Benchmarking resilience and why COVID-19 holds opportunities for digitalization and globalization

Part two of my lessons learned during a global pandemic

In the first part of my “lessons learned during a global pandemic” I shared my people-first approach and how managing a global freight forwarder remotely worked out for me. Today I will continue with my list and explain why uncertainty drives flexibility and agility. To find out which role digitalization and globalization has played – from my perspective - click here to read the second part of my lessons learned during COVID-19.

5.     Uncertainty drives flexibility and agility

As already outlined briefly, uncertainty is somehow part of our job in the logistics. However, I was deeply impressed by how agile and flexible my colleagues have been in adapting to the new situation. There are various examples where they have taken responsibility and shown a real can-do attitude. Be it either by finding transport solutions for temperature-controlled medicine where air freight capacity factually did not exist, or the colleagues from our Trade Fairs & Events business who ramped up the portfolio on virtual events solutions in no time. New transport solutions and connections have been set up and the roll out of our new Transport Management System went on without anyone being able to travel. We’ve even launched our new digital customer platform myDHLi globally, while having the project team spread across Europe – maintaining social distancing. We have seen passenger air planes being transformed into cargo planes and newly deployed trains on the New Silk Road. 

6.     COVID-19 is a catalyst for digitalization

I don’t want to beat around the bush: the logistics industry is still rather paper-heavy and analog. Despite our commitment to digitizing the industry, we know there’s still a long way to go. As many parties are involved in getting goods moved around the world, digitalization definitely has the potential to ease not only the life of shippers but make processes even faster and leaner. Our recently launched customer platform myDHLi is the perfect example for this.

Thanks to myDHLi, we are significantly increasing the transparency for our customers and enabling collaboration across all involved parties. With this fully integrated online-platform we have laid the foundation for our customers to manage their logistics – anytime and anywhere. Although, we have been working on myDHLi already long before COVID-19 spread around the globe, we are experiencing an increasing demand for digital solutions from our customers and partners. Across various steps in the value chain the pandemic has forced us to minimize face-to-face interaction. Obviously without any intention COVID-19 has been a catalyst for cultural change. On the one hand we have been experiencing the limiting factors of the analog world and on the other hand even the harshest sceptics had to admit the benefits that have come along with digitalization. For example, the use of video conferencing or tracing apps have helped to limit the spread of the virus. Simply the fact that we have been forced, be it in private life or in business life, to re-think and increase the use of digital tools, will change the way we use digital in both our private and professional lives. 

7.     Crisis situation help to benchmark your resilience

What does a resilient organization look like? There is definitely no magic formula. But here are some proof points that I have come to recognise, which can give you an indication about the resilience of your organization – beyond the usual KPIs. Crisis situations such as the global pandemic we are currently facing definitely provide us with such proof points. This is not an easy task, as managing the situation is already keeping the organization busy enough. However, it’s an opportunity worth the effort, because no situation reveals pain points in a business better than in a crisis. How fast are you adapting to new circumstances? How informed and connected do your people feel? How reliable and strong are your relationships to partners and providers? By not only benchmarking the organization against economic factors, you will gain a good sense of your resilience. I’m currently learning more about our business than in calm times. By comparing it to steering a ship, if you have sailed through rough seas you will really get to know your ship. 

8.     Our strategy has proven right

In October 2019 we announced our new group strategy “Strategy 2025: Delivering excellence in a digital world”. This is our answer to key future trends globalization, digitalization, sustainability, and e-commerce.

Apart from investing two billion Euro in digitalization, we have committed to harnessing the sustained potential for profitable long-term growth contained in our core logistics businesses. On an operational level for our division DHL Global Forwarding the group strategy is reflected in our “Simplify strategy”. The profitable core of our business is international transportation via Air Freight, Ocean Freight and Road Freight, including customs clearance and related value-added services such as warehousing and cargo insurance. While focusing on our core business, we want to take out the complexity from logistics – both internally and externally. Digitalization is one important cornerstone to achieving this, with myDHLi being the expression what digitalization means to us. And the last months have proven us right, even though we have observed massive disruptions across nearly all transport modes and trade lanes, we have been able to not only to manage the flow of goods for our customers, but also ship much needed medical equipment, PPE and medicine across the globe. Even though transport volumes in Air Freight and Ocean Freight have taken a hit due to COVID-19, our volumes have developed better than the market. This proves to me that our strategy is right, and our customers recognize what we stand for: “delivering excellence in a digital world”. 

9.     There is no new normal

The full impact of the pandemic cannot be predicted yet. We are slightly getting an idea on how COVID-19 is affecting the world, changing lives, societies and economies. But we are still far away from understanding it to the full extent, and maybe we never will. But already in the first weeks of the pandemic we have been observing media experts and politicians talking about a “new normal”. But there is no new normal. Declaring that we have entered a new normal is only the expression of our need for normality and stability. Instead, some of our lives will change for the better, some for the worse.

This is truly disruptive, and I can perfectly understand people feeling anxious. It’s an exceptional situation affecting not only our professional but also our private lives – in the worst case even threatening our lives. In this context talking about a “new normal” does not look right for me. As already outlined in my second point (expect the unexpected), instead of getting lost in discussing the new normal, we should face the new situations and tackle the challenges.

10.     We need more – not less globalization

Talking about facing new situations and tackling challenges brings me to my last point. It’s easy to write such a sentence without answering the how. The only thing I definitely know is that we need in this exceptional situation more and not less is globalization. Critics about globalization have become even louder since the COVID-19 outbreak. A globalized world stands not only for trade, but also for the flow of information and people. We are learning to share information, and this is resulting in growing prosperity, not only economically but also socially and socio-culturally. Without a globalized world we wouldn’t be even able to fight this pandemic. Just think about the amounts of PPE and medical equipment needed across the globe or European countries joining forces to fund the development of a vaccine. Thanks to our highly connected world we will overcome this global pandemic. And I have the hope that the level of globalization will even increase after COVID-19, which will put us in a stronger position to face existing and future challenges.