The world has been up-side-down since Covid-19 started almost one and a half years ago. To control the pandemic, having almost no personal contact and interaction became the “new normal”. The government demanded a lockdown, events got cancelled, schools were closed and companies introduced remote working.
Because of the “new normal”, companies had to rethink aspects of their business as consumers now mainly had to rely on online channels. And companies had to respond accordingly. This led to an exponential increase in new digital technologies and a digital transformation in many different sectors. Companies that were affected by the lockdown had to think in the digital direction to stay competitive in this new business environment. But also digital companies quickly developed and expanded with new digital services that helped to reduce face-to-face interactions. Examples of these digital technologies are delivery services, video conferencing services and cloud computing.
The pandemic arrived so unexpectedly. Since it affected millions of companies – or should we say almost the whole business world – so quickly and severely, companies also quickly had to respond with digital transformations. Research shows that due to Covid-19, the adoption of digital technologies is increased in speed by several years. According to McKinsey, the digitization of customer and supply-chain interactions and of their internal operations have accelerated by three to four years. In addition, the share of digital-enabled products in their portfolios has increased speed by seven years.
The same research also found that most of these digital transformations are there to last – even when everything goes back to the “old normal”. Changes that happened because of Covid-19, such as remote working and changing customer needs, are believed to stick as the pandemic evolves. And this of course has important implications for businesses. What do you think this means for businesses?
You can read the articles in the sources for more information and the other results of the McKinsey survey.
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