Like many, I am thinking a lot about what our world will look like once we are on the other side of the pandemic. Will countries retrench to being more local or more global? From vacations to travel in general to supply chains, there is much consideration to retrenching to being more local.
At the same time, so many businesses and organisations have been routed in their geographies, yet, though for some it took most of the last two months to recognise it, now that so much has move online rather than being centred on physical place, they can now consciously connect their teams, people and audiences globally and with ease.
I wrote a while ago about a news organisation that has blossomed with this in: “What can you do better online than offline?“. then wrote about considering a “remote first” paradigm for work in “Connected Working“.
Sometimes it will also be a blend of both.
Imagine the roughly one third of us who are “knowledge workers” and who may now be able to avoid city life and stay in villages and towns, also reducing greatly flights and other long distance travel. Great for us, but what about those in other industries.
Well, if more and more people stay in their commuter town homes, more and more business opportunities will boom in those towns, perhaps bringing life back to retail high streets.
Ideas such as serviced offices, as well as great cafes (with cubicles and other ways to work or meet with space for both social distancing and work reasons). Add to that then the services people can then use during the day rather than just evenings and weekends, so gyms etc. Perhaps also people moving their businesses away from city centres and then being able to hire people more easily who can then get better quality of life from living places where housing is more affordable?
There will be much “Creative Destruction“, with lots of change, much of it challenging but also many opportunities for those willing to smash some paradigms.