The cloud of uncertainty looms over the entire globe. Stock markets are in disarray, economy in doldrums and poor has become poorer. Covid 19, a term which did not make any sense just 4 months back has now become a buzz word. For a country which announced complete lockdown for 21 days from 24th March…
Society chooses its dead (Sartre, 1976)[1] A pandemic could be the context where the world sets aside differences and globally agree on how to best navigate our societies through the crisis. A pandemic does not distinguish between geographies, gender, ethnicity, or religion. Global solidarity, collaboration across old boarders, and a collective flexible humanitarian response…
The Pandemic Calls for Integrated Solutions During this pandemic some businesses are doing better than others with how they are responding to and managing their social and financial performance. Ashim Paun, Co-Head for ESG Research at HSBC stated that “when crises like COVID-19 manifest, particularly with social and environmental causes and implications, investors can see…
Society has been susceptible to man-made and natural catastrophic events since the beginning of time. A few of the more notable natural disasters include the Antioch earthquake of AD 526, the 1881 Haiphong typhoon, and the more recent 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.[i] Man-made disasters include the great depression, the great credit crisis of…
As we struggle with how best to combat COVID-19 in many parts of the world, stark differences have emerged in both the strategies and relative success rates of individual countries in stopping the spread of the novel coronavirus. Remarkably, China and South Korea have successfully arrested the expansion of the virus, while others, including the…
COVID-19 is one of the most urgent, intractable, grand societal challenges of our time. While posing enormous challenges to the entire globe, the virus has also unleashed the desire to “do good” through organized efforts to help those suffering. As a result, it could be argued, now more than ever, the time is ripe for…
The priority of any serious nation is public health, education, economics and security (in that order). Not the other way round. My appreciation of how global health crises and international business reinforce each other and impinge on socioeconomic life is filtered through the lens of my fieldwork experience in the “West” and in the “global…
While the world might recover from the Wuhan, China-based 2020 novel coronavirus, it is likely that the virus will leave the world governance system in a different state. Globalization as we knew it is over and a new world order will emerge, with dramatic consequences to our field. Globalization involves the movement of people, information,…
While many nations, companies, and individuals are still reeling from the negative effects of the financial crash that began in 2007 and then ground on through the years, the Covid-19 has hit hardly affecting many economies, and specially those related to the service industries. Services are often among the first and hardest hit by turmoil.…
Currently, over 30% of the world’s population faces stay-at-home measures in an effort to stop the spread of the Coronavirus. While necessary to tackle this global pandemic, extended physical distancing is causing another global crisis as people face mounting social isolation, disconnection, loneliness, and depression. To make up for the loss of physical human connections,…