The power of a pandemic to focus the mind

I started 2020 wide-eyed and full of big ideas. I had spent the festive season with family in Belfast, and I flew back to London on New Years’ Eve. Friends joined me to watch the fireworks over the Thames from my apartment’s balcony, and as we chinked glasses on the stroke of midnight, we chattered excitedly about what the new year could bring. Resolutions were made and we reminisced about times gone by. “2020 feels so exciting because it is such a strong, formidable number,” said one. “Yes, who would have thought that we would be living through the twenties,” joked another. “Here we are – flapper girls.” “I agree,” said I. “2020 feels so exhilarating, it reminds me of the buzz in the lead up to the millennium.” “Yeah, well at least we do not have the Millennium Bug to worry about this time around,” quipped my friend in response.

Wow. Is it not remarkable how such a throwaway statement uttered over a glass of bubbles can take on such a whole new meaning only a matter of months later? My friends left and in the fortnight that followed I started work, planning with colleagues around powering up in pursuit of oil and gas company BP’s net-zero ambition – and packing my suitcase. I was off to Beijing.

On January 13, I was grinning to myself over a chocolate croissant in Heathrow airport, in the full knowledge that due to the length of the flight and the time difference between London and Beijing, I would arrive in Beijing’s sparkly new airport on January 14 – my birthday. My fortieth birthday. 2020 = 40, and what is more – two new years. Bubbles and fireworks in London, followed by Lunar New Year in Beijing and Shanghai. I would spend quality time with colleagues, deals would be struck, new partnerships formed. Colleagues from China and Singapore joined me that evening in the hotel bar. They made my 40th truly memorable – delicious cocktails and an even more delicious Year of the Rat birthday cake. We drank, we danced, I have a video of them singing Happy Birthday in English and then in Mandarin, and I intend to preserve and treasure that for the next 40 years if I can.

And so, dear reader, it was the best of times… and yet it was about to be the worst of times. Sure, we had heard and read an announcement about a virus in Wuhan, but it was thought to be a localised thing and with no known human-to-human transmission. By the second week of my stay I was in Shanghai, I caught the beautiful Lantern Festival for the new year, but as it became apparent that this virus was something else, I headed home to London.

I was placed in a two-week quarantine upon my return. During those two weeks, I found myself, like so many of us, devouring information as it emerged. What type of virus were we dealing with? How was it spreading? What symptoms should I watch for? What do I do if such symptoms appeared? And on, and on. I read stories from Wuhan of overrun hospitals followed by a swift and intensive response. I felt for the doctors, the nurses, the cleaners, the army, those who built makeshift hospitals in a matter of days – and all of the people of Wuhan. I watched videos online of lockdown hacks from cooking recipes at home to yoga practice to the beauty of apartment residents shouting across the skies to each other: “Go Wuhan.” The camaraderie and the show of encouragement to each other during tough times – I watched, I learned and it stood me in good stead for what came to London weeks later.

2020 – staying at home

I emerged two weeks later from quarantine symptom-free and ready to work the innovation ecosystem in London. However, it was not long before I chose to self-isolate (earlier and in advance of London going into lockdown). I was fortunate to have the type of role, and the digital technologies, that enable me to do this. In fact, technology does not only enhance my working life; it has literally saved my life as I do have a prosthetic heart valve and prosthetic aortic root due to a genetic musculoskeletal disorder that I was born with. My major heart surgery in 2006 was quite enough time on a ventilator for one lifetime – I need to minimise my risk of exposure to the virus if at all possible. On a personal level, this does raise a number of very difficult questions, not least how long I shield myself at home for. I have been doing this since February, and it is starting to get difficult, but it could be two years until we have a vaccine – if indeed we get one at all. I do find myself contemplating those who have given their lives to the virus already so far, and those grieving for loved ones too. Perhaps some of you reading this have been impacted in that way, and I send you my love and heartfelt condolences if that is the case.

2020 – “Working from anywhere”

I am fortunate to have a truly awesome team at BP. We are called Technology Intelligence – we are a global team and there are ten of us in total. As we are already globally distributed from Beijing to Houston and several other cities besides, and as our role is providing an intelligence offer powering BP Ventures investment decisions and more, we were well-placed to switch to remote working by default. We are each accustomed to working unusual (sometimes long) hours as we cross timezones, and video conferencing to check in together as a team has been second nature to us for some time now. Of course one of the impacts of Covid-19 that we have seen is that demand for oil has incurred a very significant drop, and this has been coupled with the well-documented additional strains on the supply side and ongoing market uncertainty, This does mean that as a team we have sought to regroup and refocus – we need a laser focus on where the organisation should deploy venture capital and where we should instead watch and wait until market conditions improve. Of course, in addition, some of our existing portfolio companies are now facing far more challenging environments as a direct impact of the global pandemic, too.

Investing for social impact

BP Ventures did continue to invest in Q1, striking deals in the cleantech, digital and mobility spaces in order to keep driving forward our participation in the energy transition. In addition, we played our part in the Covid-19 response effort. For example, one of our portfolio companies based in San Antonio is CarbonFree. They produce bleach as a by-product to their carbon capture technology. BP Ventures worked with them to buy totes and have the bleach delivered to hospitals, nursing homes, schools and local military bases. This helped the local key workers fight Covid-19, it helped keep truck drivers in work and it helped support our portfolio company too. Indeed it has been heartening to see collaborations between companies large and small worldwide in the pandemic response effort. BP itself has many examples of our response including free fuel for emergency response vehicles, free fuel for air ambulances, sponsoring the NHS Charities Together initiative (including an online celebrity football championship); online Stem content for school children and BP leaders streaming talks for students through the Speakers for Schools initiative; donations to mental health charity Mind as the mental health impacts of both the virus and the lockdowns can be significant – and much more besides. You can view our response effort at our website here.

