Has Society Failed Us?

Can we learn from what is happening in our world today?

Every day, COVID-19 confirmed cases keep increasing speaking for my country Kenya. It turns out most businesses, schools and, other institutions will have to adjust and move to a virtual environment sooner. Societies divided by politics and inequality will come together in showing mass solidarity. The pollution in small towns and big cities will reduce drastically. A popular joke was that Mt. Kenya could be seen clearly from Nairobi (138km) away.
As conventional wisdom tumble, the door to bold new thinking has opened. Developing a cure to an unknown disease would take years to get off the ground, thoughts we would have a few months ago.
Our conception of what humankind is capable of has overturned overnight. That means these are the times for challenging dogma, more so in how we understand the role of companies in our societies. For many years we have held the belief that the social responsibility of business is to increase their profits. The doctrine of shareholder supremacy was born notwithstanding a growing movement towards more conscious capitalism continued to reign.
That proposition feels less self-evidently true than it did a couple of months ago. We are seeing a rising number of companies and institutions showing up in this crisis with humanity. They are stretching a helping hand to support society. For businesses facing an existential threat like transport or SME, this may not be an option. On the other end of the spectrum, opportunists seeking to profit in the middle. Companies are doing so much more than we could have predicted, showing their good side.
Around the globe, Uber is offering free rides and food deliveries for health care workers, senior citizens, and others affected by the outbreak. Banks are reviewing credit terms for customers. Corporates are donating millions in aid to the COVID-19 kitty. Google and Apple are teaming up to develop smartphone technology that will alert users if they contact other infected people. This pandemic is turning out it will be here for a while, also a reminder that we have to take care of each other.
The disruption that COVID-19 has opened will rapidly and potentially shift mindsets and social norms. We now have a rare chance to hard-wire into our psyches this more enlightened conception of what good business is. The process of expecting more from corporate leaders had already begun to manifest in the demands of the millennial workforce and the choices of more responsible consumers. It will now accelerate.
How a CEO or company showed up in 2020 will be a new and powerful yardstick by which they measure. Companies that lack empathy, and don’t stretch themselves to serve others that remain silent or self-serving, whose leaders refuse to share in the economic pain, risk finding their brands and reputations permanently scarred. The growing clamor is for more responsible and caring institutions. Maybe, our future is going to be of reverse Darwinism: “Survival for the Kindest and most Benevolent” instead of the foremost ferocious and self-obsessed.
It’s a vision and one we can now dare to imagine. One thing we can be sure of COVID-19 is not the last pandemic we will see. These days are a prologue, basic training for tests that loom ahead only a matter of time. Companies need to prepare for future crises with better leadership and compassion.
Keep safe.