Welcome to the seventh edition of Conversations For Our Future! In this interview series we’ll be hearing from a diverse set of voices on how we can harness the pandemic to build a new global normal. I’ll be asking each interviewee the same three questions:
1. What one aspect within your sector have you seen transformed due to the pandemic?
2. In your opinion, has/will the pandemic change how we function as a society? If so, how?
3. How do you hope to personally harness the pandemic to create positive change?
My guest today is Mary McHale, Director Strategic Accounts APAC for Equinix. You can read her responses below!
Questions
What one aspect within your sector have you seen transformed due to the pandemic?
Mary: Work from home has required significant additional bandwith for internet access and remote connectivity. ZOOM is the new way to hold meetings. For every company the words “Digital Transformation” took on a whole new meaning. Technology played a significant role in helping to navigate the challenges of the pandemic whether it was working and learning from home, replacing zoom family happy hours with travel and holiday visits.
In your opinion, has/will the pandemic change how we function as a global society? If so, how?
Mary: It has forced us to change the way we work and structure our business interactions. In some ways it brought people closer together as they took time to share personal stories at the start of each Zoom (virtual) meeting—and finding ways to connect other than with a handshake. But in other ways it has challenged business norms in building trust and developing new relationships. We are people and we connect best through personal interactions.
For global society I think that the pandemic has magnified the socio-economic differences that exist. It has exposed a large population of people that are living paycheck to paycheck, holding jobs that are just that, jobs and not sustainable careers. Hard to move from a job—much easier to pivot if you have a career.
How do you hope to personally harness the pandemic to create positive change?
Mary: I don’t plan to embrace or harness anything from the pandemic. I think that it will likely be one of the hardest and most damaging global crisis that I will experience in my lifetime. For me every day is an opportunity to be a little nicer to someone, to work a little harder, to see the world as a little bit better place. We don’t need the pandemic to remind us all that we need to be better humans to each other.