What has changed with the spread of Covid-19? Some personal thoughts.

First the obvious. I have adopted the Coronavirus home office look.

While I was taking an hour off to run, we are not yet confined in Switzerland, I started to think about the last few weeks and what has changed.

 I would like to share some thoughts and would be happy to know your thoughts.

 One thing I noticed is that after the stock crash many people didn’t check the stock tickers anymore but the rate of infections and death toll going up. Clearly priorities have shifted in a very short time. Even if one tried to remain rational, some kind of anxiety took over control.

 Now, 3 weeks later, we seem to have our emotions under control, the stores are not anymore plundered, and the anxiety has diminished. We call it the new normal.

 All of a sudden, we have seen wonderful images coming from Italy, confined people dancing on their balconies to the music of a DJ, people in Switzerland applauding at 9pm for the work and dedication of doctors and nurses. Thankfulness is expressed towards truck drivers, policemen, supermarket employee and anyone who keeps the country running. In normal times nobody expresses gratitude towards these professionals.

I got phone calls from old friends with whom I didn’t speak for a while and I took also the time to call some old friends. Somehow the human relations have gained importance where before I rarely took the time to call anyone after an exhausting day in business. A general feeling of empathy is present.

 It is, as if the collective consciousness understands that we are all in the same boat. It is not as usually us against the others. One IT company against the other, one pharma against the other, one food company against the other. We now understand, that this crisis can only be overcome together. Together as a society but also together between countries.

 We probably can control the spread of this virus with confinement of a month or so. We will find a medication against it and eventually a vaccine.

How about climate change? The impact may be famine and not confinement with Netflix, beer and chips. So, let’s see this crisis as rehearsal for other crises that we will face.

 As businesspeople we are too often playing a finite game. How can I outperform my competitors? I hope we start to understand, that we are all in an infinite game. This means we are in it for the long-term and we have to understand that we are stronger together than one against the other. #alltogether

 I believe we can take many lessons from this crisis. The world can be a better place. We may have more empathy. We may have more individual and collective responsibility. I see more solidarity between generations.

I read somewhere that apparently every generation needs a major crisis to develop empathy. Maybe this is the one for this generation.

While I ended my run, I realized that I crossed almost no car. Everyone who possibly can, works from home. It felt as the nature is pretty happy about this pause.

 Hopefully this crisis hasn’t taken away lives, destroyed businesses and created unemployment in vain. Let’s keep some of the positive learnings for the future. 

I would be happy to hear about your thoughts, observations and learnings.