“Nearly the end of August and still,” sighed my hairdresser this week.
Yes, still. Still stuck. Still masked. Still Zoom.
Since March, I must have interviewed countless people from across the world, ran lots of virtual events. And I sense a weariness settling in. It’s in the shoulders. They seem more slumped. It’s in the eyes. They seem less bright. It’s in the tone. It seems less upbeat.
We humans are not made to be constrained and confined to a screen all day.
“I can’t do another webinar,” said Stephan Ekbergh, CEO, Travelstart, who was out walking in Cape Town and communing with the seals and dolphins he meets during those outings. “I simply can’t.”
Said Amit Saberwal, CEO and co-founder, RedDoorz during our call today, “My job as CEO is to go out, meet people, be around the water cooler, I don’t have nine hours of work to do on a screen.”
Christian Suwarna, CMO of Traveloka, lamented, “It doesn’t work when you have to attack, charge, collaborate. I miss the energy.”
“I have forgotten what it is like to shake hands,” laughed Kei Shibata, CEO, LINE TRAVEL jp.
So this week, I decided to lift my eyes from the screen, look up to the stars and threw out one question into the universe. “If I were to ask you what’s the one big thing Covid-19 challenged your thinking on, what would it be?”
Here are some answers that came back, some attributable, some non-attributable, but thought I’d share them all.
“That we are in one big financial bubble and that governments have so much power to keep us going.”
“Not the one BIG thing – we are too quick to judgement. That person is not wearing a mask, they must be stupid, etc. Most people are doing their best with a terrible situation. Also there are grey areas and we continue to get a better understanding. The need for grace abounds.”
“My mother not being able to visit my father in his nursing home.”
“Intercontinental travel – being able to just jump on a plane and be on the other side of the world. Implications for both my professional and personal life.”
“1. That things can’t get any worse (they can and they did)
2. That countries would never close borders (they did)
3. People would be rational with toilet paper (they weren’t)
4. We couldn’t operate all corporate requirements remotely (we can)
5. That I would be so resilient (I am)
6. That it would last so long without a vaccine (and counting)”
Stephan Ekbergh, CEO, Travelstart
“On a personal level, maybe what I have my pride and security in. Is it in work, money or faith and how geared am I for leading this company into the next season? On a general level on work, I guess how relevant is what we are doing and for how long? What is the one thing that can make us relevant for the next 5-7 years?”
Eric Gnock-Fah, co-founder and COO, Klook
“Be more focused, drill deeper versus placing multiple eggs in as many baskets. This was our mindset pre-Covid when we looked at diversification to find new growth opportunities. However, in times like these, we can achieve similar results by going deeper and in some instances, generate even higher returns. When the markets are back on track, we will look to scale up and accelerate our expansion plans again.”
Timothy Hughes, vice president, corporate development, Agoda
“One, on how much I could replace business trips with video conference. I can do it more than I thought I could. But, while I have seen the expanded role of video conference, I can still see the limitations of it. I have just reassessed the scope of that limitation. They have proven much more successful at maintaining a business relationship (existing relationship) than I thought they would be. But they are still very limited in their ability to establish a relationship that does not yet exist.
“Two, on how much I could miss home (Australia) and my family there. The human condition is an interesting one. I have not visited home for eight months. There have been many times in my life when I have been away for this period of time or longer. But the knowledge state is different. This time I don’t have the option to visit home. And I have no idea when I will be able to visit home. That takes my homesickness and magnifies to a dominating feeling.”
So here’s the positive. This deprivation is going to make us long to get together again with people, it will make us appreciate even more the togetherness of togetherness. It is why the first cave man left his cave, to get together with other cave people.
And if we are feeling like this, I imagine our customers – the 1.5 billion travellers recorded in 2019 by the World Tourism Organisation (UNTWO) – must also be feeling the same way.
Let’s wait patiently for that day. Meantime, stop doom scrolling, lift your eyes and look at the stars. They are brighter than ever.
• Featured image credit: Valentyna Gupalo/Getty Images
