Contributed by Ross Drakes, an entrepreneur and creative director based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the founder of Nicework, which helps companies to define their purpose and then deliver on it. He joined the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) in 2013.

His firm compiled insights on factors surrounding COVID-19 and made the report available for free. Called “Finding North (Again),” it explores emerging trends and how to create opportunity from this period of chaos. 

The last few months have been like nothing I have ever experienced.

I went from having a solid strategy, a decent pipeline and a great team to execute on it to being forced to stay in my house with my wife and son, my team working remotely (with our new shiny office sitting empty), and every project we were working on being cancelled or postponed.

Every plan or idea I had about this year was suddenly shattered. The efforts we had been toiling away at no longer seemed relevant. For the first time in a long time, I had no clarity.

The one thing that I am clear on is that lots of things are shifting. Whether it’s the markets collapsing or the measures put in place to contain the virus, people are behaving in radically different ways.