Business towards the World of Minimalism -

by Elias Moses

The Covid-19 pandemic is set to be the most significant health emergency of our time.

We can be well assured that it is neither the first, nor the last, nor even the most horrific of our time. Most likely in the end, the death toll won’t be any higher than other illnesses might bring – and yet, four months since its debut, Covid-19 has reached its first milestone – A Human Halt, its Introspection and Adaptation towards Change.

Many world economists today predict that Covid-19 has begun a Great Global Economic Crisis of the 21 century, since the Great Depression that began in 1929 and lasted a decade.

While figures for India and data from some other countries paint a grim picture, they are to be seen more as reliable predictions for the future.

Fitch Ratings, as on 23 April 2020, slashed India’s economic growth projections to 0.8% in the current fiscal 2020-21 as compared to an estimated 4.9 % growth in the previous fiscal.

The IMF and World Bank had projected 5.8% and 5% GDP growth rate earlier, now with Covid-19, IMF predicts a slender 1.9% growth in India.

(As collated and released by India Today on April 24, 2020)

The World GDP is now expected to fall by 3.9% in 2020, a recession of unprecedented
depth in the post-war period, says Brian Coulton, Chief Economist at Fitch Ratings.

Economic Snapshot of G7 Countries

The decline of GDP equates to a USD 2.8 trillion fall in global income levels relative to 2019 and a loss of USD 4.5 trillion relative to pre-virus expectations of 2020 global GDP.

The World of Business in the ‘New Normal’

The world of business might go through another long phase of recession or depression. It is sad but true. However the icing on the cake is that the world of business will go thru a long grinding and a re-awakening, which may have its impact on every sphere of life on this planet, all credit to this tiny unseen Coronavirus.

Many today ask me if we can all be well assured of a life that we once lived till date. I have this answer to give “life will resume, but our perspective towards life and human activity will not be the same again”. Can we call it a ‘new age or next age,’ only time will answer? But one thing is for sure, we will all emerge to a battered and bruised world called the ‘New-normal’.

Let us not press the panic button. Once the impact of the pandemic is over, the sun will continue to rise in the east and we will all emerge from our locked cells like hungry animals coming out of their cages after the winter hibernation.

The hugely suffocating life of being locked down will come to an end one-day; the repercussion of the life in the cell will bring some newness and freshness, when we venture out in the open. But our perspective towards life will not be the same. Our priorities will be differently poised internationally, nationally, professionally, personally and inter-personally.

Businesses tilting towards the world of Minimalism

Covid-19 will profoundly change the way businesses will be run in the future, and fundamentally alter their management practices for ever. If history were to be a guide, the Great Depression of 1929 did just that.

Post the great dépression, as against the mechanical business model of ‘input-output measurements’, Fritz Roethlisberger and Elton Mayo placed the “softer” human element at the centre of business efficiency, irrevocably transforming management theory and its practice.

Today we have to ask the question …How covid-19 effect will play out.

There-again, if history were to be a guide for our future, this great predicted recession or depression will force the world to move away from a ‘World of Consumerism’ to a ‘World of Essentialism and Minimalism’ with a softer human element of MAN being the END, not a MEANS as it once were.

Humanity will be forced to move away from the ‘principle of having’ to a ‘Principle of necessity’, where what is essential may be the ultimate criterion of human choice.

In this world of Necessity and Minimalism, Businesses that trade on essentials will thrive, luxury will be less in demand, the recovery could be lumpy leading to the drops in world market and business activities may not be swift.

As experts put it, this slow and ponderous recovery back to economic heath is going to take
years, both nationally and internationally. The Governments will be cautious going forward. It will be a calculated and de-risking move in every sphere of business world going forward.

Localised Economy and Businesses

The Governments, with their short term and imminent strategies, will fairly be able to handle their local economy for a brief period. Their immediate focus will be to survive the impact and revive the local economy.

Asa result of this, we have already seen the Governments throwing their money as handouts to public or as stimulus to industries (SMEs) to pop up the business back to normal and to maintain their momentum.

But can this routine dole-out be a standardized practice in this overly critical situation?

Definitely a No.

With high debt ratios, Governments will find it very difficult to maintain their debt ratio and sustain the momentum of local economy on the longer run. Let us not forget that the interest rates of loans were at their lowest point even before the pandemic kicked in; now with the margin of interest at its lowest, will the economy recreate its cyclic effect all over again? One has to wait and watch.

