On May 28, 2020, another Virtual Business Mixer took place, entitled: “Micro and macroeconomic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic” led by the dean of the Faculty of Management at the University of Warsaw, Prof. zw. dr hab. Alojzy Z. Nowak. The meeting, attended by a record number of over 70 people, was started by the president of the Alumni Association, Sylwester Wybranowski. Dr. T. Ludwicki, director of Executive MBA studies at the University of Warsaw, also welcomed the participants, pointing out that thanks to the launch of webinars, we have the opportunity to participate in graduate meetings much more often than before Covid-19.
Professor Nowak started his presentation by recalling a great man and an outstanding economist, prof. Kazimierz Ryć, who passed away on May 23, 2020. Late. prof. Ryć was a co-founder of the Faculty of Management at the University of Warsaw, as well as a world-renowned economist. He has lectured at universities not only in Poland, but also around the world, mainly in Russia and France.
The presentation of prof. Nowak started from scratch on the basis of which the description of the modern world is created. The pre-Covid-19 world was globalizing, americanizing. Democracy, privatization and market liberalization developed there. There were also integration processes such as the European Union, but the market seemed largely free from political influence. People did not believe that Singapore’s “Black Swan” would come to overthrow existing concepts and models. The impact of production on the environment was considered. There was talk of slowing down production, but also the need to help poorer regions. The reduction by half of the weekly working time was taken into account. But no one had the courage to undertake it. The question was also asked about the impact of production automation on a person as an employee.
When “Black Swan” came and stopped the world, everyone had to start to function slower. Professor Nowak pointed out that the economies of the countries with greater state involvement did better. He noted that if state institutions are underdeveloped, they cope worse in a crisis. As an example, he cited hospitals in the United States, which are so highly specialized and therefore expensive, that there was not enough space and opportunities to cope with coronavirus patients.
Professor Nowak also discussed other post-pandemic changes. The money we have known so far is something else. The economic assumptions have changed completely. Banks we know today will cease to have importance and control over the financial system through platforms such as Ali Baba. Professor Nowak emphasized that it is impossible to do business without this knowledge.
The last part of the presentation concerned the intensive development of technical culture that we were forced to do by Covid-19. In fact, Covid-19 verified which companies and institutions are flexible enough to adapt to the conditions and start operating online. Professor Nowak indicated the University of Warsaw as one of the universities that passed this test positively and showed how quickly and efficiently it is able to deal with the new situation and deliver full-fledged lectures via Internet channels. However, the professor pointed that despite this, students still want contact with lecturers and lecturers still want contact with students face to face.
The meeting ended with a QA session. The questions asked were multi-threaded and the answers provided again very interesting knowledge and views. The topic was very interesting for the participants of the webinar, which could be seen after a lively discussion in the chat.
Professor Alojzy Nowak was also very pleased with the participation in the webinar and expressed his willingness to participate in subsequent meetings with the graduates of EMBA @ UW.
At the end, the Vice President of the Alumni Association – Krzysztof Pajączek thanked prof. Nowak for participation and a very interesting speech, Tomek Ludwicki for moderating the meeting. He also invited everyone to another webinar – HOW COVID-19 “HELPED” DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION? Which will take place on June 3 this year.