How can we get through this COVID-19?

We are facing a very challenging situation. I don’t know what to call it.
Is it a financial crisis? Not really because we intentionally decide to halt all tradings and economic activities.
Is it a war? Maybe it’s a war. But the whole world is on one front. The other front is invisible. We got hit without knowing it until we fell sick. We don’t see and hear explosions and we have nowhere to hide, other than putting our face behind a surgical mask.
The World Health Organisation calls it pandemic. It’s due to a coronavirus or covid-19.
It’s an unusual situation.
I have seen this kind of crisis a few times in my sixty years living on this planet.
The first crisis that I witnessed was in 1972 in Vietnam, where I was born. My father’s hair turned from black to grey and white within 6 months. And he started thinking of bringing the family to Canada.
My father's factory produced a well known satin fabric in Saigon at that time. It was Nam A satin. Black and white satin were very popular among the vietnamese ladies and girls. It was a companion of the traditional “áo dài”. During the spring 1972, the nord army took some key positions in the south during the Vietnamese war. Every one panicked. The South government lost territories piece by piece. My father's business came to stand still, not a single cent of revenue for 6 months. Following the peace treaty in Paris in 1973, business was back to normal. My father’s factory started making fabric for western costume with technology and machinery imported from Japan. Black and white satin fabric were produced but it wasn’t the only product. And he and his textile business survived until April 1975.
Back to a more modern day, taxis were less popular because drivers didn’t want to change the way they treat customers. HBO, Cinemax, and other cable television providers were still happy with the dominant position and didn’t see Netflix and Amazon coming. These businesses lost revenue and customers because they were too comfortable with the customers based and the way they provided services and value. It’s not about technology. They could have the same technology like everybody else. They didn’t see smart and connected devices. People don’t just stay home and watch content on their television set.
Now that I’m confined at home. My company informed me this morning that the access to the office has been canceled. They don’t want to get fined by the Singaporean government. Singapore is well known as the city of fines.
I’m stuck at home with my laptop, my iPhone, my beautiful 4K screen which I share with my Mac Mini, my Jabra speaker which I use to talk to my colleagues, my partners and my customers.
I check my email twice a day. And to be honest, I hate email because it can carry “viruses” along. Not the same type of virus though.
I start working and collaborating with others using Skype, GotoMeeting, GotoTraining, Google and more importantly 3DEXPERIENCE. Those tools are cloud platforms.
My engagement with most of my partners is through cloud platforms (iOS, Google and 3DEXPERIENCE). I don’t save most of my stuff on a local hard disk. It’s on the cloud now.
Think about it. Few years ago, when I needed to work on some information and data. First, I put them on a single file that I attached to an email and sent to my partners in order to get their input and feedback. They both replied to me in one or 2 days with an update set of data and more information in 1 document. I mean, each of them in one document. How could I cope with the consolidation? That was another full day of work.
Today, we collaborate and work on the same and unique document shared among us, on the cloud.
Accessing the information stored on cloud platforms, allows you to work in any circumstance, on any device, anywhere as long as I can access to the internet.
Engaging with customers through a private cloud platform can guarantee that all stakeholders share the same and unique information, avoiding all misunderstanding which may delay a project or a deal. This is the technology that I’m using during this pandemic period and I will certainly continue to use it when we get back to normal.
How can we get through this pandemic? Or how can we change to get through this difficult situation.
I can’t wait to see Kim’s Convenience series on Netflix after my dinner.