Culture, crisis and COVID-19 : the great reset

Abstract

This book addresses the twin goals of “Build Back Better” than before the pandemic and the Great Reset called for by the World Economic Forum. Can we use this crisis to re-vision capitalism as a life-preserving, livelihood-enriching phenomenon? All businesses now face the challenge of prospering while serving and saving lives. This should have been their mission all along! The pandemic is killing disproportionately those whom we have neglected. Deaths in Europe and the Americas are between ten and one hundred times more frequent than deaths in China and the region influenced by Chinese civilization for two thousand years. This is all despite the weeks of warning we had and wasted. Since Western governments must massively stimulate their economies in any case, spending trillions, this is a priceless opportunity to usher in certain kinds of world-saving businesses, and show out those kinds of business that wreck our eco-system. We have a priceless opportunity to create an economy that serves all its stakeholders, customers, employees, suppliers and those who physically create wealth, not just those who trade in shares. This virus has sniffed out our selfishness, our toxic levels of individualism and self-indulgence. We should never waste a crisis on recriminations. It is an opportunity to reset our moral compass to re-discover that the true mission of business enterprise is to serve humanity with higher goals. Leadership must be dedicated to service, not self-aggrandizement.