Skip to main content

Covid-19 as an accelerator for Digital Transformation

[PLACEHOLDER]
Image

 The pandemic has changed how companies operate and deliver their services to their consumers. It is undeniable that companies that had experimentation as part of their “corporate DNA” reported better growth during the pandemic. 

Photo by Chris Peeters from Pexels

 

Let’s face it, the change created by the pandemic is here to stay. Therefore, this need of “relentless improvement” will continue to apply to this present. The combination of the safety measures and the vaccination rollouts has given us the opportunity to regain some normality, or what many are calling the “new normal”. This defines how we are operating now, and will form the base of how we will operate in the coming future. The ones that were quicker to adapt during this era of crisis had a competitive advantage over others that were more conservative in nature.

It is not surprising that a Google survey (Note: we will reference this survey throughout this article) highlights that “organizations at different levels of digital maturity were impacted by the global pandemic. For example, digitally conservative organizations were more likely than their digitally forward peers to have cancelled or delayed three (3) or more IT initiatives (16% vs. 8%)”. Also, no surprise that in the same report it outlines that “32% of respondents said that data analytics and intelligence initiatives were either introduced or accelerated in 2020 because of COVID”. The survey also shares  that “44% of digitally forward organizations are currently using data analytics and AI/ML technologies, while only 24% of digitally conservative companies are doing so.”

There is so much to learn during these times  of crisis. You need to see challenges as opportunities and move at a faster pace. A great example of innovative and creative "solutioning" can be found in the so-called “3rd world countries” that have very  limited resources. You’ll find some of the most creative minds in these countries that when provided with an opportunity to solve a problem, have achieved greatness.

It is worth mentioning that success for companies, especially during a period of “challenging times” will depend on various factors that leadership is responsible for driving forward. Two (2) of those are:

  • Communication
  • Culture

Communication

 Communicating the message with transparency will support the trust factor. The faster the conditions are changing, the more you need to communicate, not only within the company (to your employees), but externally as well.

You can find a good example of that in the interview of Brian Chesky of Airbnb by Mckinsey where he speaks his mind about many things, including the importance of communication. This is well demonstrated in the letter sent by the Airbnb leadership at the time the company had the challenges when they had to let employees go due to the impact of the pandemic on the lodging industry. This was again demonstrated when they put together the “founder’s letter”. (note: If you want to know more, please follow the link to the article which you can find in this paragraph, and in our references at the end of this article.) 

Culture

 There is a dependency between how quickly your business can adapt based on the culture in your company.

Let’s approach this from a customer-centric perspective. From that lens, the need and the pace will be driven by the consumer. Hence, the leadership will set the example for others in the organization to follow, by executing on the culture’s principles with the purpose of embracing change and adapt at the pace dictated by  the consumer in order to satisfy their needs (and provide the value-added). This will allow the organization to re-invent itself, and to innovate. Those organizations that are unwilling to change, staying at the extreme side of conservatism, are at risk of being pushed out of the market.
The Google survey says that in healthcare 37% said “that their internal process and governance structures are impeding additional innovation”. It also indicates that in the Financial Services, 39% “says they want to either create a new strategy or accelerate their existing strategy for disaster recovery and business continuity”.

Just to close this section on the importance of culture, I would like to highlight Forbes’ article  that says “While many business leaders think the starting point to digital transformation is technology – it is actually culture that remains more foundational”. A similar phrase can be seen in the Mckinsey article  which calls it as: “we know that at leading companies, digital and corporate strategies are one and the same”.


Without any doubt the leading companies are aligning their digital and corporate strategies close to each other, and the line between them is becoming really blurry.

Photo by emre keshavarz from Pexels

39% of respondents in Retail said they want either create a new strategy or accelerate their existing strategy for disaster recovery and business continuity” and “33% said security risks and concerns are top pain, while 49% said they want the ability to use cloud services but control any access to data.

Final remarks

There is no doubt about how this pandemic crisis has impacted all industries and how we operate in the new reality. Remote working, and remote learning, two (2) of the biggest manifestations became important enablers during COVID-19  (before they were rarely part of the corporate priorities), allowing  businesses and continuous learning to move forward. Digital transformation has become more relevant, and companies have a mandate to shift to be able to survive the competitive market and its forward-thinking consumers.

