Visions of the Future: Opinions and Reflections During COVID-19 Pandemic

The two months’ lockdown instituted during March–May 2020 was not only a period of trauma, fear, and isolation, but also an opportunity for individual re-centering and questioning about the future of the global economic system and of the business activities in which we were engaged before the pandemics. To investigate the personal opinions of French managers and entrepreneurs, we contacted 30 business leaders participating to an MBA program at Montpellier Business School. After obtaining the consent of all the respondents, we sent by email five questions, asking them to answer to the best of their abilities, based on their previous professional experience and present personal insights. The questions were related to the potential transformation of the global business institutions, work environment, and corporate strategies and are reproduced in Appendix 1.1. After 10 days, we received their answers, which have been analyzed using discourse analysis methods, to identify, classify, and connect the main themes presented by respondents. Although the topics raised in various questions were quite different, it was possible to classify the respondents by their general attitude regarding the pandemics. We identified three main categories: (i) pragmatists, who considered the pandemic as an unfortunate, but limited event, with minimal consequences on life and work routines; (ii) transformationists, who viewed the pandemic as a trigger event for deep social, economic, and cultural transformations that will ultimately improve our life and society; and (iii) catastrophists, who considered the pandemic as the first episode of a long series of future escalating crises.