Managing in Challenging Times

2020 brought about the largest global disruption ever seen on a modern scale. Giants faltered, supply chains crumbled, and every possible scenario was on the table for discussion. We saw a pandemic without discrimination cripple every country, every culture, every economy on a global scale not seen since WWI and the Spanish Flu of 1918-1920. In these trying times, society has challenged what can be possible through technology.

Industry 4.0 and digital transformation cannot come together soon enough for enterprises, their suppliers, and their customers. The ability to connect the physical world through digital monitoring and influence is the largest driving force keeping the economy running. Virtual presence is now commonplace across the globe with pioneers breaking down physical barriers and building technical bridges in ways never realized before. Businesses must adapt to the challenge of a workforce who must remain socially-distant for physical health yet highly connected for their emotional and spiritual well-being. Consumer demand for services is ever-increasing while operators navigate never seen before talent shortages and competition for resources.

One of the key differentiating factors is how well an organization can attract, engage, leverage, and retain their talent - specifically their technical and product management teams. Defining, delivering, and maintaining value has never been more of competitive advantage. Despite an industry-leveling pandemic wreaking havoc, some companies find themselves thriving in the face of fierce adversity while others who appeared too big to fail are unable to respond effectively. Large enterprises that once controlled the majority of the market found themselves unable to quickly implement changes to their infrastructure, their services, and their products. Smaller, less-entrenched organizations, found themselves able to pivot in an instant. Reducing the network graph to the least number of connections surely is a driving factor. Proper focus on product management and entrepreneurial behaviors is the defining attribute of thriving organizations today.

Supply chain management pre-pandemic was an emerging business area. Logistics technology was far from sexy, with the rise in real-time consumerism only starting to transform the world's leading businesses. Technical universities had only just begun to graduate engineers and product leaders with a focus on digital transformation. Solutions for real-time visibility, supply chain management, and demand aggregation existed in isolation unable to influence one another. The world was just getting ready when it all became a requirement to survive.

So what does it mean to manage products in challenging times? Is it simply being ready for the unexpected? It is a matter of incorporating the x-factor into your launch and continuity plans? Is it the awareness of your weaknesses, strengths, and areas of risk? Is it your ability to make changes quickly at the first sign of failure rather than waiting for the entire network to fail before replanning? Can you even make changes mid-stream from signals embedded in the process path?! I believe we are seeing the true genius of Industry 4.0 coming to life amidst the most difficult and competitive business environment in generations. These questions and more will challenge product teams for the next decade. The answers will define those organizations who will survive.

If you are a business leader you need to be asking yourself the following questions. How well do you know your numbers? Are you listening to the signals? Which signals are noise and which do you need to turn up? Even better, what aren’t you listening to - but need to be?! How can you get your hands on that data? How can you build tools to mine it? How can you learn from it? How can you incorporate those learnings so you can stay competitive? You need to build systems centered around the concept of information, decision making, and modular value stream orchestration.

At Delhivery connecting technologies, data, and decision making is our key differentiator. We are a logistics technology company focused on enabling operations in some of the world's most challenging geographies, business requirements, and consumer demand. Our technology teams are focused on building an operating System for Commerce. Our platform enables solution developers to quickly harness an environment of connectivity, reusability, and scalability. Software publishers can focus on the two factors which really drive their business: building value-added technology and commercializing it.

None of this can rely on a go-it-alone approach. While we are building our own solutions and applications, we are partnering with the world’s leading software publishers to bring their genius to the platform and make it highly interoperable across one SaaS platform for business users who demand it. For the first time, an open ecosystem will emerge to enable businesses of all sizes to leverage the latest technology to solve the most pressing challenges in a timely manner.

We are focused on building tools for toolkit builders, connecting them with users who need them, and deriving increasing value by fostering a highly connected ecosystem of technology, data, and business cases. Are you looking for a similar solution? Do you have unmet challenges? Let’s chat! Drop us a note at [email protected].

Are you a technology professional interested in learning more about opportunities to join our team of Architects, Designers, Engineers, and Product Managers? Please drop us your resume