Featured (Year 2020)

So far the weirdest year of the century

The unique, dramatic, exceptional year 2020 is still present in human thoughts, although we are already in the second week of 2021. It is high time to forget and move on … or to wrap out what we have experienced during the last twelve months. Apparently, a lot of on line content is dealing with the memories of 2020. My impression is, that there is much more of such a content than previously. I can be wrong, as no survey I done or saw to support the opinion, but if it isd true it is nothing surprising. 2020 impacted almost every country and majority of humanity in severe, painful way. It challenged our lifestyle, deprived us from jobs, cancelled holiday plans, shut down favorite restaurants, and put as in a role of our own children’s teachers. That’s enough to feel an irresistible need to summarize the past year and share it with others. At least I felt an irresistible urge to join the ranks of chroniclers of 2020. Indeed, my last posts on digitalbankology.com blog were dedicated to that kind of look back of the past year’s lessons related specifically to agile delivery, market performance of Bitcoin, and acceleration of digitalization. How long one can look back and live in the past? IAs I said – it is high time to let it go and move forward, therefore I wrote this post to say goodbye to this series of articles summarizing the year 2020.

Q1 2020: The shock and freefall

At the end of 2019 the local news from Chinese city of Wuhan was not supposed to be the most impactful factor which would shape the upcoming year. The course of event, however, has already proved that the novel coronavirus is the major single force changing our reality. More and more countries got involved, gradually, into the fight with pandemic. Only a few were able to successfully stop spreading of the germ. By the end of the quarter it was absolutely clear that humanity was experiencing the gravest contagious disease since the flu of 1918-20 (and still currently active AIDS pandemic). The reaction to the shock was far from “fight or flight”, it was rather a great global freeze. The symbolic milestone was proclamation of a pandemic by World Health Organization in March 2020. The globe was falling into an unknown.

Q2 2020: The hard bottom hit

The full freeze is never the sustainable strategy for the longer term. In the second quarter of the year the world started to adopt to the new situation. In the meantime subsequent countries and sectors of economy began to suffer from alternate ways humanity used to interact during lockdowns, social distancing measures, shortage of medical equipment supplies and the limited capacity of health care facilities. Airlines, events companies, travel agencies, hotel chains, and eating out business were among the most severely hit industries. On the other side of the change we saw multiple digital, remote services blooming, gaining more customers, delivering extremely positive yields, becoming unicorns. Hard bottom hit was a fate for traditional industries, the digital players spread their wings and flew to new heights. The declaration of the US withdrawal from WHO marked the symbolic end of quarter.

Q3 2020: Building of new normal

With beginning of summer season on the Northern Hemisphere some countries started open up amid spread of virus still accelerating globally. The situation was more clear than before, however not better. Transportation and tourism, including airlines, found their way to operate in the new environment of unpredictable and inconsistent epidemic regulations. The digital businesses enjoyed more active users than any time before. It was generally accepted, that the new normal would be founded on remote work, schooling, and e-commerce and the resuming of physical gathering would happen gradually, with many limitations. Most people were used to wearing facial masks and maintain distancing. Some sports events resumed like UEFA Champions League Final played in Lisbon (Portugal) in August. Others like Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games, were indefinitely postponed. The number of new cases dropped in some regions, however global death poll exceed 1 million victims.

Q4 2020: hopes and threats

The new normal was a fragile equilibrium between human adoptability and the virus infectivity. The digital tools, which allowed us to copy with limitations of social distancing shown their darker side i.e. ability to spread fake news and pandemic denial. The optimistic interlude related to the summer season was soon over in Europe and many countries began to experience much higher threats than before. The second wave was hard for Northern Hemisphere. On the other hand the humble light of hope raised from progress in a vaccine development and financial stimuli implemented by many countries. In early December the regular vaccination began in the UK and the example was followed quickly by many other countries. Soon US became a leader of total vaccinated residents, and Israel with vaccination penetration. At the same time the new strain of the virus was identified and claimed to be more contagious than the old ones.

Aftermath and looking forward

The year 2020 will be likely remembered as not only the weirdest, but also the most digital year of the 21st century. The pandemic shock led to raise of many alternative ways humanity does business, leisure, education, and healthcare. On the winning side we saw digital products filling the functional gaps and space left by traditional offerings. The digital proposition proved to be attractive to both customers and investors. With accelerated adoption of digital technologies the target population for digital solutions increased. The vaccination process has started in multiple countries already with a couple of available preparations already registered and approved. After the first nervous reactions to new strain of the virus around Christmas governments are gradually lifting up border closures. Additionally, political landscape seems to be more predictable, with US Presidential elections finally resolved. Generally, there are already enough compelling reasons to expect 2021 will be much better year than the last one; and I hope it will.