• About Us
  • Get Insights to Your Inbox
Tuesday, June 6, 2023
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Insights@Questrom
  • Our Insights
    • All
    • Business Challenges
    • Business Education
    • Business Functions
    The Right Amount of Cards, Cash and ID to Carry in Your Wallet

    Inside the Push to Make Everyone Friends at Work

    How do sustainable supply chains improve the continuity of supply and protect the environment?

    How do sustainable supply chains improve the continuity of supply and protect the environment?

    3 Ways Boston University’s Online MBA Is A Disruptor In Business Education

    New Immigration Data Point To Larger U.S. Workforce Issues

    A Risk Management Nightmare at Silicon Valley Bank

    How CFOs are navigating the debt ceiling standoff

    Opposing scientists find no clear evidence for gender bias in academic science

    Opposing scientists find no clear evidence for gender bias in academic science

    Benefits of Supply Chain Visibility

    Benefits of Supply Chain Visibility

    The Right Amount of Cards, Cash and ID to Carry in Your Wallet

    Why Employees Hate Hot-Desking

    Ethics Professor Raises Key Questions About the Future Use of AI

    Loneliness is at epidemic proportions in modern organizations. Questrom expert tells how to address it

  • Videos & Podcast
    • All
    • Podcast
    • Videos
    Leadership Communications

    Leadership Communications

    Demotivating Effects of Relative Performance Feedback on Middle-Ranked Workers’ Performance

    Demotivating Effects of Relative Performance Feedback on Middle-Ranked Workers’ Performance

    S1:E1 CVS Paying the “Pink Tax” on Certain Products and the Evolution of the Electric Vehicle Industry

    AI: What is it and how will it impact business?

    Is Creativity in Advertising Dead in the age of AI?

    Is Creativity in Advertising Dead in the age of AI?

    How Higher Ed Can Contend with Learning Platforms

    How Higher Ed Can Contend with Learning Platforms

    How Companies Deal with Disruption

    How Companies Deal with Disruption

    Money: It’s created. It’s destroyed. But what is it?

    Money: It’s created. It’s destroyed. But what is it?

    Blockchain, Beyond Crypto

    Blockchain, Beyond Crypto

    S1:E1 CVS Paying the “Pink Tax” on Certain Products and the Evolution of the Electric Vehicle Industry

    S1:E2 What the FTX?

  • Insights Events
    • Events
    • Insights Live
    • Questrom Institute Events
  • In the Media
    • All
    • BU Today
    • Global Media
    • Local Media
    • National Media
    • Op-Ed
    • The Brink
    The Right Amount of Cards, Cash and ID to Carry in Your Wallet

    Inside the Push to Make Everyone Friends at Work

    Here’s Why Experts Say Russia and China’s Attempts to ‘De-Dollarize’ Global Markets are Going Nowhere

    5 ways Russia’s been sidestepping Western sanctions and keeping its economy alive, from switching to the Chinese yuan and dabbling in ghost trades

    3 Ways Boston University’s Online MBA Is A Disruptor In Business Education

    New Immigration Data Point To Larger U.S. Workforce Issues

    A Risk Management Nightmare at Silicon Valley Bank

    How CFOs are navigating the debt ceiling standoff

    Opposing scientists find no clear evidence for gender bias in academic science

    Opposing scientists find no clear evidence for gender bias in academic science

    Ethics Professor Raises Key Questions About the Future Use of AI

    Questrom marketing researcher explores the data-tracking debate

    Ownership in AI: Who is responsible for the benefits and downsides of AI’s output?

    Ownership in AI: Who is responsible for the benefits and downsides of AI’s output?

    The Right Amount of Cards, Cash and ID to Carry in Your Wallet

    Why Employees Hate Hot-Desking

    Vanishing Phone Customer Support is Driving Us All Insane

    What to know about First Republic and the banking crisis

    Trending Tags

    • Publications
      • All
      • Books
      • Harvard Business Review
      • Journals
      • Sloan Management Review
      Make It Safe for Employees to Speak Up – Especially in Risky Times

      Make It Safe for Employees to Speak Up – Especially in Risky Times

      Will Generative AI Create a New Era of Search Competition?

      Will Generative AI Create a New Era of Search Competition?

      A Better Approach to Customer-Centric Messaging and Engagement

      A Better Approach to Customer-Centric Messaging and Engagement

      How Coworking Spaces Impact Employee Well-Being

      How Coworking Spaces Impact Employee Well-Being

      Will Salary Transparency Laws Change Employee Compensation?

