May 2020: Will ‘Accepting the Interdependency’ be the new Change?

Will ‘Accepting the Interdependency’ be the new Change?

Interdependence means both subjects need each other to fulfil their needs. Everything in Nature is interconnected. Nothing lives in isolation!! There is no such thing as living separately. Everything, including we humans, depends on everything else in Nature. In business, we depend upon people, supply chains, and on each other in many different levels. These kinds of relationships can be found almost everywhere since, as humans, we need other people’s and nature’s help to survive and strive.

We understand that the Covid-19 crisis has already wiped off trillions of dollars off companies’ valuations; however, at the same time, countries have a chance to choose a new path as societies begin to return to normal after lockdowns.

If one single virus can destroy economies in a matter of weeks, it shows we are not thinking long term and we are not taking these risks into account. The crisis is perhaps the biggest wakeup call we have ever had to the fact that failing to take nature into account puts our own health in danger.

Consider also a second indicator: protectionism. Already, the Covid-19 crisis is hitting at the high point of one of the severest trade wars on record, since the 1930s – the Great Depression – which led to a 61% dip in US exports by 1933. And if a study by the University of St. Gallen about new export curbs on medical supplies – which today are costing lives directly – is any indicator, the crisis will lead to even more restrictions. By the end of the first quarter of 2020, 54 governments had introduced such curbs, the report found.

Communities and Businesses are built on Interdependencies:

In Gunung Palung National Park, Borneo, Indonesia, there is a modest, but vital, example of what is possible when society is built on interdependencies. In a project that began over 10 years ago, financial and technical resources from high-income countries have helped implement the locally-designed solutions of rainforest communities. In order to stop logging, the community required access to affordable, quality health care and training in organic farming and small business management. This provided an alternative way to earn a living and eliminated the need to pay for costly chemical soil fertilizer and expensive transport to poor quality, far away health clinics.

Ten years after these solutions were implemented, illegal-logging households dropped by 90 percent and forest loss stabilized; 52,000 acres of forest were regenerated, and infant mortality reduced 67 percent within a population of 120,000 people. To date, their actions have kept approximately 53 million USD worth of forest carbon out of Earth’s atmosphere — an important contribution to curbing the climate crisis.

The impact of Covid will entail new ways of doing business for industries all around the world. Industries integrating with the environment and corporate social responsibility is going to be the need of the hour.

According to a study, using data from more than 6,000 publicly traded firms across 56 countries, as is to be expected, companies in countries with greater exposure to the pandemic, as measured by confirmed cases of covid-19, suffered more than those in less-affected countries. Supply chains mattered, too. Firms with networks of suppliers and customers located in hard-hit places also experienced larger share-price declines.

Cash-rich firms weathered the storm better than those with less in liquid assets. Perhaps surprisingly, companies with better corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies, according to measures compiled by Thomson Reuters, outperformed their less socially responsible peers.

This is not the way all of us hoped the year 2020 will launch us in the new decade. However, the silver lining in all of this is that we got to think, rest, and appreciate the new way of living. 2020 will be remembered as giving up old ways and starting fresh – after all it is 2020 starting of a new decade.

Well, Covid had really led us to think and the world as we have created is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.