Six Feet Apart Strategies book is a compilation of stories of companies who are able to manage during the crisis and emerge as a winner. Their tactics and business model innovations are allowing them to both sustain and also navigate their businesses successfully in these uncertain times. The tactics are beyond social distancing policies and include a blend of behavioral, cognitive and network (BeCoN) solutions and capabilities.

Inter-connectivity and integration networks of interacting things is transforming every industry by helping make more informed decisions. IOT will now be a bigger enabler for nations and companies to not only connect people and machines while maintaining the social distance but also track and trace real time to manage spread of the virus.

Key opportunities: bounded actions, analytics and informed decision making, Smart connectivity, use of machine learning for process automation.

Example : Scanners available at the airports can detect whether passengers have elevated temperatures or symptoms. They can then pass on this real-time information and intelligence and help quickly identify the infected people in order to quarantine and avoid spreading the corona-virus. Further then this intelligence can be used to track and trace these people in quarantine in hospitals, home or anywhere else.

The pandemic has impacted society and economy on an enormous scale and has increased the interest of governments, companies and individuals in disruptive use of automated devices such as drones and robots. As the virus has caused major shutdown of factories , logistic network and sales outlets, companies will adopt faster automation and robotic solutions

Key opportunities: Increased productivity & automation without any stoppages while adhering to social distancing rules and policies

Example : For example, hospitals in Thailand are deploying “ninja robots” to measure fevers and protect the health of overburdened medical workers on the front-lines of the corona-virus outbreak. First built to monitor recovering stroke patients, the machines have been quickly re-purposed to help fight the pandemic outbreak. They have helped staff at four hospitals in and around Bangkok to reduce their risk of infection by allowing doctors and nurses to speak to patients over a video link.

AI with Big Data has been playing a significant role in healthcare sector to both detect and treat patients. During and after the pandemic, the focus on AI and Big Data with increase and would be able to better provide insights on detection and spread of such diseases and also provide treatment to those that get infected.

Key opportunities: Quick diagnosis and treatment, mass education and awareness, combined with big data can predict next outbreak locations and spread.

Example : LinkingMed, a Beijing-based oncology data platform and medical data analysis company, released China’s first open-source AI model for pneumonia CT image analysis powered by Baidu’s open-source deep learning platform, PaddlePaddle. The AI model can quickly detect and identify pneumonic lesions while providing quantitative assessment for diagnosis information, including the number, volume, and proportion of pneumonic lesions.