Corporate venturing – where to from here

There is much that remains unpredictable in terms of how this virus will play out and what the socioeconomic impacts worldwide will be. It seems likely that the nature of work and “the office” will change radically for some, accelerating some changes that were perhaps already on the horizon but which would have taken much longer to get to in other circumstances. This paper is an opinion piece – and so, below follow some of my opinions on what top five things we should be considering in our post-pandemic (or more accurately – enduring pandemic) investment context. These are what I would share as advisory to my ventures colleagues here at BP, and so I share them here for your consideration too, and if of interest please do connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Environmental, social and governance investing – it matters now more than ever

Companies like BP were already rightly being looked to for our response and our strategy to address the very significant carbon and climate challenges faced by the world. I am proud that our new CEO has boldly asserted our net-zero by 2050 (or sooner) ambition, and reaffirmed that this remains in place – in fact, is further solidified – by the global pandemic and associated market environment.

Data ethics are a fundamental part of ethical investing

We have seen countless examples previously of when the world goes into “crisis mode” there can be rushed laws or demands for data without adequate time to consider the ethical implications of each. Previously accepted societal norms around privacy or human rights become seen as negotiable or expendable if depicted as a trade-off with an effective or swift response. However, the overreach (whether legal or technological or both) is often difficult to “dial back” post-crisis. This lesson should be borne in mind in the pursuit of apps or “smart” technologies pitched as the solution to the pandemic spread.

Consider: do you discuss the ethical implications of investing in your ventures investment committee meetings?

Rushed investments can make for bad investments

See above. Note: rushed investments are not the same as swift investments. You do need time for adequate due diligence and ethical considerations around any investment opportunity, including and especially those pitched as the solution to a crisis.

Hire disabled people

I used to hide my disabled status, never ticking the box on any recruitment form and ace-ing job interviews and getting appointed before anyone noticed I walked with a limp or struggled to carry my laptop. I know it sounds strange, but this is more common than you might think. I knew the stats on disabled people getting hired were bad and I wanted to be recognised as an equal competing on a level playing field with others. We know the venture capital community is not diverse enough and not representative of the communities in which the very startups we invest in are born. There is also evidence that more diverse representation on boards leads to better investment decisions and outcomes. The global pandemic results in investment opportunities in the very areas in which you will find disabled people are incredibly well versed. From adjusting our homes to be appropriate for work, rest and play, to the products that make extended periods at home more liveable, to medtech and technological enhancements solving problems (physical, cognitive or other) that we may face, to navigating the space between privacy and convenience in managing our health and social interactions, to having the steely determination to find solutions and overcome what some see as insurmountable obstacles, to a difference in perspective that enables us to see things differently, to the underemployed talent who (for some of us) can only work from home and had been requesting this for some years prior to the pandemic proving that it is more than possible – hire us, above all – if you are looking to invest in a technology or a company that describes itself as having a solution that will “help protect the vulnerable” then I cannot stress enough how vital it is that you have someone who would be deemed to a member of that group – “the vulnerable” – appraising and advising you on their pitch and product.

Could we chase a new normal of more sustainable investing?

Clearly, in the time of the pandemic, there will be many investment opportunities ranging from medtech to home entertainment to home office supplies to home fitness, to video conferencing to hygiene to personal protective equipment to pet products for all those puppies we are told people are buying. And maybe some months from now, baby products from all the other at-home activities we’ ae told people are having.

Governments may embrace the opportunity to accelerate the design of the cities of the future – can we maintain the lower pollution of the substantially reduced travel, can we make the soul-destroying commute and rush hour a thing of the past? Perhaps.

Companies should look at these opportunities – sure, for investing, but also in considering how they too shall operate going forward. Perhaps supply chains shall become more localised. Maybe energy use in the home will increase. If more people work from home more often, then maybe more people will make the switch to an electric vehicle if there is more time to charge at home and less commuting to be done. Maybe real estate in cities will become more affordable if people feel they have more of a choice as to where to live, as opposed to needing to live near the office or work location. For venturing, maybe this will open up the opportunity to look far beyond Silicon Valley to the rising innovation hubs in cities worldwide.

The opportunities will likely be more sustainable investment models – less of the asset-light, scale as fast as possible Silicon Valley playbook, but more slow and steady investment plays in the rising mega-cities where social distancing is all but impossible but youthful populations mean (hopefully) the virus does not gain the same grip there as we have seen elsewhere.

That is not by any means a given, but if it proves to be the case then investment strategies should be considered accordingly – looking at the world through a new lens, a new philosophy, and with longer time to exit. Businesses will need to step up and have this global view to accompany their local investment plays, and especially as the world bears the scars from increasing conflict and nationalism fuelled by pandemic politics and disinformation. It is the innovators and the artists, the medics and the engineers, the key workers and the carers, the coaches and the counsellors, the designers, the lab workers, the entertainers, the mentors, the teachers and more – it is each of us, coming together, to design the world we want that will get us through this. That is where venture capital should play to accelerate the winning ideas coming from such cross-discipline collaborations worldwide.