I recently added the New York Times Bestseller, Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity by Scott Galloway, to my reading list. Galloway analyzes pandemic trends that could help us position our organizations advantageously and identifies the facets of the pandemic showing the most accelerated change as those offering the biggest opportunities.
Some of Galloway’s insights are less surprising than others. As examples of change accelerators, he gives us Amazon’s success in becoming America’s go-to store, Netflix taking the place of our favorite neighborhood movie theatre, and Zoom and other online platforms standing in for our face-to-face interactions.
From Galloway’s point of view, healthcare was one of the business sectors that was the most impacted. He says that healthcare was “ripe for disruptions,” which happened when patients who needed safe access to their physicians, therapists, and dentists were able to consult with them remotely using telehealth technology. These trends will continue, he believes.
Galloway points to “big tech” as the biggest winner during the pandemic. This has been vividly demonstrated by higher education’s need to pivot to online learning during periods when they were unable to offer onsite university classes. He believes this transformation will continue, despite distance learning having been resisted previously by some institutions. The lessons learned will propel universities into a future which includes more e-learning. My observation: Those universities with an already strong online presence made the transition most seamlessly. Southern New Hampshire University is an example of one that already had the platform and trained instructors.
One of the trends that impacted our business is working at home. Most of our employees continue to work at home as we determine how and when to bring them back to our campus safely and create policies to support that move. As many of us have observed, this trend has impacted the workforce unevenly. Those parents responsible for their children’s remote learning have been more challenged to find work/life balance than those who are not. While working remotely may be a mixed blessing, Galloway believes this trend will also continue.
For his insights into national trends and how we can potentially benefit from them, I recommend that you read Post Corona. For similar information on what’s happening in our state, I recommend the What’s Working series of articles by Mike Cousineau of the Union Leader. Northeast Delta Dental is one of its sponsors. Cousineau tells the stories of what’s working, and what’s not, as we weather the pandemic and evaluate its impact on various sectors of New Hampshire’s economy.
