Life after Corona

Yes, this too shall pass. After the storm, there will be calm. My predictions for the post Corona, wiser new world

1.     Digital Transformation, Finally: Organizations will be forced to do more with less. What IoT, AI executives, transformation leaders and analysts have been trying to achieve in the past 10 years with low to moderate success will finally happen in the new world ,with COVID 19 acting both as a shock trigger and a catalyst. Automation, remote machine maintenance and real-time asset visibility will be adopted not because it is cool, but it will be a must for survival. Surveillance technologies will be mandated by most Governments and citizens are more likely to share private data for public good.

2.     Health and Education will never be the same: Infectious disease scare (scar) will remain for long. Constant health monitoring (every day, may be every hour) will be routine. Early detection, rapid testing of health data from body sensors will be the new normal. We should be ready to soon have regular video calls with doctors.

Online education, virtual tutoring that have been struggling as a poor cousin of classroom education till now will gain more acceptance and be mainstream. Future employees will be given options to work from home by default from Day 1 in their offer letter, may be at a different salary level.

3.     Home is where the heart will be: People living away from home quarantined, have realized what “home” truly means. Fear of not being present by their old age parents at the final moments will haunt us for years. Elderly care will take off in a big way. “Always busy” children will find more time for parents. Typical Dad son call duration will increase from 3 seconds to 30 minutes :-)

4.     Family time will increase: People will stay indoors more over the weekend. Old fashioned book reading, music, even board games and chatting (without mobile phones) will come back slowly. Men will take up cooking in a big way (not sure about dish washing yet). People will create more audio and video content and express more in social media . Isn't expressing a way of leaving legacy ? User generated content in Youtube will grow exponentially. Weekend "lockdowns" may continue even when it's over.

5.     Corporate Travel will reduce, Destination travel to Nature will increase: Busy executives will reduce their travel by 50%. They will realize the uselessness of many of the face to face meetings when they will accomplish a lot more in video calls. Zoom may be the next new verb added to Oxford dictionary. People will travel , but more for leisure to have intimate experience with Nature 2.0 (cleansed and disinfected after Corona ).

6.     Full time jobs, a new luxury: 50% of corporate jobs will be go to contract workers and freelancers in the next 2-3 years. People will have multiple jobs and will earn more overall. They will also enjoy freedom (from boss?). Wage (salary/hour) will be valued more than salary . People will appreciate money value of time .

7.     Trust will be built, trust will be broken: In this difficult business , socio-economic and political environments, people, organizations and even nations will have to make hard decisions. This is an opportunity for anyone either to build long term trust or break it . I empathize with the graduating class of 2020 that is expected to experience an unprecedented job crisis, this year and may be even next year. But I also believe that the next Google, Amazon or Apple will be built by someone from Class of 2020, whose job offer will be cancelled by one of those big companies in the next few months!

8.     Good, old days: Romantic nostalgia of good old days will be the theme of the next blockbuster movie and books. Mushiness will be in vogue, once again. Karan Johar may be more optimistic about his next release.

9.     Doctors – new dream Job: The best and the brightest high schoolers will aspire to be doctors, the new heroes that are fighting the Corona war on the frontline today. Who would have thought Dr. Fauci would trend more than Shakira or Ronaldo someday!

10.  Personal Hygiene: "Even" the men will be forced to take care of personal hygiene a lot more seriously . Girls will consider hygiene as an important criteria for partner selection. Hygiene will be part of mandatory curriculum for kids.

Bonus: People will be more grateful, collaborative and kind. Many of us will give up the “stuffocated” life and will value experience a lot more than things. Minimalist life will be the next big trend.

We will understand, that in the end, all we have is each other.

Note: All views are personal.