Going through the list of travel and event cancellations for the team and myself for the next two months got me thinking of just how many events and trips firms like ours have had to cancel or postpone.
Arriving into Singapore from London just two weeks ago on a flight that’s usually full but this time was at 20% capacity struck home how much airlines and the travel industry as a whole is impacted. Imagine a world where travel is so limited, something that we take for granted, the ability to move freely from country to country is now so constrained. Empty airports, no boarding queues, hotel floors being closed, countries in lockdown mode. Seems surreal but its reality in 2020, a milestone year and the start of a new decade where two months in, everything is looking very vulnerable.
I couldn’t help thinking back to 2003 and SARS, having started my first company three months before the onset of that disease. At the time I was concerned we may not be In business by the end of the year. In hindsight we stayed in business and continue to do well.
It may be that the nature of our business, information services, data, insights is resilient to these contagions, wherein in times where fear and uncertainty prevail, clients look for more information and data to separate the facts from the fiction.
I call this period the Covid Correction, simply because I strongly believe things will get much better with the virus in the next 2-3 months. Yes, there will be impacts to business, profitability of firms and there will be some pain to go through, but in the longer term much like the SARS epidemic, we will come out stronger and more resilient as people, companies and countries.
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