Covid-19 and the digital imperative
In a recent interview, John Chambers, former Cisco CEO and now Venture Capitalist, said the pandemic will force many “companies to use this moment to make the transition to digital.
Things will get worse before they get better— that is the realistic optimist in me speaking,” said Chambers, who has predicted up to 40% of the Fortune 500 and 70% of startups will no longer be around in a decade if they don’t make the digital transition.
The disruptions brought about by the pandemic can be expected to accelerate the shift to digital that has already been underway.
It is not just that organizations the world over have radically altered their work environments to accommodate work from home and technologies such as video conferencing and remote networking on a massive scale.
It is also that the consequences of the pandemic are likely creating digital disruption opportunities and imperatives across the economy, in industries as diverse as food and beverage, hospitality, real estate, travel, and government.
In a book Designed for Digital, authors Jeanne Ross, Cynthia Beath, and Martin Mocker describe the digital imperative for large companies in this way “You need to start developing digital offerings today, not because they will elevate next quarter’s financial results (that’s unlikely), but because if you don’t start learning how digital technologies can fundamentally change the value of your current products and services, someone else will.”
And renowned analyst and Venture Capitalist Mary Meeker’s recent coronavirus trends report she describes how the pandemic has dramatically impacted digital adoption in education (rapid growth in digital classes), entertainment (rapid growth in digital entertainment) grocery (shift from shopping in stores to ordering with delivery), Healthcare (rise in Telehealth as in-person medical appointments decline) and dining (growth in services like Doordash as eating out declines).
She sums up the impact in this way—“Net, Covid-19 has been a forcing function for a rapid re-think about the nature of work and the training/education necessary to remain agile and relevant in the workforce.”
