The New Normal

In less than couple of months, we will be knocking at 2021 and hoping it to be unlike 2020 which paused the global socio-economic amelioration and pivoted priorities for both public and private sector, courtesy, COVID-19 pandemic. As an optimist, I believe, that businesses will be back to normal, albeit at varied paces and we humans known for application of intellect towards survival of fittest, will sail through these testing times. COVID-19 did teach us a lot of things. It tested number of conventional clichés, spurred innovation and surely relieved the technology frenzy long traders that internet is not a bubble but may just have become a necessity.

Let us face it, work-from-home was not considered a norm but was mostly demand specific. An employee was tagged to be “working from home” if she/ he chose to opt for the same. In fact, for organisations as well, let’s face it, physical infrastructure expansion in swankiest of neighborhoods was the “in” thing. Fast forward the global lockdowns which kick-started in March, the work from anywhere (not just home), is so normal and corporations have started downsizing the physical infrastructure. Fixed costs are transitioning towards variable costs and outsourcing of non-core activities is already on the upturn. This also is definitely going to have a cascading socio-economic impact. No more anxious minds in not reaching for a meeting just in time, thanks to cosmopolitan traffic, no more phone calls to loved ones that you will be late for that much awaited diner and sizeable more family time. Clients, bosses, peers, all our settling well with the fact that physical presence may have been over-emphasised and as long as the job is done, everything is well on track.

Healthcare has undoubtedly taken the center-stage. Not just because we are combatting a virus, nobody anticipated before, but also, we are not forgetting about “sanitising” ourselves anytime near in future. A sizable global population is taking cleanliness, self-care and sanitisation with a lot more seriousness or rather even as a priority. If we continue washing our hands more than 10 times a day the way we are doing in current times (just assuming at large and not quoting a fact), we would keep ourselves a lot healthier and self-cared. This is further complimented with another area which we undermined usually i.e. mental wellness. Since, we cannot really predict, quantify or exactly express about mental wellness, it probably was not taken as seriously. However, now the situation has changed dramatically. Individuals and organisations are investing more in mental well-being. From cooking sessions to online Zumba classes, mental wellness is so dwelled now in our overall learning and development agendas.

Now, let us talk about technology. It will be a misstatement to say that we were prepared for this kind of rapid technology adoption in just about everything. From virtual meeting platforms conquering our professional lives to OTT platforms keeping us entertained (it is no joke that India’s data consumption on OTT and VoD platforms increased by over 900% in just about four months), such adoption would generally have taken years but as a result of the crisis, it took mere months. For students, no more bags weighing more than their own weights but a simple phone or tablet navigating them to graduate to the next level. The global data consumption has witnessed about a 50% increase Y-o-Y already and as newer technologies see higher adoption and technology companies invest further in both network expansions and new technologies, this is only going to rise and enable more services and solutions to be tech driven (and not just enabled).

No wonder, the world was on a run, we were running to outpace and all of a sudden, we hit a lull and pivoted our actions and objectives driven by need of the hour. We will oscillate back to growth trajectory but undoubtedly it will be on a slightly different path with unanticipated catalysts and unorthodox approaches.