Turning Crisis into Opportunity

Recently, I watched an inspiring Standford GSB (Graduate School of Business) interview with Eric Yuan, founder of Zoom—the video conferencing software. Many companies collapsed or faced a crisis during the pandemic, but Zoom blossomed into a ubiquitous communication app by turning the crisis into an opportunity for exponential growth.

I am sure all of you have used Zoom for family chats, business meetings, church gatherings, and global conferences. Many school classes went on Zoom, and even many couples married on Zoom during the pandemic. It grew from 2,000 employees to 6,000 in 18 months. Now, it’s worth $25 billion.

When Eric Yuan looked for investment as a startup company,  no one wanted to invest in it, saying it was a competitive field. We already had established companies like Skype, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. But Yuan wanted to prove them wrong, and he succeeded beyond anyone’s expectation.

Eric Yuan is a Christian, and his company culture is simple: “Delivering Happiness.” He said every employee is encouraged to maintain happiness within themselves so that they can deliver happiness to the world. Their company value is also in one simple word: “Care”—caring about Community, Customers, Company, Teammates, and Selves. You can see his focus on simplicity.

The mission of the company is to “Make communications frictionless and secure.” That’s why Zoom has won worldwide usage over competitors because it removes the friction of the video conferencing process. Zoom simplifies people’s lives.

Yuan says he treats every problem as an opportunity to grow. The Chinese word for “crisis” has two characters: “Danger and Opportunity” (危机 wei-ji). Leaders sense the opportunity when most people only see the danger during a crisis. In fact, Jesus wants you to focus on the opportunity during a crisis.

Jesus says when you hear the news that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, don’t panic, but turn it into an opportunity for expansion. In today’s scripture lesson, Jesus teaches us how to turn a crisis into an opportunity. So, let’s learn from the greatest servant leader in human history, the Son of God himself, how to take advantage of a crisis for a fruitful future. Let’s begin!