Post Covid-19. Why it will never be the same.
BY MANAR AL HINAI
Like many people around the world, you may have been working remotely during the Covid-19 crisis. The last time I conducted business as usual was February. That was the last time I had face-to-face meetings and met clients over coffee. Since then, although we can again see friends and family, most business remains remote.
Covid-19 literally grounded us. It has completely altered our day-to-day work life, perhaps for good. The pandemic revealed how many meetings could have been emails and how much we can save the environment and reduce air pollution by commuting less. It revealed the effectiveness of e-commerce and digital marketing. It showed us how knowledge could be freely shared via the free webinars, access to digital libraries, and virtual art collections that many organisations have championed—Sharjah Public Library alone provided online access to over six million titles. It reminded us of the importance of a strong company culture that can endure such a pandemic and survive communicating and working from a distance.
Take a moment to ponder this quote by entrepreneur Dave Hollis: “In our rush to return to normal, let’s use this time to consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to.”
This is what I would love for business owners and companies to realise and something I promised myself to remember. This is what I want business as usual to be like once this pandemic is behind us:
REFOCUSED ON PURPOSE I’ve been thinking about purpose a lot lately. What is the real purpose of our business, besides making a decent living? How does our business positively impact our team members, our society, and the world around us? Will our purpose serve us if another pandemic strikes? Will we be able to serve our community during challenging times? Will our purpose drive us and our teams to thrive, no matter what the world throws our way?
MORE EFFICIENT—FOR US AND FOR THE PLANET Could that meeting be an email? It may seem simple, but the small decisions in our daily work life affect our schedule and could impact our environment. We saw how the skies cleared around the world as a result of people staying in. If I conduct some meetings over Zoom instead of in person, my schedule will free up, and I would commute less. Thus, I would be helping to preserve our precious planet. We should also consider the impact of other areas of business, from waste to power usage. Covid-19 revealed how it’s never only about us. A decision we take here could impact someone in Australia. Every small decision we make impacts our world one way or another.
BE PREPARED Companies and individuals who didn’t embrace e-commerce and digital marketing suffered the most from the pandemic. Be resilient, and welcome change. If you want your business to grow, then realise that you can never learn enough—it’s a continuous cycle. Those who will survive future crises are the ones who keep an open and welcoming mind.
Manar Al Hinai is an award-winning Emirati writer and entrepreneur
