Two fallacies often occur after a long crisis like COVID-19. The first is “back to where we started” like nothing happened. The other is the “to continue the new normal” as if the state of emergency would turn permanent.
Just as we personally cannot abstract from, and delete the experiences we have made during the last 15 months, society will not go back in time. The conditions for some markets, production and services have changed: some have appeared and others will disappear. In the period of relaunch, opportunities will need resources to be exploited and obsolete business models will fade away quickly.
This is the time to rethink and to act. We at LSM have a crucial role to support our students and stakeholders in finding new solutions, arming them with the skills and confidence to dare the launch, and the empathy to care for those that need to retool. However, we cannot expect public financing to increase although the tasks will be larger, more urgent and more complex. Thus, we ourselves will also need to engage in sustainable innovation and co-creation with our stakeholders to work differently to achieve more.
Innovation without creation is dreaming, creation without innovation is reconstructing the past. The challenge that awaits us next year is great but the moment is perfect and the School is ready. Let’s focus at our objectives and find the ways to get there!
Per J. Agrell
Dean of the Faculty