Sea-change: How businesses can thrive in a post-pandemic economy

There’s no denying the massive effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has on the global economy. Earlier in April, the IMF predicted that the “Global Lockdown” would be the worst recession since the Great Depression, later adding that their prediction might have even been a bit too optimistic.

As people hunker down in their homes to avoid the virus, factories were shut and financial districts stood quiet. Enterprises from small to large have had to deal with extreme losses and many have been forced to lay off employees or completely close down.

Despite many countries beginning to ease restrictions and bringing some semblance of what life was pre-COVID, the economic struggle is far from over, with many experts predicting that the second wave in late 2020 to 2021 would continue the downward trend in the world GDP. The companies who’ve managed to deal with the tough, initial blow of the pandemic now have to figure out how to rebuild through the prolonged period of caution and thrive in a post-pandemic world.

Paradigm shifts “at scale”

If there’s something productive that this global health crisis has given us, it’s that we’re driven to rethink how we design and operate businesses.

Despite heavy losses reported by businesses, there are certain companies who are actually profitable at this time. Ecommerce or online retailing is one of the industries that have benefited from the stay-at-home world, led by giant Amazon which saw its stock prices soar in the last few months. On-demand delivery services such as DoorDash, UberEats and the Asian giant Grab have all seen increased business. All this is happening despite physical stores and restaurants having to close down or let employees go because of the limited foot traffic.

This illustrates that even under home quarantine, people still have needs and wants. The main obstacle for consumers is whether a business’ products are within reach; and it’s up to businesses to figure out how to get around this consumer block. How do we as businesses continue to provide essential goods and services to these people?

There are two ways entrepreneurs could approach this: first, they could keep their doors closed, save as much money and wait it out until things go back to the way they were; or second, they take a huge risk and evolve their company to emulate these businesses who continue to be successful in this changing landscape. But the main question on everyone’s mind is will things ever go back to the old normal?

Across the world, we see companies who’ve mainly operated on a physical capacity make the big leap to digital. In Microsoft’s quarterly earnings report last April — the first one in the time of the pandemic — CEO Satya Nadella said: “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months. From remote teamwork and learning, to sales and customer service, to critical cloud infrastructure and security — we are working alongside customers every day to help them adapt and stay open for business in a world of remote everything.”

In that month alone, Microsoft Teams reportedly generated more than 4.1 billion meeting minutes from more than 200 million users. In the same month, video conferencing service Zoom reported a 50 percent growth in their monthly users from the start of April to the end of April, reaching more than 300 million users. This is despite earlier concerns about its privacy.

There is an ongoing paradigm shift in the way we conduct business which has been expedited by our current context. Our idea of the modern workplace is changing. Despite most of the technological infrastructure being readily available for years, it is only during this pandemic that many companies have decided to give remote work a go. Given that many of the world’s companies have built their operations around office spaces, it is indeed an incredible risk for them: there is hardly a proper reference for success, and barely enough time to think about it and plan ahead.

Adjusting to the new normal

The world after COVID-19 values resilience and flexibility. The idea that things would go back to the way they were is inaccurate. While the physical effects of the pandemic would have an end once the pandemic has been neutralized, the change in how people go about their lives will have lasting psychological and sociological effects on everyone.

An article published by the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) noted that while many of our old habits would come back, there would still be a considerable effect on consumer habits, modifying them and adding new ones. The immediate impact in consumer behavior mentioned in the article include: hoarding of goods; improvisation in fulfilling consumer needs; pent-up demand from postponed or limited purchasing; adoption of digital technology; and migration of normally out-of-home consumer activities to in-home.

While it is not entirely certain the extent to which our habits would revert to pre-pandemic, there are things that we learned to do more efficiently during the pandemic which would influence our choices moving forward. And a major enabler of this is technology.

The pandemic has limited human mobility, but having found innovative ways of working, learning, socializing, and consuming products it has also given us flexibility of time. The challenge is on businesses to adapt to changing consumer habits and making sure that they are able to deliver despite limitations.

A “Digital-first” economy

Everywhere, we are seeing an increased adoption of digital tools and services to offset movement restrictions. What was to most a mere peripheral alternative is now considered to be the core solution to get something done.

On the consumer side, we’re seeing people completely migrate their consumer experience to an at-home setting, swapping storefront windows for Internet browser tabs. Digital-first businesses are becoming the go-to for goods and services. E-commerce growth rate has leapt, recording sales volumes that were initially predicted to happen four to eight years from now.

Amazon’s acquisition of supermarket chain Whole Foods has turned out to be an even better move, with experts seeing the pandemic as a turning point in the widespread adoption of online grocery shopping. However, many are predicting a resurgence of brick-and-mortar grocers as restrictions ease in many markets, leading to a slowdown in the growth of online grocery.

