Connecting on all levels

In January 2020, I returned to the KPMG offices after the summer break, and was immediately charged with leading the firm’s bushfire crisis response. Were our people safe? How were our clients affected? How could we help?

Shortly after, my attention turned to the unprecedented disruption caused by COVID-19. Again, the questions were firing thick and fast. What was going to happen? Where is the data? What will businesses need to do to survive?

As a leader, I had to be more responsive and transparent than ever before. In the past, I might have parked a decision for the weekend to think it over. This year, there were no such luxuries, so I focused on sharing my intent so that everyone could understand my thinking, and together we could get to the right answers.

Meanwhile on the home front, my haven turned into a mini-economy, with my wife, two daughters, son and I all working under one roof. We had management consulting, healthcare, retail, a banking call centre, and even job hunting all operating from the kitchen table.

I never used to work from home at all, and suddenly I was communicating all day long on video calls with everyone from our people to clients and stakeholders. Now, life is filled with digital webinars, digital client proposals, and online workshops.

On one level, the pace and complexity has generated a great deal of energy and purpose. On another, it has been exhausting! However, my challenges were small compared to what individuals and organisations across Australia faced. 

Client challenges

When the pandemic struck, businesses experienced a pivot in channel demand overnight. Customers used to walk into stores, but suddenly they were online, calling call centres, and expecting service across multiple digital channels. This quickly led to capacity management issues.

Supply chain predicaments were also rife, with companies having to respond to fluctuating demands and to get products delivered safely and quickly around the world – despite a global health crisis.

Everyone was suddenly working from home, so managing the wellbeing of remote teams became tricky. How do you know if someone is OK if you can't physically see them and connect with them?

Accelerating digitisation

As each challenge emerged, it was clear they were all linking back to the need for digital connectivity. My clients asked questions such as, ‘I’ve lost physical presence with my customers, how do I replace that digitally?’ Or, ‘I need to automate my processes to drive costs out and create efficiency, so how do I do that faster?’

Organisations stepped up to tackle these issues with unbelievable speed and innovation. What would normally have taken months or years occurred almost overnight.

In fact, in our KPMG CEO Survey for 2020, 85 percent of CEOs said progress on digitisation of operations, as well as the creation of next generation operating models, accelerated due to the pandemic. For 78 percent of CEOs, the development of a seamless digital customer experience also sped up.

Mixed success

Of course, some organisations succeeded in implementing new approaches better than others. What is clear is that those that were already digitally enabled had a head start.

For example, with digitally enabled banks, did you have any difficulty getting money out, or were you concerned about getting cash? You probably weren’t really worried, as you could still do your online banking.

Other businesses implemented rapid transformation, but commonly focused on solving issues in an individual department such as finance or marketing, but not across the board. If the front, middle and back office isn’t seamlessly integrated, it can dramatically impact the end customer experience.

Customer connection is the future

Customer expectations were changing at lightning speed before COVID-19, and the pandemic made this happen even faster. Customers only want information that’s personalised to them. They want seamless multichannel communications, choice, control, and to receive products and services immediately.

The key to meeting these demands is being digitally connected at every touch point. To get there, there are eight capabilities that I help my clients to implement:

• data driven insights
• innovative products and services
• customer centricity by design
• seamless interactions
• a responsive supply chain
• an integrated partner ecosystem
• an empowered workforce
• a digitally enabled technology architecture.

If an organisation has these capabilities, we know from our research at KPMG that it will be twice as likely to meet customer expectations, achieve their objectives, and deliver return on investment. It also helps them to grow in a sustainable way.

As we experienced in 2020, we don’t know what is going to come next. Having these eight capabilities in place and being truly connected on all fronts is the best way to prepare. In 2021, I look forward to helping my clients to look at their systems and processes holistically, and to get on the front foot.