The Great Lockdown: Lessons Learned During the Pandemic from Organizations Around the World Hardcover – 22 October 2021

In The Great Lockdown: Lessons Learned During the Pandemic from Organizations Around the World, a team of expert strategists offers readers an eye-opening series of discussions exploring this once-in-a-lifetime event and unearth invaluable lessons we can carry forward with us into the future.

The book is told through the experiences of CXOs at billion-dollar companies, world-famous startups, and star nonprofits from around the world. These accounts chronicle the ups and downs of sophisticated firms as they navigated the COVID-19 crisis and employed strategies that profoundly impacted people, processes, and technology.

The Great Lockdown provides revealing case studies from executives leading companies in different parts of the world―from the U.S. to Iran, Uganda, and Hong Kong―and from different sectors, including social media, technology, aviation, luxury retail, healthcare, and more.

Each contribution incisively analyzes the techniques and strategies that worked―or didn’t―for the organization during the pandemic and considers the role and evolution of leadership, organizational culture, innovation, and digitization. They offer the reader practical guidance they can apply to their own firms in times of great economic and social upheaval.

With insights from leaders at Julius Baer, Terumo, SAP, IndiGrid, Fonterra, Hornet Networks, Tapsi, Globalization Partners, beCuriou, RealWear Inc., and more, The Great Lockdown is a can’t-miss read for executives, managers, and other business leaders interested in corporate resilience and endurance in the face of almost unimaginable adversity.

“As one leader told me, leading in these traumatic times has felt like “leading through a fog.” In this important book, the authors have reflected on the experiences of a myriad of organizations to identify key lessons of what it takes to build resilient organizations. This book, thereby, provides a practical framework of what I fear will become critical capabilities in the years ahead."  - Linda A. Hill, Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and chair of the Leadership Initiative., Co-author of Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation

“An excellent, timely read - Each story in the book takes you to a different part of the world, to a different industry. The stories offer an open and intimate view of the fears and emotions of these leaders as they navigated COVID-19. Each chapter details the tough choices these organizations had to make as they navigated what is undoubtedly one of the biggest events of our lifetimes.” - Charles Brewer, Group Chief Executive Officer, Pos Malaysia Berhad; Ex-COO, Canada Post; Ex-CEO, DHL eCommerce

THOUGHT-PROVOKING ACCOUNTS OF THE SORGANIZATIONAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 FROM THE LEADERS WHO LIVED IT

The Great Lockdown: Lessons Learned During the Pandemic from Organizations Around the World provides a set of unforgettable accounts of organizational responses during one of the most unexpected and unprecedented crises in modern history: the COVID-19 pandemic. Told through the eyes of the CXOs in charge of billion-dollar companies, dynamic startups, and star nonprofits, The Great Lockdown looks at how major companies around the globe reacted when lockdowns went into effect.

Each case study offers incisive analysis of the techniques and strategies employed by executives at companies like A. Lange & Söhne, the Bangalore International Airport, Abacus Pharma, beCuriou, and Hornet Networks. They consider the role of leadership during the crisis, organizational culture, and innovation and digitization, and build to practical guidance that business leaders can apply to their own firms in times of extraordinary challenge. Other companies profiled include Julius Baer, SAP, Terumo, IndiGrid, Tapsi, Fonterra, Globalization Partners, GoGoX,RealWear Inc., and SOS Children’s Villages.

With contributions from leaders at companies in a wide variety of industries and from all around the world, The Great Lockdown is a must-read book for business leaders, consultants, and anyone interested in how humanity reacts in the face of major disruption in markets of all types.