Pandemic resistant services with a trace of viral DNA woven in.
Apparently, human DNA is about 8% virus. In other words, hundreds of thousands of years’ worth of viral infections have woven themselves into the human genome. Viruses break-in to our cells to tinker with our DNA leaving traces of their DNA in ours. This disgusting fact made me think about businesses and the services they produce.
Once in a while a new business contagion appears, a recession, a cyber threat, an annoying sector disruptor or the ebb or flow of the threat from terrorism. In each case, ‘the virus’ washes through a sector or economy. Some businesses are unable to cope, but thankfully the majority do. Once the peak has subsided, the virus becomes somehow woven into the DNA of each organisation; it reshapes the operating model and the products and services it provides.
Right now, many businesses are infected. They are reacting, slowing down, reallocating or burning-up resources, putting up barriers, closing doors, imposing new rules and spraying disinfectant to subdue the virus and limit its impact on employees and customers. The actions many businesses have taken are what’s needed to protect lives and job, but it’s hard to imagine tolerating and sustaining this level of response.
There will be a new normal, so how will this coronavirus have tinkered with the DNA of businesses? While we reshape services at pace what indelible traces will the virus leave behind? Do all of these ‘mutations’ need to have a negative impact? Could some of the changes businesses have had to make result in the design of better services for the new normal?
Pandemic-resistant services will guide customers with new service etiquettes and expectations. Performance thresholds and SLAs will slacken, and supply chains become more localised, making localisation and service variability marketable virtues. Symptom tracking and contact tracing will be designed-in as standard, and there’ll be an element of public service in every service. An internet of physical services emerges as Zoom becomes a customer service platform. And, assuming this isn’t the last time, sectors develop ‘herd immunity’, so responses are faster and less disruptive next time. New operating models emerge with a little viral DNA woven in.