Given this, uncertainty still surrounds the future of supermarkets as a second wave is expected by the end of this year to the start of next year. This puts executives in a predicament on whether to invest in boosting their online presence or not.

As mentioned before, this is a discussion that is happening in virtual boardroom meetings across the world. There are companies that are still conservative about the idea of shifting to a “digital-first” approach. In truth, the risk is incredibly great. Not only does this mean that they have to change the way they approach customers, but also redesigning the company internally as well. And this is not necessarily a comfortable time for companies to spend money trying new things. However, with these new challenges come new opportunities as well.

A future of remote everything

Over the course of the pandemic, you may have encountered enterprising individuals who have utilized the tools available to them to continue offering their goods and services to the public. This includes making use of popular third party platforms like Facebook Marketplace, Instagram, Fiverr and Upwork, opening up digital storefronts. While doing this to the scale of corporations is a different endeavor altogether, it is important to take note of the initiative and foresight: how can businesses continue to operate and serve customers despite physical limitations?

Of course, it isn’t just a matter of launching an e-commerce website. A large chunk of creating a resilient, agile and flexible organization that’s future-proof is enabling teams to do their core responsibilities remotely, and making sure that the customer experience has either remained consistent or improved.

Speaking strictly about technology, it has been readily available for years and we have used at least some form of them in our work at the office. Spreadsheets, slideshow presentations and other documents have all moved from our harddrives to cloud-based services like Google Docs and Office 365. Video conferencing tools such as Google Meet and Zoom have been used for international meetings among multiple offices and clients.

Companies who have embraced digital transformation more openly have also used more advanced technologies to make their operations more efficient. Verticals from human resources all the way to logistics have benefited from artificial intelligence, IoT, blockchain and big data.

What was seen as an optional, gradual transition pre-COVID-19 is now considered a necessity for companies. Over the past few months, companies who are handling the pandemic effectively have all made massive efforts to shift as much of their operations to a remote arrangement as much as they can.

According to a Gartner survey of CFOs last April, 74 percent of organizations plan to shift at least five percent of their on-site workforce to permanently remote positions post-COVID-19. Gartner Finance Practice vice president Alexander Bant said that moving some operational functions off-site have actually been more cost-effective and complemented companies’ cost-cutting measures. The respondents of the survey have also noted that they have taken efforts to offset any potential disruptions caused by the crisis by providing further infrastructure support and flexible working schemes.

However, there would still be reservations when it comes to moving everything to the Cloud and letting people work without the direct supervision that a traditional workplace setting would provide. Companies might find it a tough sell to suddenly change their mindset on how to operate as an organization, shifting the culture to a more flexible one.

A May survey from productivity tracking software company Prodoscore recorded a 47 percent increase in productivity across 30,000 users despite having to work from home. Another remote work time tracking software company, RescueTime, found that work-at-home employees recorded a four percent average increase in core work accomplished on a daily basis.

This is all happening despite employees having to deal with the emotional and mental stresses of living through a pandemic. This puts a renewed focus on employee well-being as organizations compress their workforce to leaner teams with more flexible work responsibilities and competencies. Businesses are now faced with the challenge to ensure that their employees are well looked after so that they could stay productive.

New challenges, new opportunities

Rebuilding a company to be resilient for the future, executives need to focus on agility and scalability and expediting their digital transformation is key to assure that. While the idea of investing a great amount of time, money and effort on this endeavor may seem off-putting, it also comes with opportunities to grow and expand one’s business.

By not relying on physical locations and brick-and-mortar stores, businesses can more easily expand their market reach, even establishing a presence in new countries. Technology has allowed us to reach out to relevant audiences directly across borders without having to worry about the physical infrastructure. Digital-first businesses also have a strong focus on consumer experience, and in a volatile and uncertain economy, consumer retention is key in any business’ long-term survival.

As we head into a new reality with many uncertainties, there are a few things which are clear on how businesses can proactively mitigate impacts of force majeure to their operations.

First, our idea of how a business could and should run definitely has to change. The workplace is no longer a physical place; there is evidence that employees can work at the same pace or even more efficiently remotely than at the office.

Second, resilient companies have resilient and flexible team members. As companies have to rely on leaner teams they must ensure that their company has the best people. They must invest in them, making sure to provide them with ample infrastructure and human support to keep them productive. Having a remote setup also provides human resources with an opportunity to source the best talents anywhere in the world.

Lastly, the point of agility and scalability in the post-pandemic business is not only being ready for any eventuality, but also being ready for any opportunity. We as entrepreneurs must be open to expanding our business wherever there is a possibility to grow and profit.