The-Negotiation-Society-Magazine-The-Change-Issue

USA
by Sib Law
I read an article that captured a truism for
most people in the US when the pandemic
started. It said that unlike 9/11, the Space
Shuttle Columbia disaster, or even the Kennedy
assassination, there was not a moment where
people would say, “I remember where I
was when…”
However, I do have a moment. I know
exactly where I was.
It was Monday February 24, 2020, around
11 a.m. on a flight from New York to Chicago
I noticed that half the seats were empty. Having
been a weekly flyer for years this seemed strange,
so I asked the flight attendant if their other flights
were this empty. Initially they maintained they
were full, but five minutes later returned to inform
me that, in fact, all future flights were half full.
At best.
That is when I knew this far-off news story
would have a massive impact on me and everyone
I knew. Like the rest of the world, the US
economy and its societal fabric has experienced
tremendous upheaval. We saw record numbers of
new unemployment filings. At the same time with
record numbers of people at home, many took to
the streets to protest systemic racism, and maskwearing
become politicized.
As the United States governs differently
than many other countries, the response to the
pandemic proved different as well. Many states
constructed a defense to the pandemic themselves,
banding together into “regions” designed to bolster
their negotiation power. For example, New York,
New Jersey and Connecticut formed an alliance
intended to acquire PPE as a single group, as
well as propose quarantine guidelines and enforce
travel bans. One could argue the non-unified
approach led to some of the highest per capita
infection and death rates globally.
Like many parts of the world, we’ve seen
some industries desecrated – travel, small
business, business attire, commercial real estate,
fossil fuels; and other industries thrive – tech,
streaming services, delivery services, home office
and workout solutions. My favorite stories are
about businesses that figured out how to beat
the shutdowns to stay in business. One such is
the trend of ghost kitchens – restaurants with
no storefront. The only way to get a meal from
a ghost kitchen is through a delivery app. They
were getting popular in New York City prior to
the pandemic and have grown significantly over
the past year. Many restaurants which had to
close their dining rooms needed to find additional
ways to generate revenue. So, the kitchen at
Ming’s Chinese Restaurant might also become
the kitchen for a brand new, app-only restaurant
called Daisy’s Home Cooking. Some chain
restaurants are even rumored to be piloting ghost
kitchen programs.
As people continue to stay home, it’s this kind
of creative thinking that will change the game for
agile businesses. A simple business philosophy
stands: understand a problem, master a solution,
deliver it in a way customers want. Be ready for
each of these to change.
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