      Will Salary Transparency Laws Change Employee Compensation?

      Heroes from Above But Not (Always) from Within? Gig workers’ reactions to the sudden public moralization of their work

      Heroes from Above But Not (Always) from Within? Gig workers’ reactions to the sudden public moralization of their work

      To Encourage Patients to Fill Prescriptions, Fix Copays

      To Encourage Patients to Fill Prescriptions, Fix Copays

      Is Tesla’s Era of Dominance Coming to an End? What Experts Say

      Is Tesla’s Era of Dominance Coming to an End? What Experts Say

      ESG Investing

      ESG Investing Isn’t Designed to Save the Planet

      Trending Tags

      Insights@Questrom
      • Our Insights
        • All
        • Business Challenges
        • Business Education
        • Business Functions
        The Right Amount of Cards, Cash and ID to Carry in Your Wallet

        Inside the Push to Make Everyone Friends at Work

        How do sustainable supply chains improve the continuity of supply and protect the environment?

        How do sustainable supply chains improve the continuity of supply and protect the environment?

        3 Ways Boston University’s Online MBA Is A Disruptor In Business Education

        New Immigration Data Point To Larger U.S. Workforce Issues

        A Risk Management Nightmare at Silicon Valley Bank

        How CFOs are navigating the debt ceiling standoff

        Opposing scientists find no clear evidence for gender bias in academic science

        Opposing scientists find no clear evidence for gender bias in academic science

        Benefits of Supply Chain Visibility

        Benefits of Supply Chain Visibility

        The Right Amount of Cards, Cash and ID to Carry in Your Wallet

        Why Employees Hate Hot-Desking

        Ethics Professor Raises Key Questions About the Future Use of AI

        Loneliness is at epidemic proportions in modern organizations. Questrom expert tells how to address it

      • Videos & Podcast
        • All
        • Podcast
        • Videos
        Leadership Communications

        Leadership Communications

        Demotivating Effects of Relative Performance Feedback on Middle-Ranked Workers’ Performance

        Demotivating Effects of Relative Performance Feedback on Middle-Ranked Workers’ Performance

        S1:E1 CVS Paying the “Pink Tax” on Certain Products and the Evolution of the Electric Vehicle Industry

        AI: What is it and how will it impact business?

        Is Creativity in Advertising Dead in the age of AI?

        Is Creativity in Advertising Dead in the age of AI?

        How Higher Ed Can Contend with Learning Platforms

        How Higher Ed Can Contend with Learning Platforms

        How Companies Deal with Disruption

        How Companies Deal with Disruption

        Money: It’s created. It’s destroyed. But what is it?

        Money: It’s created. It’s destroyed. But what is it?

        Blockchain, Beyond Crypto

        Blockchain, Beyond Crypto

        S1:E1 CVS Paying the “Pink Tax” on Certain Products and the Evolution of the Electric Vehicle Industry

        S1:E2 What the FTX?

      • Insights Events
        • Events
        • Insights Live
        • Questrom Institute Events
      • In the Media
        • All
        • BU Today
        • Global Media
        • Local Media
        • National Media
        • Op-Ed
        • The Brink
        The Right Amount of Cards, Cash and ID to Carry in Your Wallet

        Inside the Push to Make Everyone Friends at Work

        Here’s Why Experts Say Russia and China’s Attempts to ‘De-Dollarize’ Global Markets are Going Nowhere

        5 ways Russia’s been sidestepping Western sanctions and keeping its economy alive, from switching to the Chinese yuan and dabbling in ghost trades

        3 Ways Boston University’s Online MBA Is A Disruptor In Business Education

        New Immigration Data Point To Larger U.S. Workforce Issues

        A Risk Management Nightmare at Silicon Valley Bank

        How CFOs are navigating the debt ceiling standoff

        Opposing scientists find no clear evidence for gender bias in academic science

        Opposing scientists find no clear evidence for gender bias in academic science

        Ethics Professor Raises Key Questions About the Future Use of AI

        Questrom marketing researcher explores the data-tracking debate

        Ownership in AI: Who is responsible for the benefits and downsides of AI’s output?

        Ownership in AI: Who is responsible for the benefits and downsides of AI’s output?

        The Right Amount of Cards, Cash and ID to Carry in Your Wallet

        Why Employees Hate Hot-Desking

        Vanishing Phone Customer Support is Driving Us All Insane

        What to know about First Republic and the banking crisis

        Trending Tags

        • Publications
          • All
          • Books
          • Harvard Business Review
          • Journals
          • Sloan Management Review
          Make It Safe for Employees to Speak Up – Especially in Risky Times

          Make It Safe for Employees to Speak Up – Especially in Risky Times

          Will Generative AI Create a New Era of Search Competition?

