Don’t Be Afraid of Change

Keeping up with consumer demand (and expectations) when the pandemic has passed

The impact of the global pandemic will be analyzed and critiqued in history and business books for years to come. While scholars will have the luxury of hindsight to assess the effects of COVID-19, C-Suite executives need to make decisions now that will have both immediate and lasting implications on their businesses and industries.

They need to identify what changes are here to stay – and what are merely short-term results of a crisis.

Accenture has been monitoring consumer sentiment and behavior since the start of the pandemic and we have found that new habits, such as the dramatic rise in e-commerce since the start of the pandemic, are likely to remain or accelerate further. Consumers who have increased usage of digitally enabled services such as contactless payment, in-app ordering and curb-side pickup, and have turned to digital customer service channels such as website or mobile apps, mobile messaging with virtual agents, or online discussions with a chatbot, have told us they expect to sustain this behavior.

As retail and consumer goods companies have raced to boost their online propositions, new challenges are emerging. They recognize the opportunity to grow their businesses through digital, but this also brings with it a higher operating cost structure which can impact margins. It means revising the operating model. It also calls for new innovations.

Innovative companies have already been experimenting with new models; retailer Lululemon, for example, plans to open roughly 70 holiday pop-up shops, expanding its just-in-time marketing approach. Traditional brick-and-mortar businesses have been trying to leverage curb-side pickup as not just social-distancing solutions and cost-saving options for budget-conscious shoppers, but also logistics problem-solvers given shipping delays, which have been most acute in the US. The expectation of continued growth of online shopping is perhaps most obviously demonstrated by Amazon, which has been on a hiring spree, largely for logistics and warehouse workers, since the start of the pandemic; earlier this month Amazon announced it was seeking to hire 100,000 new full- and part-time employees. British retailer Tesco, meanwhile, announced it was creating 16,000 new permanent roles to support the growth of its online business.

C-suite executives who aren’t focused on digitizing services, becoming nimbler and looking for new approaches – are quite frankly – at risk. The pandemic has already taught us that solutions can come from any industry – which means competition can too. Consider how a variety of organizations and industries stepped up to solve the problem of not enough personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic. With supply chains stressed, and depleted inventories, non-medical businesses repurposed everything from automobile plants to bedding factories so that they could manufacture needed healthcare equipment such as PPE.

Accenture collaborated with Avanade and Microsoft to scale up Critical Supply Connect, an innovative, digital supply chain community connecting 57 health systems, with over 638 hospitals, to more than 110 suppliers that offer over 300 unique products. While this was an emergency solution, it demonstrates the art of the possible. Executives should be using this as a guide, designing their logistics plans to be as digital and flexible as possible, which means leveraging ecosystem partners and the cloud.

Indeed, cloud is the most disruptive and value-creating technology of our time. It is the foundation for the digital transformation that is driving profound changes in how businesses operate, compete and create value for all their stakeholders. With most businesses currently at only about 20% in the cloud, there is a clear imperative for organizations to develop plans now to begin rapidly and cost effectively moving 80% or more of their business to the cloud. 

While that may seem like a daunting move it’s a necessary one. But start with the basics. Perhaps the simplest question C-suite executives should ask themselves is: “What do I want as a consumer?” Then take that answer and ask the business team to develop a plan. Don’t limit thinking to how it has been done in the past – but rather question: “How can I do this differently?” 

Competition can come from all corners and consumer demand will be for more services delivered digitally. Now is the time for executives to take a page from Monty Python who famously quipped “and now for something completely different”.

Don’t let disruption surprise you, embrace and shape the change.