A post-COVID opportunity

The light at the end of the tunnel feels closer today than yesterday. We all live and hope that before too long small gatherings of friends and family will be part of our normal social fabric. For me, four weeks in lockdown has been a valuable learning and development experience. 

The virtualisation of events, from conferences to festivals and even the offering of deep and philosophical conversations with global thought leaders has provided me with insights, inputs, stories and experiences. While there has been some sacrifice to quality sleep to participate in these online discussions developed for participants in different time zones, I have found myself connecting deeply with new concepts.

A key message I am hearing is the need to curb the urge to solutionise and problem-solve to try and rebuild our economy back to a pre-COVID world. 

Under the pre-COVID model economics taught us that all businesses exist to make a profit. If they can’t produce things, they can’t sell things. If they can’t sell things, they can’t employ staff. If people fear job loss, they buy less, and if they buy less, the economy goes into freefall.

Right now, the government is working to both stabilise and stimulate our economy. Shovel-ready projects dominate the headlines as a means to transition employees from at-risk sectors to new jobs where new opportunity lies, ie. hospitality to construction, or tourism to logistics.

In the longterm, our ability to reimagine our economy will require a new economic paradigm where the disparity and value associated with different types of work are more closely aligned. For example, the remuneration received by a scientist compared with a futures trader. 

Think of this as the realignment of economic value that in recent years has disproportionately valued roles that facilitate ‘exchanges’ that make money for organisations over roles that serve society and community.

Countries don’t get rich from more or bigger gambling casinos, real estate empires, or even financial sectors. They get rich from scientific discoveries and advances in technology based on those discoveries.

Economist Joseph Stiglitz

I see this as the need to scale back production that is detrimental to society and the environment while building a model that continues to develop and support the livelihood of employees. This would enable our economy to address the risk/reward tenant to put greater focus on purpose and impact. Less for more, so to speak.

But, shifting the economic dial is a big call. Our default position will be to continue to think that it is the market that delivers our high quality of life, and therefore we should protect the status quo at all cost. However, what if the sustained period of confinement in our homes was used to start a new conversation about market assumptions?

Could our new post-COVID future look deeper at what really makes our lives liveable? What do we trade-off at the cost of the many for the benefit of the few?

If we adopted technology and digitised processes and systems, could we all work less frantically so that we had more time to live and learn? We could break the cycle between work and consumption and trade time for the ability to innovate, research and development capability.

Most initial reactions of business leaders are to focus on the barriers to systemic change and the extreme complexities of rejuvenating an economy. However, if we look globally, the conversation is starting to change.

The city of Amsterdam announced this week they are adopting Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics model as the new starting point for public policy decisions. In a Guardian news report Amsterdam’s deputy mayor, Marieke van Doorninck, was quoted saying “When suddenly we have to care about climate, health, and jobs and housing and communities, the doughnut economic framework can help us, and it is ready to go.”

The central premise is simple: the goal of economic activity should be about meeting the core needs of all but within the means of the planet. The “doughnut” is a device to show what this means in practice.

What if New Zealand redefined shovel-ready projects so that it would include the development of the inevitable soon-unemployed workforce to learn new skills for growth sectors that build on New Zealand’s reputation for quality and expertise. For example, what if agri-tech reskilled tourism workers to understand how we can provide high-quality products using the very best in technology - the Internet of Things IoT, data, advances in growing plants hydroponically or aeroponically, and the adoption of drones, automation and new forms of distribution. 

What could be achieved if we invested in learning and education of people who find themselves unemployed so they could develop new knowledge and skills that would support them to enter emerging sectors where jobs are plentiful, and skills are in constant demand? To evidence this point, as at today there are 2129 developer roles advertised on Seek.

What if we were to support research and development in our health, education, social enterprise and science sectors to create new knowledge to help position New Zealand as a nation of innovators and future makers?

We need to reimagine what our future industries will deliver, at a time when logistics and transportation will be both expensive and unreliable. The delay of the movement of bulk freight from New Zealand to the world and the hiatus before tourists once again grace our shores has given us time to do things differently and to explore and build our country through new collective cooperation dedicated to stimulating innovation, learning and knowledge.

I for one would be proud if from great adversity we create a more equitable future for our people that also enables the rise of new sustainable industries and opportunities to build capability that is good for New Zealand and good for the world.