COVID-19 Heralds A New Model Of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship has taken a leading role in fighting COVID-19.

Collaboration and cooperation are proving to be key in this effort.

We should take this opportunity to create harmony between individual enterprise and the collective good.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the very nature of our existence. An analysis of Google searches for the phrase “social distancing” over the past 90 days shows how a phrase that had hardly any traction online till the end of February was topping the charts by the third week of March. Today, we are asked to maintain social distance from our fellow humans in order to survive. This strikes at the very heart of the human story and our way of life as a species, because to interact socially, to collectively build societies that become nations and civilisations, and to live in 'collective purpose' is at the core of being human.

The 21st century has seen an exceptional rise in individualist consumerism. There is a greater demand for individual expression in the socio-political arena as well. The digital age and the Fourth Industrial Revolution have created platforms that enable individual contribution at a large scale. Business models, political reforms and even social change are all designed in a manner in which the individual is at the centre of the experience and the outcome.

But it has also thrown open opportunities for individuals to work with others like never before. It has given great impetus to convergence, collaboration and co-creation. It has given us the idea that many can act as one and - that we can do so with ease and speed. At present, we face a challenging virus that has shaken our way of life. To overcome it we need entrepreneurship at the societal and global scales working in collaboration for a collective purpose.

All entrepreneurs are, at heart, problem solvers. They bring a product or service to the market to meet a need or a gap. In the fight against COVID-19, entrepreneurship has taken a lead role in developing contact tracing apps, repurposing factories to manufacture ventilators and PPE, creating makeshift hospitals, and accelerating the search for a vaccine, to name a few examples. But do we need a virus to catalyse harmony between enterprise and societal good? After all, it is human to have collective purpose. Within the new social distancing norms, people have learnt to work, exercise, study, celebrate weddings, attend funeral services, act in films, conduct concerts and do much more using collaborative digital platforms. The question, therefore, is not whether we should work in collective purpose at all - but how do we do it.

For decades, individual enterprise has forged ahead - in many cases at a societal cost. Profits have often had a greater say than quality of life. The damaging impact of certain business models on the planet and its natural systems is one such example. But maybe this pandemic has given us the opportunity to repurpose entrepreneurship itself. We can now explore an entrepreneurial way of life where enterprises can help communities across the globe solve socio-economic problems while being true to market forces. Maybe it is time for individual enterprise and collective purpose to work in harmony.

COVID-19 Heralds A New Model Of Entrepreneurship