What COVID Told us About Business

 

Even though the economy and nature have had a symbiotic relationship throughout human history; and business markets and cities have had a symbiotic relationship for 12,000 years; how we see business today is more of a function of our cultural orientation to the ideas of business.

The cultural rationale of our business – the reasoning and logic we use to drive action – is shaped by the evolution of our culture, which is a function of our understanding of the business world. Education, training, and experience are three big contributors to culture. From our education we understand “why” business works. From our training we understand “how” business works. From our experience we understand “when” business works.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the cracks in our thinking and the decay in our 12,000 old ecosystems. As business owners and managers, how we treat our customers and our employees during the pandemic was a direct reflection of our cultural rationale – thus the ultimate tell of how we perceive the purpose of business.

Those with more of a community mindset see the purpose of business as a community service. With their cultural rationale they quickly adapted and evolved to safely fulfill the purpose of serving the community and thus continued to thrive. Those with more of an investment mindset see the purpose of business as a vehicle for the extraction and accumulation of economic wealth continued to put customers and employees at risk.