What do you mean by the word ‘Crisis’?
It is defined as a sudden unplanned event that causes major disturbances in the organization and triggers a feeling of fear and threat amongst the people.
There are different types of crisis, they are:
1. Technological Crisis
2. Financial Crisis
3. Crisis of Malevolence
4. Natural Crisis
5. Crisis of Organisational Misdeeds
6. Bankruptcy
7.Crisis of workplace violation
8. Sudden crisis
9. Smoldering crisis
At present India is facing or going through a great crisis which is ‘COVID 19’. Coronavirus outbreak is termed to be a crisis because as the definition says it was a sudden unplanned event that caused a major disturbance in the world, which trigger a feeling of fear and threat amongst the people.
How can we change the crisis into an opportunity?
The ability to transform a crisis into an opportunity is the hallmark of all successful countries that have stood the test of time. Yet today, even the most successful country is facing crises they’ve never faced before as they compete in a business environment that is being radically transformed by digitization. It can be a crisis of cost pressure or limited capacity, or the inability to meet the needs of the rapidly changing market. Action is expected now.
In many of these cases, a country must make a dramatic change to its operating model, which can distress employees and threaten the bottom line. People are not sure of their roles. Leaders are not sure how to turn their vision into reality.
In a 1959 speech, John F. Kennedy famously said:
“When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters—one constitute danger and one represents opportunity.”
Although today it is widely realized that this is not the correct interpretation of the Chinese characters, President Kennedy’s wisdom about a crisis yielding unique opportunities may be more important than ever. Crises are generally regarded as dangerous, expensive, and detracting from other agendas and priorities. However, recall in history illustrates that crises and extreme threats can be useful for directing individuals, a country, and even the world to a solution, and also it reveals numerous ways that crises have offered unpredicted benefits for societies, countries, and humanity.
How India can be a Self-reliant country?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that India revolved the coronavirus crisis into an opportunity.
“We did not manufacture personal protective equipment, made N-95 masks for namesake when the disease first broke out here. Today, we manufacture two lakh PPEs in a day and two lakh N-95 masks in a day. This is because we turned the opportunity into an opportunity,” he said in his address to the nation.
He also said that it is the responsibility of every person in the country to make the 21st century India’s century.
“There is only one way to do this – to become self-reliant,” the Prime Minister said.
Further enlarging on this, PM Modi said, “The definition of self-reliance is changing in today’s world. Today, it is about a self-centered approach rather than a people-centric approach. But this is not India’s philosophy. India’s culture is about becoming self-reliant whose soul is ‘World is One Family’.”
The truth is that every crisis, while deeply unsettling, also contains the seeds of opportunity. As we are facing a dramatic crisis today, we need to remember three things:
1. How do we cope with this crisis now? This question is uppermost in people’s minds – as it should be – and it also tends to dominate the news.
2. What opportunities does this crisis create?
3. What can be done to anticipate crises in the future and prepare for them? Even if it isn’t possible to preempt a future crisis, how can we prepare to respond rapidly and effectively?
Guidelines for Creating Opportunities
1. Change your mental model
2. Step up your digital transformation and invest in infrastructure
3. Identify new business opportunities generated by the crisis
4. Reexamine your talent strategy
5. Identify areas of opportunity through an idealized design process, etc.
