prepared potions from various cow products that will magically cure the disease.

Do not pay any heed. There are enough credible news outlets where you can read up and arm yourself against such fake news. By the way, the disease is not spread through animals…. so eating chicken and eggs is perfectly safe. Same for Chinese food. The virus is unlikely to survive in cooked food of any kind.

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All over the world, stock markets have tanked. Some sort of a correction was anyways long overdue. But this? How can one possibly explain the hammering that stock markets have taken in the last two weeks? The overreaction is mind boggling. It’s almost as if the end of the world is near. Single-handedly it has ended the 11-year bull run that we saw post the 2008-09 financial crisis. One can understand travel related companies getting impacted. If people are postponing trips - travel, hospitality and airline companies will surely see reduced demand. But every sector has got hit by the markets - stocks across the board coming under selling pressure.

My thesis is that lots of institutional investors were sitting on profits and now they have a good excuse to book profits. And smaller retail investors have been caught unawares in the mayhem. However, as they say - every cloud has a silver lining. If you really think about it, the same dollar or rupee can today buy many more shares of the same company compared to last month. So if you have funds, this might be the right time to start acquiring good quality stocks. As the Oracle of Omaha once said….be greedy when others are fearful.

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I have immense empathy for professionals working in the Human Resources department. As if the regular headache of managing salary hikes, promotion expectations and employee morale was not enough, now they are caught with the black swan event emerging from the spread of Coronavirus. Do employees work from home or do they report to office? What happens if an employee gets infected and spreads the virus to the rest of the employee base? How do we manage client deliverables if employees fall sick? Is it even practical to ask employees to work from home – most companies do not give laptops to everyone. Is it time to explore BYOD (“bring your own device”)? Given that India has a relatively young employee base (especially in the IT and BPO sectors), it is time to seriously explore letting the employees bring their own laptops to work and putting in adequate protection such that client data is not compromised.

So the next time something like Coronavirus strikes, employees can be asked to work from home with minimal disruption to work. This is a great wake up call for everyone. I am sure the corporate world will be better prepared next time.

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Indian summers can be notoriously warm with temperatures hitting 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) fairly regularly especially in the afternoons. So cannot say that I am a huge fan of summers. However, this year for the first time in my life I am looking forward to the sun god unleashing his fury. Apparently, Coronavirus does not like heat. And hence transmission will be curtailed in hot temperatures. Most parts of India will get very hot in a few weeks so that’s great news. However, my enthusiasm was slightly dampened when one Indian scientist recently opposed the theory that warm weather will prevent spread of the virus.

For the sake of everyone, I hope he is wrong.

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Thanks for reading. All views are personal.

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