          Will Generative AI Create a New Era of Search Competition?

          A Better Approach to Customer-Centric Messaging and Engagement

          A Better Approach to Customer-Centric Messaging and Engagement

          How Coworking Spaces Impact Employee Well-Being

          How Coworking Spaces Impact Employee Well-Being

          Will Salary Transparency Laws Change Employee Compensation?

          Will Salary Transparency Laws Change Employee Compensation?

          Heroes from Above But Not (Always) from Within? Gig workers’ reactions to the sudden public moralization of their work

          Heroes from Above But Not (Always) from Within? Gig workers’ reactions to the sudden public moralization of their work

          To Encourage Patients to Fill Prescriptions, Fix Copays

          To Encourage Patients to Fill Prescriptions, Fix Copays

          Is Tesla’s Era of Dominance Coming to an End? What Experts Say

          Is Tesla’s Era of Dominance Coming to an End? What Experts Say

          ESG Investing

          ESG Investing Isn’t Designed to Save the Planet

          Trending Tags

          Insights@Questrom
          Home Our Insights Business Challenges

          Shared Suffering and the Legacy of the Pandemic

          byPeter Marton
          March 2, 2021
          in Business Challenges
          16
          A A
          Shared Suffering and the Legacy of the Pandemic

          What types of new organizations, products, or services will arise due to COVID that haven’t yet been discussed widely? How has COVID pushed forward innovation of new companies and consumer needs? Strategy & Innovation Lecturer Peter Marton offers insight into what the reality of our circumstances has caused to change, for better or worse, for short-term or long.

          The COVID pandemic has certainly driven much of society into a variety of sufferings. We have changed our habits, lived within new personal, social, and work models, and grieved the sick and the dead.  No one would ask for this. No one deserves this. Yet, out of this darkness can come insights, ideas, and improvements that both help us all through our current challenges and serve us into the future. Some are localized and short-lived, and some will cause things that matter to change forever.  Here are a few things that the reality of our circumstances has caused to change, for better or worse, for short-term or long.

          Where we work.  There was a time when we believed that two foundational theories of group-work were true: 1) that it was important for us to be “together” with our co-workers in order to be collectively productive and happy, and 2) that in general people would not be productive unless pulled out of their personal space and placed in a separate space dedicated to work.  The remote work arrangements of the pandemic seem to have shown that we can actually be productive in a highly fragmented work structure and that people will actually work hard, dependably, and adequately efficiently from home.  The degree to which this is less efficient than before will be considered and studied, but now we have actual data and experience to factor into these considerations.

          How we educate.  Until recently, remote online education was considered to be an interesting sideline to traditional education.  It was a growing phenomenon that was producing value for many students, but it was also operating in the massive shadow of traditional classroom education.  College and adult-level education were considered the most appropriate for this, and little core education of children was conducted in a remote manner.  The pandemic has driven universities delivering traditional classroom education to either develop partial-in-class hybrid systems or fully on-line educational services.  In many cases, we have learned of some of the material educational and social disadvantages of this approach.  In others, we have discovered that, with certain key innovations in remote technology and teaching methodologies, online education at the university level can be quite effective.  We have also learned more about the challenging societal impact of online and at-home education for children.  Future options and considerations with regard to educational methods will be informed by this.  Of course, this all exists within social and economic models that are woven into our society and daily lives, so the overall practicality and desirability of any changes will be tested over time.  Still, our suffering in the pandemic had moved us to places, methods, and discoveries that would have gone unseen in regular times.

          How we find jobs and hire for jobs.  These days, in-person interviews are rare.  Online interviews and related discussions are the norm.  To what degree is this inferior to traditional in-person methods?  Are the systems we’ve recently developed to handle the job seeking and job hiring processes sufficiently good for some meaningful purposes?  Do we need to snap back entirely to the traditional way of doing this, or will behold onto some portion of these inventions.  Again, we have data and experience that will enable us to better determine our path going forward.

          How we shop and socialize.  The pandemic has separated people from family and friends and has separated people from the venues of commerce and socialization upon which they have relied all their lives.  This has driven many of these venues of interaction – restaurants, food stores, concert venues, hairdressers, and many others – to invent new ways of interacting with customers while keeping everyone safe.  Some of these inventions may very well outlast the pandemic.  We are already experimenting with new ways of dining and take-out, new ways to manage customers in stores and shops, and new approaches to entertainment.  Some of these innovations will prove to have lasting value, while others will face away.

