LIFE WITHIN & BEYOND COVID 19 ERA
LIFE WITHIN & BEYOND COVID 19 ERA
Life Beyond Pre & Post-Covid Era
This could remind you of those before-after pictures, where before is kind of black and white and the after is slightly happier (at least for them who play by the digital rulebook)
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According to KPMG’s global survey, 67% of organisations say they have accelerated their digital transformation strategy because of Covid-19 and 63% say they have increased their digital transformation budget as a result of Covid 19.
But, things will start going back to normal, and this effect could fade away.
To continue to maintain such zeal, it is important that businesses address the following challenges –
Digital Infrastructure
A robust digital infrastructure should be in place that connects front desks to the back end
Customer Behaviour
The digital channels should be customer-focused and engaging. They should be able to provide services online to the customer with less or no hassle.
Working Methodology
Organisations need to build proper connections among themselves to run physically and virtually. The office team should be well integrated with work from home team.
Ability to Recover
When such economic or social adversities like Covid 19 take place, the ability of a business to put itself back on the road to recovery is faster if its processes are digitally equipped.
“If you AlwAYS do wHAT you’ve AlwAYS done, you’ll always get what you always got.” – James P. Lewis
The Struggle within
Humankind is often caught between the crossfire of external and internal struggle. It doesn’t matter on which side the fire is more powerful, it has to be put out in both sides.
The external struggle like fall in incoming projects, availability of limited resources, lesser client interaction added to the nightmare of businessmen and entrepreneurs. In this part, they had low or no control.
The businesses were not completely on board with digital transformation. Ones who were didn’t have a full-fledged idea about what they were supposed to do. Adding to that, work from home contributed to the management’s fear as the quality of delivery was being affected. It is all about state of mind. With salary cuts, extra hours of working and working alone in the same four walls knowingly unknowingly took a toll on employees.
The tuning wasn’t exactly ideal because believe it or not small office activities like potluck, short trips, even chai break with colleagues rejuvenates everyone for a start fresh which used to add to efficiency.
If you have a LinkedIn account, you would definitely have come across someone seeking a job who told their story on a business platform because of being exposed to the vulnerability of the situation. You would also have found yourself commenting for better reach. The frequency of such people posting messages to get leads was ever-increasing.
Everything just felt a little slow, a little blue. Imagine you worked in a company where your daily work hours were around 9, including the lunch and tea breaks. And suddenly a pandemic disrupted the flow, you had to work from home for like 10 hours. Just when you thought you would apply for Internet expenses at the office portal, you get an email that your salary has been cut by 50%. It just messes with your mind, doesn’t it? Despite having a job, you had to struggle, financially and mentally.
That’s how at different levels, everyone lived with their own struggle. In the process, the work quality got affected, the process was shaken and efforts to restore stability were constantly being made.
“Be flexible enough to change in the face of novelty AND strong enough to fAce adversity.” – Shivashanmugam
Challenges During Covid Era
With a sublime dramatic truth, it can be said that the existential crisis laughed in the face of micro, small and medium enterprises during the Covid Era. Do you know it contributed 29% to India’s GDP in 2019?
This sector hires about 110 million employees and blows life into the business ecosystem. It has so much potential that it is believed professionals have only scratched the surface. The lockdown enforcements dragged the owners, workers, and stakeholders to unpleasant times. The raw material unavailability, supply deadlines getting pushed away added to the chaos.
For instance, if Champak was into the yarn business in Surat, his supplier didn’t have enough raw yarn threads. Then he called his producer to get an update, the producer told him that there was labour shortage hence the Saree production would be delayed. Interesting thing to note was, the saree outlets were closed. Even if he tried to fix one problem, he had the other up and coming.
“Only those who ARe Able to AdAPt to changing scenarios will continue to survive and prosper. Success is directly proportiONAl TO THE DEGREE OF positive adaptation to change.” – Vishwas Chavan
However, people were finding innovative ways to survive and make money. The sale of sanitizers, masks, and PPE kits was the highest. The demand was ever- increasing. Hence, many people focused on selling these items. This wasn’t enough to provide relief to the struggling sectors. The government pushes along with the flow of money in the market.
Enterprises of any kind in India faced issues regarding loan disbursement, raw material availability, pricing, etc. The proper sources of funding were required. The cash flow in the market was not adequate and government measures to drag us out of the situation could help not only in Covid Era but also in future.
Real Stories of Untimely Death of Business
The newspapers, media, television were bustling with the questions like – When will things go back to normal? How many years will the business take to recover? Along with such unanswerable questions we also came to know about businesses who lost their lives to Covid 19. According to the Economic Times, over 6.8 lakh Indian companies shut down so far.
Common man’s theatre i.e.; single-screen theatres in India had decided to shut down due to serious doubts of survival in post-Covid 19 zone. A report by News Minute said as many as 150 theatres in Karnataka were thinking to shut down due to huge losses in pandemic and lack of government relief schemes. In the cities like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Chhattisgarh the single screen shop is thriving on an oxygen mask.
