Time to make a difference; Unilever vs Coronavirus

This situation of Coronovirus today reminds me of the lockdown I experienced once in Mumbai. It was the time terrorists took over the Taj Gateway hotel, forcing a military shutdown of the neighborhood which included the erstwhile Hindustan Unilever office, and the guesthouse where I stayed.

I was stuck to my room as it was unsafe to even step out, let alone visit office. This was a time when Skype and Netflix didn’t exist, to allow you to work or pretend-work from home. Thankfully I had just copied all seasons of Boston Legal from a friend onto my shoebox size 10gb HDD. And spent the 4 days locked in at home, doing nothing else but watching these shows.

Times are different now. The lockdown is for an entirely different reason, and most importantly, likely to go on for far longer than 4 days.

I can once again choose to work or be tempted to turn on that TV that is so easily accessible.

But it occurred to me, that there cannot be a time more important than now to work harder than we ever have.

It is a time such as now, when the simple addition of hot water to a pack of Knorr soup, can provide a meal both tasty and nutritious to compensate for those empty shelves of fresh produce at grocery stores.

It is this time that consumers more than ever need to practice personal hygiene through handwashes and hand-sanitizers.

It is also the time to bring a smile on our faces with a treat such as an ice cream when we’re hauled up in the confines of our house.

And if we don’t go to work at this time, we are at best denying people of their sanity, and at worst, increasing the queues outside hospital doors.

We’re always saying how our work is not brain surgery or rocket science, but it is this time when it happens to be just as serious as all those scientists and doctors working hard to find a solution to this, because we are the ones who can hold fort until such a solution is made available en masse.

So I realized we have to make those virtual meetings happen, take those extra precautions while making sales calls or running the factory line, but work harder than we ever have, to prevent an H.G. Wells situation of the War of Worlds happening to our own species instead of aliens.

It’s time now to practice what we’ve always preached.

It’s time now to make a real difference.