With every country trying to localise its economy and spend its mite on its local growth, the over-rated national feeling is going to mount far from ever to the point of identifying one’s being and doing to ‘the cause of national existence’, while ignoring the rest.

Are we giving globalization a big miss here?

Can this move pave a way to a formation of ‘Union of Nations’, where the nations determine their economy and business locally and internally, while acting globally only on preset issues that draw some universal appeal or significance such as climate change.

Our Streets of Businesses

As the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man,” When life resumes, the life of businesses on the streets will never be normal again or that man will never be the same man again.

We dont know what will things turn out to be?

But one thing is for sure, we all have to travel into the sphere of ‘Next’. Whether that Next is normal, a-normal, abnormal or a new normal; only time will answer.

Our streets of businesses will be a living reality to this changed paradigm. A year down the line, the things sold on the streets could be variously different from what are found today….. to be true… the commodities for the new man or the next man.

Businesses and their blame-game

There will be a blame game from houses and centres of power and every inch of that blame may point to China and its wet-market, and vice versa.

With the spur of conspiracy theories looming large amidst the general public via social media and forwards, more and more of hatred and mental distancing could be witnessed between nations and cultures, forget the social distancing.

What impact is that going to set in?

A basic trust factor will be in-want between nations and businesses.

Will people be wary of doing business with China? yes or no… but the broader question is not who is going to reflect or deflect the blame game, but how can we redeem ourselves from the mess we have created over a period time?

From a Social being to Living being Categorisation

As we emerge out of Covid situation and resume our routine normal, there will be lots of social stigma attached to man’s interaction with those infected and the non-infected.

It will take sometime for the stigma to die down. This reaction, for a while, will make every person perceive the other with a marginal suspicion.

We are all social beings, we agree. But post the shut down, all our social gatherings, from water sport activity to watching sports in stadiums, movies in cinema halls, our movements in malls, our gathering in places of religious worships are going to have a new meaning and outlook.

Social distancing as a norm is here to stay. An ‘ad-intra’ effect could be in place. Man will be perceived more as an inner being going forward. From being a social animal, man will be seen more as a ‘living or inward animal’ learning to cope with a world of essentialism and minimalism.

Our businesses will be making a paradigm shift catering to this living being than a social being going forward. The post Covid man’s needs could be minimum or he/she will learn to live with minimum.

Businesses and their activities have to adapt to this world of minimalism.

WFH is here to stay as another acceptable structured platform of work

Working from Home (WFH) could be a structured reality going forward, as more of structural ways of operating from home as a routine factor will be a modern day reality with the digital platforms and speedy internet supporting the move.

This in many ways will cut down on the hours of travel, reduce the traffic congestion, increase productivity, and reduce infrastructural cost.

However the ‘the future of work’ as mere WFH will be an overrated statement. This
platform will be another tool of work in the world of minimalism.

Discretionary Spending and its impact of business

People will be more alert and attuned to spending more on essentials than non essentials. The customer will be king all over again. The customer will decide on consuming only on the essentials in time to come.

This will Create winners and losers in existing businesses and add some innovative businesses. Some businesses will thrive and some will be destroyed completely,
while some may return to the new-normal.

People will say, “my manicure, my holiday, my cloths, my scintillating jewelleries and accessories, the latest smart phones and new cars can wait.”

“The market will never determine the world of man but man will determine the world of market”

In this scenario, the businesses won’t be normal again. With the world economy in recession, discretionary spending will be the way of life. Businesses will have evolve around it.

Coronavirus is here to stay, it may soon move from pandemic to endemic, it will infect large number of humans as many viruses do, but the human spirit is so supreme that it will win over yet another pandemic to sustain human life on this planet.

There is something new to learn here. The positive outcome is that the human spirit is such that it will always adapt, overcome or be born anew.

It is time that businesses think/rethink their strategic core plans and practices with a firm focus on the ‘Essentials of humankind’, thus make inroads into the world of the unknown (the new normal) and create a firm economic stability and sustainability in future.

Such a move will make life and inter-relatedness a meaningful reality all over again.

Elias Moses is a Senior Business & Strategy Advisor, Consultant, Researcher, Corporate and Leadership Trainer, Orator, Columnist and an Entrepreneur. He is the Founder and Managing Director of a growing reality firm in south India. He is also founder of managing next, an online knowledge portal and consulting.

The author can be contacted@
email: elias@manovsis.com, linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/eliasmoses

2 thoughts on “Business towards the World of Minimalism”