Time to plan an exit in the middle of a Pandemic

Covid-19 pandemic has brought me and my family back in India closer than ever. We hold our own version on pandemic conference call every Saturday morning, discuss about situation around us and brainstorm about ways our lives can come back on track when this little glitch in our oh-so-perfect world is over.

This led me to thinking about exit strategies for companies as we hopefully enter the departure phase of global crisis. As such, there is no doubt that supply chain has been disrupted, stock market is in a muddle, and of course politics has divided people more than they already were. Nevertheless, the best quality of human beings is to find hope in the darkest places emerging victorious. I have never known of a broad anti-climax horror story in human civilization, I certainly do not hope for one. This is no way an excuse for the 235k deaths (as of May 1, 2020) that have happened due to this virus. I have full faith that we are going to recover from it. Which brings me back to center point of this point, what is the exit strategy we need today? Here are some of my thoughts that I'd like to witness getting implemented:

1.    Widespread testing - does it mean that 330 million people need to get tested? Certainly not, but a priority list could be a good step into opening the economy.

2.    Deciding who can work from home and who cannot – This is different from deeming people as essential and non-essential. Would any company mind asking the SAP analyst to work from home indefinitely if the productivity is not being compromised?

3.    Hazardous pay – We might be out of peak period of this virus, yet there are front line workers and workers whose livelihood depend on going out there and serving us so that our needs are met. They need to be compensated their part adequately.

4.    Perhaps the most important thing on our mind, how do everyday businesses open? This is an opportunity like no other, coming up with solutions to maintain social distancing yet keeping the normalcy of sitting in a restaurant and having dinner, or enjoying a movie in a theater that is sanitized after every show? Sounds like a lot of work but people are as zealous to get outside as they are afraid. Somewhere we need to satisfy both.

5.    Open economy in phases – The White House and the governments all over the world have presented their macro-economic policies to move ahead. Designating areas by their risk helps in understanding where what kind of activity can take place. What becomes a more pressing concern is how to limit interaction between these different risk areas.

I am sure there are more things my LinkedIn community can add and I am always eager to learn the concerns and ideas people have as we collectively deal with an enemy that brought you to reading this post.