COVID-19: My Perspective

Written By Suman Doval

Pandemic, COVID-19, had seriously impacted all of us and all businesses depending on the sector in one way or another. 

While some industries like health-care, pharma & medical equipment, online media & entertainment, e-learning & edutech, digital payment & fintech, video & teleconferencing, and a few others will benefit in this situation, most businesses would not. 

COVID-19 has truly ushered us into VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity)times. Businesses across the world came to a grinding halt, collectively. However, COVID 19 has been a great equalizer.  It has brought the world together to fight against an invisible virus. It is indeed quite unprecedented.

COVID-19 will change our world drastically and irrevocably. Before becoming better things will become worse. There will be job losses. Some industries/businesses might change forever.

It leaves us one choice – innovate, innovate & innovate.  Otherwise, you cease to exist. We required to reinvent and adept ourselves to mirror the changing business and economic conditions. The winner is, one who adept.

But amidst all this, I am convinced that we will discover caring families, humane workplaces, maverick leaders, self-driven employees, and innovation, adaptability, and growth that won’t leave any stakeholder behind. The new normal of work has arrived. The mantra is inclusivity & holistic lifestyle.

For Lawyers, I believe that the COVID 19 crisis is a push to finally move away from brick & mortar office and a battery of workaholic lawyers and whose personal life is irrelevant to work.  The pandemic has shown us how to be more humane and how to trust and empower our colleagues to work with minimal supervision.

As they say, never waste a good crisis.  This is the best time to build new capabilities, infuse grit and resilience in organizations and identify processes, people, and systems essential for growth. It’s the best time to build a lean and mean organization – while charting way to growth.

Do we really need that much of office space? What is the best way to evaluate virtual colleagues /employee performance? Do we need new collaboration tools? How do we make remote working more secure and safe? How do we serve our clients as effectively as before? Can some colleagues /employees be reskilled or repositioned to contribute better? These are some of the questions that we must address before we return to new normal. 

The best thing about humans is resilience. Slowly but surely, we are finding our way back.  Technology has helped us to quickly put in innovative measures and new ways of operating in line with the changing world around us. These involve adapting to technology-based solutions facilitating remote work as well as to tech-powered platforms to operate, communicate, engage, and track performance remotely.

The kind of technological, digital, and human revolution that we all envisaged for workplaces in the next 5-7 years is happening now. The future of work is here, and it has validated that colleagues /employees are the most valued resource of a business.