Dr. Martin M Lwanga
Sooner or later the Corona virus will pass and it will be time to get back to work. Already in Wuhan, China, where it all begun the city has started slowly opening up after a two month shut down. Wuhan, like many others which are now locked down once they open up, will find a new world, which it is important to prepare for.
In every global crisis there are winners and losers. World War 2 left the British Empire much withered giving way to the rise of the American empire. The 2008 financial meltdown left one of the oldest investment banks, Lehman Brothers, bankrupt giving way to new others to burst on the scene.
Likewise this crisis is bound to leave some industries no longer the same and actually some will have to close shop. For a fact those in the Hotel and lodging industry will need to rethink their business model in light of such sudden global crises often bringing their industry to a standstill.
The important thing at this stage is not only to look at your industry getting up again but ask if it will weather the storm and survive altogether. You must also sense those opportunities to emerge. I have already seen a number of industries that will flourish once this crisis comes to end.
Take the case of the delivery industry. As more and more people realize the need and adjust to working from home still they will need deliveries. What that means is that those involved in the supply chain business would be in big demand. It further means that new business models should at best feature on line home deliveries.
For those of us in the education industry on line education can no longer be a choice. As a result of the unexpected shut down of schools and universities my work place has decided to offer online exams. Though there will be some missteps online education is certainly the future.
By the way I have been wondering how the office real estate market is going to survive. It is certainly going too battered. With lots of offices moving to homes many managers are going to ask if there is any real need to take up so much expensive space in the business center when staff can be given assignments on line while seated at home.
This also means certain jobs that flourished in the office bloc are going to become redundant. Think of the old supervisor deployed to ensure staff clock in and work gets done. People are now going to manage themselves more and will not need a supervisor behind their back as was the case before. It is the account manager and how it is performing that will count.
Less office space will also mean a decline of certain related industries, like office cleaning. You can’t clean empty buildings. However, the telecom industry will be a big winner due to the need for data to sustain virtual communication.
Even before this crisis there was already talk of how AI is revolutionizing the work place. What corona pandemic has done is simply to accelerate this change and everyone at this stage needs to know how to embrace virtual tools. For the world will not remain the same place.
Add Comment