Canned food, Velcro, Water purifiers, Camera phones and Infrared thermometers, just a few of the innovations that came out from a necessity crisis and are today routine household inventory. We today are living in interesting times. I might sound overly optimistic while the world is stewing in the COVID-19 Manchurian, but after transitioning to the fifth stage of grief, thinking ahead is the only logical option.
I have written before how this current crisis will end up changing how we define ‘normal’ (http://tiny.cc/m58emz). Still, we will survive and continue to flourish. Life with this new virus will warrant changes and our success will depend on how we adapt. There is probably nobody whose personal or business life has not been affected, at least to some degree, by the current crisis. Indeed, in the time between writing this and you reading it, I suspect a some more would have changed.
Lockdowns have offered us the opportunities to surf the web in plenty. Social media and info-sharing websites are ripe with many innovations being showcased to offset the limits imposed by the situation. From low cost, hands free washing setups, in-house non-contact thermometers, PPE etc. Human creativity is taking on the deadly virus and its widespread effects. But there is more to the fertile nature of a crisis that leads to innovation than simply the opportunities to solve issues. Difficult times present unique conditions that allow people to think, manoeuvre & rapidly create, impactful solutions. For learning minds, these conditions provide the opportunity to re-engineer processes incorporating changes by reducing variance and promoting incremental innovation.
The Indian story today is intertwined with the global narrative, however the solutions we need require a design harmonisation with our unique conditions of both geography and demography. The scale of the problems and the unavoidable need of isolation have today made nations inwards looking, leaving limited scope for collaboration. This has presented the need for up-scaling integral capacities and ensuring that basic sustainment is confined within the national borders.
Innovations in life essential fields are vital and are today at various stages of development. The trick now is to ensure how these are engineered into successful products with the Make-in-India pride and the affordability, effectiveness & desirability pushing consumer demand. This, once mass scaled with distribution and revenue prudence, will truly make the lifestyle changing ideas a reality. It is easier to predict technology than predicting societies. Most likely we will see habit changes, changes in short and mid-term spending patterns and even changes in our notion of security. We may also see an increase in behaviours like flight to the familiar, loss aversion and risk aversion, which are textbook responses to risk, fear and uncertainty. How long this lasts remains a question, but there will be short and medium and long term opportunities if we can reorient innovation streams towards value, risk reduction, familiarity, psychological safety, and even nostalgia.
The way ahead, with inputs as on today goes through increased government orders on indigenous industry with the industry delivering world class products and services and not just enjoying the glory of protectionism. The complete production, procurement & consumption ideals needs overhaul. This, whether we like it or not, will happen because of the changes in the consumer behaviour, however whether we are able to emerge stronger as a nation or this leads us to yet another increase on foreign imports will be our defining moment.
The normal entrepreneur will always be ready to quickly modify his processes and engage the short and medium term needs. But it takes a Statesman like vision and Spartan focus to see the innovation pipeline through in the long term, modulate the convergence of global supply chains and navigate the economic matrix involving people and governments. Populations will need to change but will urge to hold on. Let us hope to see the rise of Indian brands with Indian solutions to Global problems. Let us start. No seed ever sees the plant.
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