The coronavirus crisis, which began in China in late 2019 but emerged as a full-blown pandemic in March, has plunged us all into a global health crisis and an economic downturn. It has dramatically redefined what a normal life means. At such times, it is easy to overlook that in both Chinese and Japanese, the word “crisis” is written with two symbols signifying “danger” and “opportunity.” The truth is that every crisis, while deeply unsettling, also contains the seeds of opportunity. In this opinion piece, Yoram (Jerry) Wind, emeritus professor of marketing at Wharton, and Nitin Rakesh, CEO of Mphasis, an IT firm headquartered in Bangalore, India, discuss how to create opportunities in a time of crisis and offer 10 guidelines to help organizations and individuals do that effectively. This article has been adapted from a forthcoming book titled, Transformation in Times of Crisis, co-authored by Rakesh and Wind.
