2020 definitely deserves a blog post. What a year it has been! Extraordinarily long, exhausting, unpredictable, annoying, sometimes boring, and overall rubbish. I still dont know what sins we have all done to deserve a year like this? 😐
2020 was supposed to be a year of milestones for many. Remember that 2020 corporate strategy that you were working towards? Or that blockbuster product launch? Or that 2020 mass hiring plans? Well, most of such plans died as a slide deck. The world only saw more redundancies, revenue losses, and complete shift in business strategies to "survive", not thrive. Don't get me wrong, some businesses did well too, but those are few and far in between.
Personally for me, it has been a roller coaster too. I absolutely HATE when my plans fail, even though I always have Plan B, C, D ready in the tray. But how can Plan A fail in the first place? Doesn't that mean that I am a bad planner? Well in 2020 none of that matters. I'm sure there are many like me who've had to go through the same emotions. So lesson #1 learnt is: "Your perfect plans can go haywire too, just accept it." 😉
What this year has really taught me is that whatever is meant to happen, will happen. There are divine streaks everywhere, and there is someone superior to you who is the "real" captain of the ship.
Autumn 2019 when I got an admit to the Global Leadership Program at Harvard, I had signed up for the June 2020 session. June in Boston is lovely, and I was really excited to visit Boston after 10 long years. We were also thinking of making it a family trip as the weather would be nice. BUT, mid-December I had received an email from HBS inviting me to the February 2020 cohort as they felt the class profiles were much stronger and I would benefit greatly from the experience. Okay so Feb in Boston is cold, dreary, grey and all sorts of dull! But I decided to go for it. No family, just me, my books, and my dreams. It was an experience of a lifetime minus the sun. I remember meeting the CEOs of Novartis and Medtronic in the class and we discussed about this novel corona virus that might shake up the world.
Come March, and the world had changed already. Covid-19 had become a part of our vocab. Even the kids knew about it. And guess what, that June 2020 session never happened. In fact, no further classroom sessions are planned for the forseeable future....
The holy Bhagavad Gita says "Whatever happens always happens for the good". So that's my lesson #2 learnt 😇
Early 2020, Maddy (my husband) & I were thinking of whether or not to expand our family this year. We were in two minds as we also had certain career aspirations to chase. And doing both the same year would be logistically impossible. Covid-19 made the decision easier for us (thank you!).
The pandemic managed to shake up all companies and sectors in some capacity. But one sector emerged as a clear winner - not only because of the tremendous opportunties but also the HUGE impact that it has on people/society/humanity. I decided that my next gig would be in Healthcare!
Since leaving Babylon Health in 2016, I had almost lost touch with HealthTech, but the pandemic enabled me to get back to it and also gave the opportunity to be part of something bigger and tremendously impactful. In summer 2020, I joined myGP as their Chief Product Officer and became a member of the tiny elite club of female CPOs in the UK & globally.
That brings me to lesson #3: "You can't choose your destiny, it chooses you!" 😊
My heart goes out to all those who have lost their loved ones due to the pandemic, and all those who are still recovering from this deadly virus. I hope and wish that when I read this blog after 12 months, Covid-19 would have become a thing of the past, and the world would have moved on.....
2020 has definitely made us stronger, more resilient, and more hopeful..
On that note, wish you all a Happy New Year 2021 !!
Onwards & Upwards ✌✌
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