Dear Colleagues,
These are turbulent times. On behalf of the Board, I am writing to wish you well as you and your members deal with the uncertainty of the global spread of COVID-19.
On March 11, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. This step is rarely taken and the speed of events and change subsequently has been staggering.
For your reference, this is a link to the opening remarks of the Director General of the UN at the press conference announcing this declaration. The WHO are a simple and helpful source of good information.
https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19—11-march-2020
The major take-away for me from these remarks, is that there is little doubt that a significant part, maybe even a majority of the earth’s population will be infected.
This is the nature of a pandemic.
The work of the public health officials and our governments is to delay and control the onset so health facilities are not overwhelmed. The concept, referred to in many publications, as you will be well familiar with by now is known as “flattening the curve”.
Below is an open forum discussion of this concept with an animation.
https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-control-measures-arent-pointless-just-slowing-down-the-pandemic-could-save-millions-of-lives-133468
We must be supportive of our officials who take steps to contain the spread of the disease.
These short term inconveniencies will have a major positive impact on our communities and will protect our families.
The second take-away is that there is no longer any question whether our economies will be disrupted. Certainly, the impact will vary in degree and in timing, but disruption is here. As management consultants, we must take it upon ourselves to collaborate with our colleagues and help our clients in the best way we can.
Proven strategies are non-existent, but we can be heartened by the peaking of the outbreak in China and South Korea. We know there will be an end. So, let us think of those 30, 60 and 90 day strategies we and our clients need to have in place to survive the short-term, so that we are ready for the recovery.
The scale of the economic impact is as yet unclear but we can be certain that it will be significant.
And in the background of all this, we cannot forget Industry 4.0, the increasing digitization of services and the automation of work. As management consultants, we need to be ahead of this curve for our own provision of services. At the same time, we must be able to support our clients in doing the same.
The pandemic has shone a light on the importance of virtual meetings. We believe it will hasten the acceptance in the marketplace of doing work virtually instead of face-to-face. Let us be leaders in this as well, both in our collaboration as colleagues and in the work we do with our clients.
As management consultants we have the honour and privilege of being trusted advisors. Let us be sure we are informed on these matters.
At IMCA we will continue to work on your behalf to support you in your progress.
We would also strongly urge you to be mindful of the amount of FAKE NEWS spreading on social media and other channels and would direct you to the following sources of correct information:
https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/coronavirus/coronavirus.html
https://merrionstreet.ie/en/News-Room/News
We would also direct you to our LINKEDIN page and Twitter feeds and would ask you to follow us there where we will continue to update valid information, practical guidelines and best practice and pertinent updates as it comes into us.
Finally it goes without saying that we wish both you, your families and colleagues every good wish during this challenging time and we would urge you to practice social distancing and maintain rigorous and regular handwashing routines.
Stay safe and strong