Stronger Together.
Much commentary has been written and analysed about the COVID19 pandemic, but I think that every commentator has been definitive around one thing: how quickly business, government and society have been able to come together for the greater good.
In “usual times” what would take years to develop seems to have been achieved in a record time during the pandemic. In South Africa, a national Solidarity Fund has been established; private companies are collaborating with the Department of Health; for the most part citizens are doing their best to observe lockdown rules, and there are many more examples. Adversity has created opportunity. To me, this illustrates the power of three: when business, government and society collaborate effectively and efficiently we accelerate the success of the country and of the continent. Whether we’re evaluating business incentives, ensuring job creation or technology solutions, we are more effective when we work together.
We all realise that we are experiencing an unprecedented global health and humanitarian crisis. We are certainly expecting that the pandemic will be long, and the economic recession associated with that, will be long too. We would anticipate the most likely macroeconomic scenario is that of a “see-saw” shaped recovery to a new normal over the next 12-18 months, resulting in short- and mid-term adaptations, areas of transformational change and different impacts by sector. While the degree of impact may vary by industry, the pandemic requires every business to build resilience while transforming to perform well in the new normal.
From an EY perspective we have been agile in our approach to first and foremost supporting our people and ensuring our own business is resilient. We are now looking beyond resilience into what’s next and how we reframe the new normal beyond the pandemic.
As a leading African business, we are committed to supporting our people, our clients and the community in which we operate. From a business perspective we are proud to be instrumental in the set-up of and project management of the Solidarity Fund. In addition, we have teams supporting the National Department of Health with a range of technology and project management solutions. Across the continent we have leveraged our people, our technology and our expertise to support various governments with patient screening and tracking solutions. We are proud to partner with our clients in this work as it builds our purpose of building a better working world.
As a business we are constantly evaluating whether we are doing enough to contribute to our purpose. I believe our community programmes are even more active in these times as we see a greater need and different opportunities to leverage – whether through expansion of our support or through deepening the support we provide. Our EY community and our leadership team demonstrate incredible energy, agility and response. No ask is too great, and our people consistently rise to the challenge to offer their time, their ideas and their skills to support our community. For this I am grateful.
Moving from the Now into the Next, the impact of the Power of three will be even more important. We need to accelerate virtual collaboration, promote the development of technology first and ensure our people are equipped to be effective in this new world. Now is the time to define a new social compact. One that takes us from a growth-only economic model to a quality, planet and people centric model. As people, as business leaders and as a country we all need to step forward and make our mark.
Keep safe and stay home.
Warm regards,
