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Where can we find the critical insights that will protect our business from a turbulent downturn?
For many, the key lies in the positive aspects of our disrupted routines.
My memory is packed with quarantine stories. During dinner tonight, my four-year old son, Reuben, giggled when he saw his tomato-sauce polkadot nose. Reuben sat across from his older brother, Devin, and next to me.
And we all ate a healthy meal of spaghetti and salad while enjoying each others’ company. The sauce came from a jar, but Devin added meatballs and fresh vegetables as he cooked.
Through the gloom and fear of corona-virus, bright pearls shine through. Many of us are healthier now than before social distancing. The majority of us learn to cook healthy foods at home. Traffic accidents in many US cities are down by more than half. And more hospitals and patients focus on the healthcare systems’ ability to keep us alive rather than in hospital-stay luxury; healthcare customer satisfaction rises.
History suggests such benefits can continue despite the current recession and unique circumstances. Consider the experience during the peak of the Great Depression, 1929-33. Individuals in minority populations actually became effectively younger: over those five years, that population’s life expectancy rose eight years.
As we face grim unemployment data and struggle to reignite once-vibrant businesses and communities, leaders must safeguard value. And for many, today’s positives can deliver the insights, tools, and strategies needed to preserve past creation.
Our experience with healthier home cooking, for example, can translate into desire for healthier food service that organizations like Freshly provide. And groups like food-service company Dohmencan take it a step further: highlighting their ability to simultaneously revitalize challenged communities and cost-effectively protect citizens’ future health. While digital technologies multiply our ability to deliver, it is the human experience that retains the heart of value creation.
We certainly will find ongoing opportunities for incremental improvement, such as increasingly innovative tele-health and tearing down silos to de-risk bank loans. But how far can we take this? Can we reverse aging (#ReverseAging), like our ancestors did during the Great Depression?
Send me your thoughts or write a comment below.
Safeguard your future today. And position yourself to thrive for your children tomorrow.
Rod
Dr. Rod Wallace is an economist, consultant, and speaker who helps businesses make more money by solving society’s problems. A Fulbright Fellow, he has led multi-organization billion-dollar initiatives worldwide and partnered with a Silicon Valley pioneer to explore the impact of Artificial Intelligence on society.
Rod speaks about how to integrate social responsibility into business to maximize profit and purpose. He highlights digital technology’s impact on society and the strategies and tools with which business can solve our big, systemic problems.
Contact Rod at info@RodWallacePhD.com.