United States of America Linda Conrad, Global Ambassador, Stone Harbor Consulting (NOT Exelon Corp.) It is important to be realistic yet optimistic regarding the impact of this Covid crisis. From a resiliency perspective, this Covid emergency and “shelter-in-place” has been a true test of preparedness for governments, businesses, and for individuals. Leadership everywhere is challenged with leading responsibly, using science and facts, as well as empathy, to drive decision-making while focusing on the needs of key stakeholders. Organizations with strong risk management and scenario planning are able to transition to new business processes, while those without disaster recovery plans are creating work-arounds on the fly. Everyone is making good use of the collaboration technology to keep working and stay connected. All schools are closed, and those that are more agile have moved to on-line learning, while others are emailing assignments. At times the network infrastructure becomes overloaded, but it has been holding up well and enabling companies to transact business. Naturally, the main concern is personal safety. However, the world is seeing the economic fallout from Covid–19. Many service-based businesses are depleting cash reserves and individuals are going through their savings like a hot knife through butter. Small businesses and their owners, in particular, are feeling the weight of the shut down and scores have already begun the process of filing for bankruptcy. Unfortunately, it may take a long time to recover from the economic impact, particularly in certain places like Italy and New York City which have been disproportionately decimated from a human and financial perspective. During these unprecedented times, the world has seen a surge in cyber crime. Companies everywhere have been focused on managing the financial and operational impacts of Covid–19, and cyber criminals are sweeping in. In response, the Cyber Association of Maryland Inc (CAMI) have quickly taken action. Last week, CAMI stood up a Cyber SWAT team and the State of MD has officially endorsed it. On Maryland’s website, there is now a link to CAMI’s website, where a company can contact the SWAT team requesting help. This innovative response, aimed at supporting local businesses in their cyber resiliency, is but one proofpoint of the extraordinary collaboration and public / private partnerships which are occuring everywhere. Other examples of collaboration for the greater good include the many manufacturing and drug firms who are refocusing their efforts toward solving the current crisis by producing essentials like ventilators, hand sanitizer, antibody tests and vaccines. This massive coordination effort, orchestrated by the federal and state governments in partnership with key corporations and not-for-profit agencies, indicates corporate and societal agility. There is a marked increase in resourcefulness, as supply chains have instantly reinvented and redirected their production and distribution channels, and found new ways to collaborate with unlikely partners who are now all pulling in the same direction. As a case in point, one large company is commissioning small businesses who are out of work to make vats of sanitizer for redistribution. It has been a positive thing to see the increased innovation and creative connections that are now occuring. Interesting to note that Isaac Newton did some of his best thinking after being sent home from his studies in Cambridge to avoid the plague, and was quarantined at his parents’ house. The year that he spent away was later referred to as his ‘annus mirabilis’ or “year of wonders.’ He worked on mathematical problems he began at Cambridge, and the papers he wrote at home became early calculus. Next, he acquired some prisms and experimented with them in his bedroom, even boring a hole in his shutters so only a small beam could come through, from which sprang his theories on optics. And finally, right outside his home bedroom window, there was an apple tree - yes, that apple tree - where Newton reportedly sat, was hit on the head by an apple, then better understood theories of gravity and motion.
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