Time to: how COVID 19 changes habits

This COVID-19 crisis indeed changed a lot of things. From lockdown to remote work, high level of stress, new daily organization, people needed to reinvent their way of living and working.

Some of the key learnings and changes focus on what we could name as the “time to”.

TIME TO MARKET FIRST

Going on more digital products, quick & dirty redesigning the offers, moving from 3 years’ perspectives to jumping on market and niche opportunities. Speeding up the go-to-market is key to attract clients and catch new business under uncertain times.

TIME TO DISCUSS AND SELL

Thanks to the remote meeting tools fast expansion, people can easily talk. They do not need to travel nor plan their agenda in advance anymore. Which means this crisis has accelerated the get-in-touch process. E-commerce helps also on that topic, as customers can self-buy products & services, producers providing only online advice and support.

TIME TO DELIVER

Years after years over the last decade, immediacy became progressively the golden rule. I buy, I get it next day. To answer that, big companies built massive global logistics centres linked to end-customers thanks to multiple transportation modes. It did not work anymore during the crisis. And many companies currently move back to regional or local distribution centres. And even E-commerce pure players state that the next day delivery would may not be the golden rule anymore, at least they would propose alternative such as cheaper week delivery, or even standard week delivery on certain ranges of products.

TIME TO LEARN AND REACT

Fast lessons learned mindset, fast decision-making process, this crisis emphasises the need for these key levers for success. MNC are thinking about moving from global centralization to more local empowerment and decisions along with remote mentoring from the headquarters or global expertise centres. This new trend is remarkably interesting for people on the ground and build more agile organization. Il will indeed ease to swim and succeed in turbulences times.

In a nutshell, the COVID 19 crisis led to social distancing and slowing down activities for a while, some businesses came through very bad, for sure, or had even to stop. 

On the opposite, it fostered local connexions, local decision centres growing up, and even more human proximity & empathy among each other.

Exactly the concrete translation in real life of the Chinese word for crisis, Weiji ( 危机) which means risk & opportunity like both sides of the same coin!

Jean CHAILLET, EArise Consulting