Post pandemic, no return to normal and need for a new business, commercial, government and economic MO.
Written two years ago this article points to the new models that government, business and commerce must plan and implement to cope with the new reality.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb coined the term 'Black Swan' events. Taleb argued that because black swan events are impossible to predict due to their extreme rarity yet have catastrophic consequences, it is important for people to always assume a black swan event is a possibility, whatever it may be, and to plan accordingly.
His more recent book 'Antifragile' is not an easy read. In fact it has taken me months as I dip in and out.
Antifragility is a property of systems that increase in capability to thrive as a result of stressors, shocks, volatility, noise, mistakes, faults, attacks, or failures. It is a concept developed by Taleb and if acted on might well have helped the world cope better with the coronavirus.
I hope that leaders in government, business, commerce, public services and in fact all of us in the general public think ahead rather than backwards and realise that we will not return to normal and therefore must reform all aspects of society, governance, business, global activity - you name it.
Covid-19 is a shock but shocks can be the catalyst to necessary change.
In the Local Hero scenario, our new arsenal of technologies is deployed with the intent to raise productivity and solve the problems of the many. In this scenario we advance technologically, but not in a centralised fashion; not with the algorithms owned by the few, nor the dominance of the platforms; but instead through a highly distributed economy. This could be local councils using drones to cut the time for delivery of defibrillators from 21 to five minutes. Or 3D printed houses, created in 24 hours, costing less than £8000.