For many people, working from home is fast becoming the new normal. Photo / Getty Images
For many people, working from home is fast becoming the new normal. Photo / Getty Images
COMMENT:
The coronavirus pandemic provides many New Zealanders in the business world with the unexpected "gift of time" to reassess what will work and what won't in our new "world with walls".
It may be counterintuitive to point this out. Nor should it be taken as a blessing.
Particularly when it's yet to be confirmed that the coronavirus pandemic, already hitting our shores, has moved into the community transmission phase. There is a tough period to come.
But let's just stay with an optimistic note where we can.
This period of enforced working from home — which is now the new norm for many in business — provides us with an unexpected gift: time.
The time not spent getting ready to go to work at the office, the time not spent commuting, the time not spent in meetings that go on far too long, or going to the myriad events which are de rigueur in the business world.
Mulling over (words carefully chosen) what the business world looks like with many projects deferred into the second half of 2020, business breakfasts, lunches and after work functions cancelled, along with many conferences and awards nights, and international trade missions, we could choose to use this unexpected time to focus on a creative period, choosing to take the gift rather than fret about the future.
There is also new time for family and community — all the while observing the new "social distancing" requirements.
New Zealand has come through many crises before.
In the past 40 years alone, there's been the 1980s sharemarket boom and bust, the banking crises of the late 1980s and subsequent early 1990s recession, the East Asia financial crisis, the dotcom bubble and resultant tech wreck, September 11 and the global financial crisis. Working through these events teaches us that periods of global expansion do not last forever and the importance of resilience at both company and personal level when crises happen.
It also teaches us that New Zealand companies have been extraordinarily resilient in times of crisis and are prepared to step up and help not simply their employees and customers, but also their nation.
This crisis is different.
It is also historic.
It not only bites hard on businesses — particularly in tourism and hospitality — but carries with it an existential threat.
That has yet to play out. But already some businesses are expecting a vastly different future.
Boards of directors, chief executives and senior leadership teams — and shareholders — carry hefty responsibilities at this time to their companies.
Take Air New Zealand, for instance.
Air NZ chief executive Greg Foran has foreshadowed that the national carrier of the future will be much different to the airline of just two months ago once the pandemic is over.
There will be maybe just 40 major airlines that survive this crisis, Foran suggests.
Air NZ's 52 per cent shareholder — the Crown — yesterday stepped up with a $900m, 24-month loan facility which can be converted to equity at a later date.
There were grizzles from the investment community about whether the Government should simply have recapitalised the airline outright. Or whether the minority shareholders' rights had been overlooked.
But let's have a dose of realism, please.
Cabinet does not have time to focus on that at this stage.
This is different to 2001 when — albeit September 11 had already occurred — the then-Labour Government was essentially dealing with an airline failure in isolation.
The Government has also been criticised for its tardiness in closing the border.
Our entrepreneurial elite — such as Zuru's Nick Mowbray and Trade Me founder Sam Morgan — have been berating the Government on this score but without spelling out in detail just what they have been doing to help (as I am sure they are in their private capacities).
No one knows how well New Zealand will come through this current phase.
It's getting to the point where the Government should share any plans it has to commandeer stadiums or new (and empty) hotels in Auckland, for instance, to quarantine confirmed coronavirus sufferers as China did so ruthlessly. We should also know if the military will backstop police if various cities or towns do have to go into full lockdown, or not?
It would help confidence if these plans are shared.
But credit where it is due.
This week the Government stepped up with wage subsidies that help small-to-medium sized enterprises keep staffers and contractors employed. At the "big end of town", the Government could usefully look at assisting banks roll out lines of credit where they are needed. Talks are under way on this option.
Businesses are also now in a world where hard choices have to be made.
The enforced period of "self- isolation" and "social distancing" has already changed the shape of our cities. The Auckland CBD is starting to feel like a ghost town as many businesses move to working from home. Cafes and restaurants have few customers. We have no idea how long this new norm will last.
Many of us will feel cabin fever from balancing family and work life from home. But until that bites, we can choose to use that time wisely and think about what the New Zealand of the future should be, and our own environment.
