The document discusses key lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing uncertainties. It emphasizes that preparing for future crises requires prioritizing people, culture, and resilience. Organizations need to embrace agility, technology, and interconnection to adapt quickly to changing situations. Leaders must build trust, transparency, and flexibility to inspire their teams during uncertain times. Overall, the document stresses using past crises like COVID-19 as opportunities to strengthen preparations for future uncertainties.

1. Preparing for the
next ________?
Tathagat Varma
VP Strategy, Walmart Global Tech
PhD Scholar (EFPM), Indian School of Business

2. Disclaimer!
These are my personal views!

3. How does the post-pandemic world look like?
• Not very different from when it started! The uncertainty
is still there, just the events, names and places have
changed.
• We now have military conflicts, the great resignation,
monkeypox, inflation, crypto winter, …and fears of an
imminent recession!
• Are we better prepared for this post-pandemic world?
Are we prepared for the next ________? What have we
learnt from this edition?

4. Key learnings
PEOPLE, TEAMS,
CULTURE
MANAGEMENT,
LEADERSHIP
ORGANIZATION,
BUSINESS, STRATEGY

5. People, Teams,
Culture
• It’s all about people, people and
people!
• We crave social connections.
Especially at workplace!
• Humans are incredibly resilient. But
only when taken care of.
• We can adapt extremely fast, but only
when given the flexibility to do so.
• Peacetime investments help build
great teams for wartime.
• Great cultures are antifragile. They
grow stronger during a crisis!

6. Management, Leadership
Stay humble! Be grateful!
Expect even more uncertainty, more dynamic changes, and more tougher decisions. Don’t be
afraid to act on evolving situation but be open-minded to revise your decisions in real-time as
better information gets available.
Learn to lead with trust, respect, empathy, kindness and compassion for people. Understand that
everyone is going through different ups/downs in life. The new term for management is “caring”.
Craft a stronger purpose with a deeper connect with your teams. The new term for leading is
“inspiring”.

7. Organization,
Business,
Strategy
• There is no such thing as a “low probability
event” anymore! No one can predict or
avoid “black swan” events. Prepare for the
worst and hope for the best.
• Agility is the new strategy. Proactively hone
business agility by continuously
experimenting for newer sources of value
creation. Especially when you are riding
high on successes!
• Embrace tech to make your people work
smarter, delight your customers, and
deliver superior value. Every business is a
tech business.
• We are all connected. There’s no such thing
as “it’s not my problem!” Understand
systems thinking, and recognize the nature
of complex systems.

8. What can you
do?
Individual: keep upskilling yourself,
challenge the status quo and push
the envelope by taking “risky”
initiatives, and support your peers
Manager: listen to your people,
remove roadblocks, give them
tools they want, optimize
processes for speed and agility
Leader: build a culture of trust,
transparency and openness, lead
bottom-up

9. Recap
• The Great Reset or The Great Accelerator? The Great Resignation
or The Great Feedback – you decide what lens you want to use!
• Black swan events don’t come with a user manual. Your ability to
deal with the next one will depend more on what you do today
and tomorrow vs what you do when it strikes.
• Every individual in the family, every role in the society and every
function in the economy is equally important. Period.
• Don’t waste a crisis! It is your best chance to prepare for the next
one…

10. References
• https://home.kpmg/cz/en/home/insights/2021/11/the-lessons-learned-from-covid-part-one.html
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/06/29/five-business-lessons-learned-during-the-
pandemic-on-resiliency-and-strength/?sh=15aa1ad04c75
• https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-
insights/return-as-a-muscle-how-lessons-from-covid-19-can-shape-a-robust-operating-model-for-hybrid-
and-beyond
• https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/blog/responsible-business-blog/2020/five-lessons-learned-from-
covid-19-recovery.html
• https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/7-things-leaders-can-learn-from-the-covid-19-crisis/
• https://www.undp.org/blog/six-leadership-lessons-covid-19
• https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/covid-homeworking-symptom-of-changing-face-of-
workforce-management/
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/worldeconomicforum/2021/03/01/post-pandemic-leadership-how-
managing-a-business-is-changing-in-times-of-covid-19/?sh=46b8b8176523
• https://www.techrepublic.com/article/6-business-lessons-learned-as-a-result-of-covid-19/
• https://www.cio.com/article/307666/the-pandemic-pivot-5-key-leadership-lessons-that-will-last.html
• https://www.bain.com/insights/supply-chain-lessons-from-covid-19/
• https://www.ted.com/talks/patty_mccord_4_lessons_the_pandemic_taught_us_about_work_life_and_bala
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