          Who we trust.  People often choose to turn to institutions for comfort and guidance.  Over time, many people have come to trust entities within such areas as government, science, politics, and religion.  The pressure placed on many people and institutions by the pandemic and related stresses has caused cracks in the fabric that is at the foundation of much of this trust.  Will these effects and related stresses and inefficiencies produce innovations in how those institutions operate or how we relate to and draw from them over time?  This is yet another thing we will discover as time passes.

          The harsh realities of the pandemic are very real and sharp-edged.  It has pushed both individuals and society as a whole through pain and suffering in a very literal sense.  A few things are sure to be true, however.  We will never be the same.  The human damage cannot be repaired, yet out of the ashes we can harvest some learning, and from learning will come progress.

          Tags: COVID-19Peter Marton
          Share2Tweet1ShareShareSend
          Peter Marton

          Peter Marton

          Lecturer, Strategy & Innovation

          Related Posts

          The Right Amount of Cards, Cash and ID to Carry in Your Wallet
          Future of Work

          Inside the Push to Make Everyone Friends at Work

          May 29, 2023
          3 Ways Boston University’s Online MBA Is A Disruptor In Business Education
          Business Policy & Markets

          New Immigration Data Point To Larger U.S. Workforce Issues

          May 22, 2023
          Opposing scientists find no clear evidence for gender bias in academic science
          Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

          Opposing scientists find no clear evidence for gender bias in academic science

          May 16, 2023
          Benefits of Supply Chain Visibility
          Business Policy & Markets

          Benefits of Supply Chain Visibility

          May 15, 2023
          The Right Amount of Cards, Cash and ID to Carry in Your Wallet
          Future of Work

          Why Employees Hate Hot-Desking

          May 13, 2023
          Ethics Professor Raises Key Questions About the Future Use of AI
          Future of Work

          Loneliness is at epidemic proportions in modern organizations. Questrom expert tells how to address it

          May 12, 2023
          3 Ways Boston University’s Online MBA Is A Disruptor In Business Education
          Business Policy & Markets

          Economists Say Increasing Immigration Will Reduce Inflation

          May 4, 2023
          Stop Comparing ChatGPT to Calculators!
          Digital Business

          Stop Comparing ChatGPT to Calculators!

          April 27, 2023

          Upcoming Events

          No event found!

          Get Our Insights Newsletter

          Get Insights straight to your inbox by signing up now.

            Popular Insights

            • ChatGPT producing an essay

              Ethical Implications of ChatGPT in the Educational Setting

              93 shares
              Share 37 Tweet 23
            • Do People Believe Generative AI?

              29 shares
              Share 12 Tweet 7
            • Thinkers50@BUQuestrom: Passion & Purpose

              18 shares
              Share 7 Tweet 5
            • Silicon Valley Bank: Blame and Ethics of the Failure

              38 shares
              Share 15 Tweet 10
            • [Marketplace] How much profit do fireworks stands make?

              13 shares
              Share 5 Tweet 3

            Boston University Questrom School of Business
            595 Commonwealth Avenue
            Boston, MA 02215

            Follow Us

            Newsletter

            © 2023 Trustees of Boston University

            • About Us
            • Digital Business Institute
            • Human Resource Policy Institute
            • Susilo Institute for Ethics in the Global Economy
            Generic selectors
            Exact matches only
            Search in title
            Search in content
            Post Type Selectors
            • Business Challenges
              • Business Policy & Markets
              • Digital Business
              • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
              • Entrepreneurship & Innovation
              • Future of Work
              • Health, Biopharma, & Health-Tech
              • Risk
              • Social Impact
            • Business Functions
              • Corporate Strategy
              • Finance & Accounting
              • Innovation
              • Leadership & Management
              • Marketing
              • Operations
              • Technology
            • Publications
              • Journals
              • Harvard Business Review
              • Sloan Management Review
            • Insights Events
              • All Events
              • Insights Live
              • Questrom Institute Events
            • Videos & Podcast
              • Videos
              • Insights@Questrom Podcast
              • Podcast
            • Voices in the Media
            • Our Experts

            © 2023 Trustees of Boston University

            Welcome Back!

            Sign In with Linked In
            OR

            Login to your account below

            Forgotten Password?

            Retrieve your password

            Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

            Log In
            Suggest Topic
            X

            Add New Playlist

            -
            00:00
            00:00

            Queue

            Update Required Flash plugin
            -
            00:00
            00:00