Page 28 - Plastics News May 2020

Business, Jobs, Career and Industry outlook post COVID-19.
Pradeep Damle
The combined effect of Industry 4.0 and COVID -19
hile most of the world was celebrating New Year's
WEve on December 31, 2019 majority of us did not crisis is careers, jobs, positions man-machine
have a clue about what was in store for humanity in the interface will now be redefined. Layoffs, hiring
months following. When the news of a new virus strain freeze, redeployment has already started making
surfaced in the media, early in the New Year, at first inroads and so has GIG economy, which will require
there was denial. It was written off as just another flu. further cohesion among team members. Reskilling
However very soon it spread like a wildfire across the will be the need of the hour. Artificial Intelligence,
world, assuming pandemic proportions. It knew no robotics, data mining, and digitization will be the
borders. By the time the realization sunk in it was skills in demand. Productivity surge is expected to
already too late, people had been infected and the create new job opportunities, while Routine and
fatalities started rising exponentially with every passing single skill roles are expected to be replaced with
specialists with insights & multi-disciplinary roles,
day. Governments, Heads of States, scrambled to lock
down provinces, regions and eventually countries to according to McKenzie Global. Skills like empathy,
creativity and empathy are expected to gain
contain the spread of this rapidly spreading virus, to a
point where the entire world came to a standstill and we prominence. The nature of work too will change and
be more agile, more interdependent, collaborative
all woke up to a new reality.
and flexible.
The new reality has had devastating consequences for
world's economies, especially for the economically Careers in Oil & Gas, Aviation, Automobile and Travel
marginalized sections of the society in Asia, Africa, are expected to experience a downward trend in the
South America, Mediterranean and parts of the Middle post COVID era.
East. Loss of jobs, scarcity of food and basic essentials,
lack of medical facilities, reduced consumer spending,
possibility of recession, possibility of bankruptcies, The new work cultures will demand–
stare us in our face daily and it can't but force us to 1. the professionals to be transformational than
wonder what the future might look like post COVID-19. transactional, be part of new technology and
On a macro level, even before the COVID, world had processes and be collaborative
started moving away from globalization, will the crisis 2. be a digital native and demonstrate the ability
give more impetus to anti-globalization forces. Will the
crisis result in more cooperation amongst nations or to work remotely
unlateralism. Although not new, acronym VUCA which 3. transition from analysis to synthesis
stands for Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and 4. continuous learning, unlearning and relearning
ambiguity gains new significance in the present over one time learning
circumstances.
5. shift from domain expertise to being
integrative
Outlook -
Every crisis brings with it an opportunity. The rapid 6. employee to demonstrate Emotional
disruption brought on by COVID will necessitate the need Leadership (EL), Emotional intelligence(EI)
to find newer ways of adapting to the changing business and Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EIQ) over
dynamics. Although easier said than done, those who can Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
maneuver through the turbulent times and adapt quickly
will minimize the losses. Regardless of the size, most
businesses are expected to tread very carefully in In closing, we need to hope for the best but prepare
coming months in terms of stocks, human capital, and for the worst. We need to start looking beyond
liquidity. COVID has significantly changed the contours immediate crisis and prepare a recovery plan for the
of professional life. Home is now the new office and
post crisis world. Individuals need to take charge of
video conferencing the new Board Room. It is therefore their own career by adding diversity of experience,
imperative for working professionals to get used to the
new work culture. In his recent address Prime Minister of acquiring new domain skills, leadership ambition,
India, Mr. Narendra Modi aptly advised the youth to think humility is a prescription to a successful career in the
in terms of the vowels ; a, e, i, o, u where a – new world.
adaptability, e- efficiency, i-inclusivity, o-opportunity
and u – universalism are the vowels of the new normal.

MAY 2020 28 Plastics News