This is the second contribution we have received for our initiative based on three questions to people, company owners and managers: an insight into a tough and uncertain season that has made all of us impotent.
Christian Salvador
co-owner Salvamac (Poznan, Polonia)
www.salvamac.com
- How are you reacting to this emergency?
“I fully share the analysis of my Polish partner, Ziemowit, who, with a pragmatic and very realistic view, considers that the reactions to such an important event pass in sequence through three main phases: denial and rebellion. At the beginning, the first reaction is the typical one of the young age. It will never happen to me. It affects China, it will never arrive here, it has hit another region, it has touched my region but it is still far away, it has arrived in my city but it only affects old people with previous diseases. Day after day the hands, that were covering the eyes, go down and the numbers no longer give space to escape.
The second phase: acceptance and hope. Then comes the phase in which we understand that unfortunately we have to live with it. Misery loves company, it touches the others too! We accept, we organize, we sing and applaud from the balcony, we stock up on flour and toilet paper and we imagine that in a few weeks everything will be as before, a good spritz with Aperol with friends, a trip to the sea with the family and we will go out again to see the stars! Everything will be fine!
The third: pessimistic depression or optimistic vision. After acceptance, day by day, there are no improvements and it is understood that nothing will be the same as before. Indeed, we are preparing for an unprecedented economic crisis as well. Then you can have two categories of reactions. The first is the pessimistic depression where no light is seen at the end of the tunnel and everyone tries to protect himself drastically reducing all spending and deleting all hope and investment. On the other hand, I believe in the second alternative, that we must look further, cultivate every possibility, work even more than before and do not waste this unique opportunity!
We think in Salvamac: to optimize every effort even more than before with a strong vision towards change. A passage from “everything will be all right” to the hashtag that we use at Salvamac: #bethechange”.
- What do you think is changing or will change radically?
“Heraclitus again, Panta rhei, everything is becoming, everything flows, everything changes. It is not possible to swim twice in the same river and this time the water flows strong, impetuous, drags everything away. The concept of closeness will be different, less physical and more oriented towards the value of being close. Internet access will grow exponentially, much more than what has been seen so far and this could favor smaller but more dynamic realities. The market is the meeting place between offer and demand and for the offer it can be a great opportunity to overcome the problems of “information asymmetry” and be seen in places where it would never have gone before. The barriers to entry could go down and give new stimulus and energy to those who want to bring change, the new adventure. We as Salvamac believe in this new era, starting right from our Slogan: #bethechange”.
- What should the authorities and all of us do?
“I see the greatest risk in the centralist and nationalist authorities that could arrive. In Alberto Camus’s novel “the plague”, which I re-read in recent days, the epidemic apparently ended, it should be remembered that a possible return must be prevented: the bacilli can strike again after years of inertia. It was 1947 and the “European” plague had been eradicated. All of us must be careful and remember the value of freedom, not fall into the trap of easy populist solutions and always observe the moon and not the finger that indicates it”.
- How are you reacting to this emergency?
