A silver lining in the Covid-19 clouds

Clouds obscure the sun. The horizon becomes grey and dark. It seems all ominous. However, rays of sunlight do break through eventually to make the world seem brighter. While Covid-19 has darkened the lights and sounds of the hustling bustling world, it has made many "shoved aside" probabilities become possibilities. What was unthinkable once is now doable. What was once un- heard off is now loud and clear. What was once a fantasy is now a reality. They say need is the mother of invention. Well then innovation is the sibling of survival. And creativity is the off-spring of unity.

While more has been written on the gloom and doom scenario of this global, foxy, tricky and un-caged micro monster virus, few thoughts on how this has made us leap-frog development, inertia and human resistance to change. People are working as never before. People are living as never before. People are doing what they never do. People are creating what they never imagined. It all seems stressful, onerous and life shifting. But was this not what for years organizations have requested and taught progressive individuals and institutions to do - think out of the box.

For many years businesses have been taught not to be complacent. Concept of change management has been introduced years ago. It was recognized that change is resisted by individuals, businesses and societies. The phrase "comfort zone" was coined. Human beings are creatures of habits and changing habits and behavior is a big challenge. Most literature established that individuals and organizations who resisted change eventually failed. Many case studies have vouched for this phenomenon. One of the best-selling books pointed out the concept of disruption innovation. How industries get disrupted when technology makes the existing way of doing business unnecessary and costly. The book "The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail", generally referred to as The Innovator's Dilemma, is the work of the late Harvard professor and businessman Clayton Christensen. This book recommended that either disrupt or be disrupted to survive. Coronavirus is a huge disruption.

Here comes the silver lining for the present corona crisis. Businesses and people will not delay and resist disruption as a business decision but disruption is a given now. The innovator's dilemma is no longer a choice that he has to make; it is the only choice to make. Thus 7 billion people are stretching and unleashing their potential to survive and think of new ways of living and making a living. Thus, disruption is the new norm. As is with such seismic waves the shaking and shattering is causing pain and loss but will also make people do unbelievable feats. Five such instances of silver lining are:

1 United in Combat- For the first time in the history 7 billion people are united to fight one enemy. Scientists and researchers across the world are busy twenty four hours to find a solution for treating, testing and eliminating this virus. This unity is already breaking records of product development. The testing kits that were hardly available few weeks ago are now available in many forms varying from some hours to some minutes in giving results. The unthinkable is happening. Apple and Google have decided to team up for finding coronavirus solutions.

2 Innovations Everywhere- The rich and the poor countries are all trying to outdo each other in developing products and equipment for this battle. Education for all that was a dream for underdeveloped countries will become a reality much quicker post-Covid-19 scenario. Imagine a country like Pakistan. Schools closed for three months. Classes are happening online in the private schools. In the public schools, the Punjab Government has taken the initiative to open a TV Channel "Taleem Ghar" and primary school syllabus is being taught on TV sitting at home.

3 Talent is the Merit-The tragedy of having young talent but no space for their idea nourishment has turned into an opportunity. NUST University students are working and being supported in multiple projects. Just have a read- tele-operated decontamination robot, robust and cost-effective PCR-based testing kits for the detection of Coronavirus; bilingual (Urdu & English) COVID-19 self-screening app, the world's first Urdu app for Android, named COVID CHECK PAKISTAN are all student brilliance enabled. Ventilator systems for short-term stabilisation (ranging from few hours to 1 day) of COVID-19 patients, as per the design specifications specially issued for combatting COVID-19 by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulator Agency (MHRA), the UK, is a great milestone.

4 Out of the box Creativity-From imagining to Imagineering. This used to be a mere slogan. It has become an action. All products good or bad are being re-engineered. Products that were threats to humanity are being turned into opportunity. All services ordinary are being redesigned into extraordinary. Just look at the IT industry. Some creative doers have become creative billionaires. Zoom the online meeting service has jumped its user base from 20 million users to 200 million users in 2 months. They have creatively redesigned their services to serve a stuck at home workplace, meetings, interviews, hiring, firing, lecturing, and chatting. Some small-scale businesses have actually targeted the upper class and started selling Corona Protection Packs. These contain organic soaps, beautiful masks and high end sanitizers with a ribbon gift packing. They are saying they are inundated by orders.

5 From Killing to Life Saving- Survival is a strange converter. When the danger is as common as coronavirus, all roads lead to the same destiny. Thus, here we are witnessing Taliban converting to volunteers to serve patients in Afghanistan while Saudi Arabia and Yemen announce a truce. Drones that were made to kill and rekill are now being used to spray sanitizers and deliver medicines to save humanity. Destruction has become construction.

Cities have started breathing and nature has started healing the earth. Lahore, which for the last few years has been recorded in the top three polluted cities in the world with Air Quality index showing toxic levels topping 400, has just registered the cleanest air quality level of 51. BBC is paying tributes to Pakistan on coping with this crisis through its "law of generosity" .One of the inventors in Abbott USA who has created the machine that can test coronavirus in just 15 minutes is from Larkana, Sindh. The Covid-19 catastrophe will be over in due course of time. Whether these silver linings become the new norm, or, the old norms cloud out these brighteners will determine the triumph or defeat of humanity over this adversity.

(The writer can be reached at [email protected])