A Conversation with Cliff Schorer:  COVID’s Impact on Business and HR

Clifford Schorer is a serial entrepreneur. In addition to his position on the Board of Directors at Frontier Signal, he serves as Director of Columbia University’s Entrepreneur in Residence Program, as well as the Co-Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Columbia University Business School.

The key issue at hand:

“Will the lives of individual employees and their employers be able to recover and how long with it take?”  “Does the Covid 19 virus and its incredible impact on the way the world does business have only an irreversible downside?”  These questions dominate the daily discussion and the crucial decision-making process all individuals and organizations face. Writing about when to open national and global economies is best left to the medical experts and astute economists capable of analyzing the impact of decisions based on the thorough and fact-based analysis. The truth is we should all focus on the things we can control within our own organization and our personal career management.  That approach begs two questions. For businesses, the key questions are:  “What will change post-crisis in the way we conduct and sustain a profitable enterprise?”  “With the world turned upside down, will unique opportunities be part of the fallout?” History has repeatedly proven a message contains an antique Chinese character.  The symbol encompasses the meaning for both challenges and opportunities.   For the individual the question is “based on changes and challenges to my career, what can I do to better prepare to preserve my role in the economic value chain?”

Ironically, the two challenges are tightly intertwined.  Organizations must evaluate the skills and experiences of personnel and effectively match them with emerging job roles.  How do they do this? They first must understand within their existing framework, what people are best prepared and exemplify the skills and experience required to effectively fill the job roles necessitated by change.  Setting the standards on a new and responsive platform will be vital! “Who do we have and how do we need?”  Change is inevitable. From a career standpoint, individuals should seek ways to refine and build upon the skills and experience that will make them ideal candidates when the hiring floodgates re-open.  This is the time for both sides to evaluate these two components and work in tandem to bring the process of both hiring and job seeking to a new, highly efficient level. There will be many job roles created- advanced distribution skills- financial performance analysis-new marketing modalities-customer service experts,  etc. etc. Both sides need to be ready.

This is the time for both sides to sharpen and elevate skills and capitalize by taking a role that will shape the future corporate and worker experience.     

Data will be key. Seek the tools that help create the ideal match and implement those tools into your personnel hiring and retaining arsenal.