Over the past few months, there has been a transformation in the way we interact with loved ones, do our work, travel, get medical care, spend leisure time, and conduct many of the routine transactions of life. These changes have accelerated the migration to digital technologies at stunning scale and speed, across every sector. We are witnessing what will surely be remembered as a historic deployment of remote work and digital access to services across every domain; now and for the future, digital will play a defining role.
During the recovery period of partial reopening, business leaders are facing some fundamental challenges. The main one is that consumer behavior and demand patterns have changed significantly and will continue to do so. Adding that how the economy rolls back to life will differ from country to country and even city to city, and consumer’s behavior will vary too. For example: Some consumers may feel comfortable going to restaurants before they will consider getting on a plane or going to sporting events. Early signals of increased consumer demand will likely come suddenly and in clusters. Analyzing these demand signals in real-time and adapting quickly to bring supply chains and services back will be essential for companies to successfully navigate the recovery.
To address these challenges, leaders will need to set an ambitious digital agenda and most importantly, they must deliver it quickly.The four elements to be considered in this agenda:
1. Refocus digital efforts to reflect changing customer expectations. To adapt, companies need to quickly rethink customer journeys and accelerate the development of digital solutions. The emphasis will be different for each sector. For many retailers, this includes creating a seamless e-commerce experience, enabling customers to complete everything they need to do online, from initial research and purchase to service and returns.
2. Use data, the Internet of Things, and AI to better manage operations. In parallel, companies need to incorporate new data and create new models to enable real-time decision-making. In the same way that many risk and financial models had to be rebuilt after the 2008 financial crisis, the use of data and analytics will need to be recalibrated to reflect the post-COVID-19 reality. This will involve rapidly validating models, creating new data sets, and enhancing modeling techniques. Getting this right will enable companies to successfully navigate demand forecasting, asset management, and coping with massive new volumes.
3. Accelerate tech modernization. Companies will also need to greatly improve their IT productivity to lower their cost base and fund rapid, flexible digital solution development. This requires quickly reducing IT costs and making them variable wherever possible to match demand. This means figuring out what costs are flexible in the near-to-medium term, for example, by evaluating nonessential costs related to projects or maintenance and reallocating resources. It also involves defining a future IT-product platform, establishing the skills and roles needed to sustain it, mapping these skills onto the new organization model, and developing leaders who can train people to fill the new or adapted roles. And last but not least, the adoption of cloud and automation technologies will need to speed up.
4. Increase the speed and productivity of digital solutions. To deal with the crisis and its aftermath, companies not only need to develop digital solutions quickly but also to adapt their organizations to new operating models and deliver these solutions to customers and employees at scale. Solving this “last mile” challenge requires integrating business processes, incorporating data-driven decision-making, and implementing change management. There are different ways to do this. A wide variety of companies, from banks to mining operations, have accelerated delivery by establishing an internal “digital factory” with cross-functional teams dedicated to matching business priorities to digital practices. Others, in addition to reinventing their core businesses, have established new business–building entities to capture new opportunities quickly.
Along with the accelerated pace of change, however, comes a unique opportunity to unlock big strategic moves, that is why we should consider this situation as a unique window of opportunity.
TOOLS THAT CAN HELP YOU TO ACCELERATE DIGITAL ADOPTION TO ENABLE REIMAGINATION:
1. Digital Gap – To help you build your Digital Transformation Journey Map.
2. Digital Transformation Maturity – To help you determine how digitally mature is your organization.
3. Automation Feasibility – To identify automation opportunities.
4. Data Strategy Gap – To determine the readiness of your data and information for real-time decision-making.
5. The Opportunity Navigator – To prioritize potential market opportunities.
6. Disruptive Mindset – To determine the level of disruptive mindset for a person.
7. Design Mindset – To determine the level of design mindset for a person.
8. Business Innovation & Creativity Gap – To determine your readiness to deal with disruptive change.
9. Business Model Building Blocks – To determine how ready you are to renew or innovate your business models.
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