Beyond Back to Normal - Business in the Time of Coronavirus

The challenge isn't merely that the COVID-19 crisis puts businesspeople in a situation in which their knowledge is inadequate.The disruptions of the coronavirus pandemic are warping the fundamental dimensions in which business operates, resulting in strange disorientations in the experience of space and time. Is there a framework that could make the disorientation fruitful?

The Business in the Time of Coronavirus research was never intended to be objective. It's a cultural study, so it's inherently subjective. This podcast supplemental episode explains the method of this qualitative research and some of its flaws.

In order to understand the study that forms the foundation of the Beyond Back to Normal podcast, you need to understand me, the researcher. Why? This research wasn’t done by a machine. I make no pretense about it being an objective work of science. It’s not based on hard data, but on the softness of human experience.

One of the themes that stands out immediately in this research is that people in business feel like they don’t know very much about what’s happening in this crisis. The threat of coronavirus is real, but it’s invisible. We can’t quite tell where it is. What is the impact of this great unknowing on the culture of business?

1 month ago, as the COVID-19 shutdown reached a global scale, I began a study of the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the culture of business. The results of this research will be explored in a weekly podcast, called Beyond Back to Normal, beginning on Tuesday, April 28.