With the acceleration of digital transformation, a higher demand (with higher quality) on cloud services, and the security around them to guarantee high tolerance, availability and the security of the data, have become more important than ever during the pandemic. 

The crisis has removed the barriers that before many business leaders used to focus on reducing cost, removing the priorities for experimenting on new technologies and avoiding enhancing their processes for leaner ways and exercising a healthy challenge to the “status quo”.

Finally, let us all agree that there is no transformation if it cannot be sustained. Sustainability is front and center. You can only maintain success if there is a future, and without a place to call home, without resources, without ecosystems (and everything that goes in it), there is nothing to look after or work for. It is encouraging to see the acknowledgement in Google's survey responses that indicates that “two-third of organizations have already put sustainability targets in place and another 29% plan to implement them.”
 
But some will argue that this is not enough. If there is one thing we must learn from this COVID-19 pandemic, it is that we do not need to wait in order to transform. There is much we can do in preparation for the crisis. Climate issues are already among us, we have been seeing the effects for many years now. It is imperative for us to act now, avoiding that “point of no return”, it is imperative for the companies to live by the “values” of the “culture” they advertise, and to keep innovating so we can be not only ready, but able to prevent future climate issues and/or future global pandemics. 

Reference


Trending posts

AGILE For DIGITAL AGENCIES

Introduction Some Digital agencies have a project process where waterfalls still plays a big part of it, and as far as I can tell, the tech team is usually the one suffering as they are at the last part of the chain left with limited budget and time for execution. I do believe that adopting an Agile approach could make a Digital Agency better and faster. In this article I’m presenting you just another point of view of why it make sense looking at Agile Methodology.  Why Agile for a Digital Agency? The Agile movement started in the software development industry, but it has being proven to be useful in others as well. It becomes handy for the type of business that has changing priorities, changing requirements and flexible deliverables. In the Digital Agency of today you need a different mindset. Creative will always play a huge role (“the bread and butter”). But the “big guys” need to understand that without technology there is no Digital Agency. Technical resources are
Read more

Key takeaways from landmark EU AI Act

 Recently, the European Parliament voted and passed the landmark EU AI Act. It's the first of its kind and sets a benchmark for future AI regulations worldwide . The EU AI Act lays the foundation for AI governance, and it's pertinent for organizations delving into AI systems to comply with the legislation, build robust and secure AI systems, and avoid non-compliance fines.  Photo by Karolina Grabowska via Pexels My three key takeaways from the legislation are as follows: The Act introduces the definition of an AI system: "An AI system is a machine-based system designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and that may exhibit adaptiveness after deployment and that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments" The Act introduces the classification of AI systems based on risk to society. The Act outlin
Read more

AI with great power comes responsibility

Generative AI continues to be front and centre of all topics. Companies continue to make an effort for making sense of the technology, investing in their teams, as well as vendors/providers in order to “crack” those use cases that will give them the advantage in this competitive market, and while we are still in this phase of the “AI revolution” where things are still getting sorted.   Photo by Google DeepMind on Unsplash I bet that Uncle Ben’s advise could go beyond Peter Parker, as many of us can make use of that wisdom due to the many things that are currently happening. AI would not be the exception when using this iconic phrase from one of the best comics out there. Uncle Ben and Peter Parker - Spiderman A short list of products out there in the space of generated AI: Text to image Dall.E-2 Fotor Midjourney NightCafe Adobe Firefly
Read more

Small Language Models

 Open source models will continue to grow in popularity. Small Language Models (SLMs) are smaller, faster to train with less compute.  They can be used for tackling specific cases while being at a lower cost.  Photo by Tobias Bjørkli via Pexels  SLMs can be more efficient SLMs are faster in inference speed, and they also require less memory and storage.    SLMs and cost Small Language models can run on less powerful machines, making them more affordable. This could be ideal for experimentation, startups and/or small size companies. Here is a short list Tiny Llama. The 1.1B parameters AI Model, trained on 3T Tokens. Microsoft’s Phi-2. The 2.7B parameters, trained on 1.4T tokens. Gemini Nano.  The 6B parameters. Deepseek Coder
Read more

This blog uses cookies to improve your browsing experience. Simple analytics might be in place for pageviews purposes. They are harmless and never personally identify you.

Agreed