I'll bet dollars to donuts that, last fall, when everyone assembled their plans for this year, no one predicted what we are experiencing now. If you had, you would have probably been frog-marched out of your shiny corporate headquarters. We first mentioned Covid-19 in the February issue of our newsletter, "Strategic & Financial Arguments." I thought I was being a bit bold and radical then, a mere 52 days ago. However, looking back on those musings with today's perspective, that February issue looks positively naïve.

Right now, we are all pondering two huge questions. The first is simply, what does life, personal and business, look like when we come out the other side of this thing? The second is what will this experience permanently alter about the way we do business? The second has two perspectives--what happens internally to us and what is permanently imposed on us by government and society?

This is where you need to be focusing your strategic thinking now, for like all cataclysmic events, this one will leave a lasting residue.

Jim Thompson is CEO of Paperitalo Publications.