“Change. Adapt. Bend so AS not to be broken. Let opportunity guide your actions.” – Wayne Gerard Trotman
The popular ethnic brand of India that was built over 60 years – FabIndia shut its stores in March 2020. Fast fashion chain H&M shut 170 stores in the US and Europe because sales declined by 57%. They plan to close more stores in 2021.
Even the hotels suffered from tight trouble. More than half of the hotel rooms were empty and according to experts, it would take several years for the demand to surge like it was in 2019.
Such impact wasn’t called for. It was untimely and didn’t give a chance to many sectors to get prepared for the sudden changes in consumer behaviour.
Worldwide Unrest, Chaos, and Struggle
Covid 19 had reached every country in the world. Everyone was making a desperate attempt to parry a blow against this slump. Vaccines were being made and sent for approval one after the other. The tensions amid the countries was low and everyone focused on maintaining good relations so that early access to the vaccines shouldn’t be a problem.
The government was trying to make things easy for a common man. With payment cut and job losses, the overall demand was very low. Hence, governments of different countries had slashed interest rates so that people could buy their dream homes. But, the concern of unemployment still hangs over many heads.
“Life is neither Static nor unchanging. With no individuality, there can be no change, no Adaptation AND, in AN inherently cHANGING world, ANy species unable to adapt is also doomed.” – Jean M. Auel
According to the IMF, millions of workers had been secured by government-supported jobs as sectors like tourism and hospitality had witnessed rough famine. In the United States, the number of people unemployed hit a yearly total of 8.9%, for Brazing the number rose to 13.4% while for India it was around 9.1% in 2020. The IMF estimates that the global economy shrunk by 4.4% in 2020.
As people gathered the courage to start travelling, a new variant of the virus would start to make headlines and huge cancellation in tickets of travel and business trips was seen. Retail shops also suffered due to shopping at home. Who was the winner you ask? This is an easy one. Pharmaceuticals.
The government had paid them handsomely because they pledged to make the vaccines. A tiny bit of news about the vaccines and the share price of the companies like Novavax, Moderna, AstraZeneca would go high.
Apart from the pharma industry, the condition of others was pretty much shaken. It was a long season of struggle with uncertainties in mind paired with time testing our patience.
The Big Fall of Corporates in India
Have you ever seen a black swan? No, right? Because they are extremely rare, hence also used as a metaphor for the real events that come as a surprise and have severe impact like Covid 19. Here’s how it bruised the corporates in India –
The sales in the corporate sector fell drastically, hence the raw material purchase was also low. Due to this, they saved some costs and the wages did not see a huge cut for the first six months of the pandemic. While small corporations had to lay off some employees as they were being hammered by Covid, the services sector or big corporations managed to retain their employees in the fear of having to build the teams from scratch. This only widened the gap between big and small corporations.
“To survive and even thrive in a cHANGING WORLD, NATURE OFFERS ANOther great lesson: the survivors are those who AT THE LEAST ADAPT TO CHANGE, OR even better learn to benefit from change and grow intellectually and personally. That MEANS CAREFUL LISTENING AND constANT learning.” – Frances Arnold
New investments and project announcements in India plunged to 16-year low in the year 2020 says CMIE. Lack of investment in corporate projects led to a fall in employment. New hiring was on a sharp decline and in some cases, the offers that were given prior to pandemic were also revoked. The IT sector and air travel industry have suffered a heavier blow.
Many whose business got stuck under the debris of the pandemic found it difficult to come out alive. The situation had stolen their livelihood, and it was getting difficult for such corporate companies to find their way back. With news of vaccines, there was some revival, but for small unprotected corporations, it was a heat-filled summer.
Crisis into Opportunities
There are always going to be moments when being challenged will be inevitable. But being defeated, it is optional. This is no preach and tell, this is about our mindset. When Covid-19 like pandemic hit us in the past there were stories of how people inhaled the crisis and emerged out of it rather heroically.
To begin with, there was Bengaluru based 10 by 10 who pivoted their way from being Covid hit to helping others get Covid fit. The cases were rising by thousands of numbers every day and it was getting difficult to isolate so many people. Even the cost was quite high and more than affordable. 10by10 brought up a smart solution – that was an instant isolation room at just Rs 15000/-. It was a
Do-It-Yourself model, with a size of 8’x7’x10’ acting as a safe space to help curb further infection.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Enthusiast, Strategist, Keen Planner and Strong Charisma, these are some of the motivations with which I associate myself. I describe my self as an eProfessional, who evangelizes digital media as Entrepreneur, Mentor, Management Consultant, Speaker and Writer and Domain Knowledge Expert. In my phenomenal more than two decades of long career, I have played varied roles and been an eSpecialist in the sphere of Digital and Online Communication as well as in eBusinesses in different organizations in India and abroad
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