Work From Home: 7 business opportunities to put on your watch list

Investors are always looking to identify the next megatrend to invest behind. Asia’s favourite investment theme has evolved from a focus on Asia being the manufacturing hub of the world, the rise of the consumer middle class, healthcare and, increasingly dominant, the conversion to digital business models.

Work From Home (‘WFH’) is touted as the potential new megatrend that is going to disrupt businesses and create significant opportunities for investors who back companies with the right products and services to support this new normal in work practices.

But what exactly are the opportunities emerging from the WFH trend beyond the usual suspects of videoconferencing apps and cloud service providers? We identified 7 opportunity areas that investors should put on their radar screen now.  Click here to read the full paper.

WFH: the new megatrend

The adoption of WFH practice has led to surprising outcomes. Both employers and employees have realised to benefits of WFH are real and are preparing to significantly adjust their working practices. A recent survey by Gartner shows that 74% of companies planned to shift permanently to more “remote work” post-pandemic.  And 90% of Singaporeans surveyed wish to continue working from home after the pandemic.

Around the world, more and more companies are implementing work from home (‘WFH’) policies that signal a dramatic shift in work practices that is likely going to be here to stay well beyond the current the pandemic crisis mode that many business are facing today. Examples of companies that have recently announced WFH policies:

• Many tech giants including Facebook, Twitter, Slack, Square, Coinbase and Shopify have announced WFH policies.
• German conglomerate Siemens is going to allow employees to “work from anywhere” for two or three days a week, and focus on "outcomes" rather than time spent in the office. Siemens is giving its 100,000+ employees access to a new app that provides local data on the COVID-19 situation, shows office occupancy levels and acts as a contact tracing tool. 
• Fujitsu has announced that their 80,000+ employees can be 100% remote. they will "end of the conventional notion of commuting to and from fixed office".  This means reducing its current office footprint by 50% within 2 years.
• Novartis is one of the first companies in Switzerland to plan to work from home even after the corona crisis. The aim of the offer is for everyone to be able to independently choose how, where and when they want to work, whether to achieve the best result.
• French automaker PSA announced a "new era of agility," in which its non-production staff will work remotely from now on. The company has decided to strengthen teleworking and to make it the benchmark for activities not directly related to production. The company plans to redesign its offices to allow for in-person collaboration when needed and at the same time reduce its real estate footprint.
• Hitachi, the Japanese manufacturing giant announced that 70% of its domestic workforce, some 23,000 employees, would continue telecommuting on a permanent basis even after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, with workers to commute to the office no more than two or three days a week.

7 WFH opportunities to put on your watch list

Which such profound changes in how and where office workers do their work, what are the specific opportunities that businesses can take advantage of? We identified 7 opportunity areas that investors and business leaders should put on their watch list now:

1. Collaboration apps and Cloud Services: The most obvious opportunity of the WFH trend are the suppliers of technology and solutions that allow employees to provide workplace collaboration, communications, and other remote working applications. These are critical components of the WFH toolkit and collaboration applications like Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams have seen their growth skyrocketed during the recent lockdowns.
2. Cybersecurity: The ‘attack surface’ has increased dramatically as a result of WFH since there are now millions more computers that are now connecting from remote locations into devices and applications and systems that previously were behind the corporate firewalls. Whilst overall IT budget might be strained as companies are looking to reduce overheads, select areas of the cybersecurity industry will likely see significant growth,  
3. Ergonomic and Smart Home Office solutions: With millions of workers looking forward to prolonged, if not permanent, working from home practices, employers will increasingly invest in providing the infrastructure to ensure the well-being and productivity of their staff. Going, forward as WFH becomes embedded in the new normal, employers will likely develop systematic programs and package deals with suppliers of ergonomic furniture and IT solutions and provide solutions that best fit their staff's specific home environments.
4. Home Efficiency solutions: With WFH The typical support system many people enjoy in the office or working in a city centre environment is taken away. This include a wide range of activities most people are taking for granted, included secretarial support, IT support, access to printing facilities and easy access to daily necessities such as lunch or laundry services. Opportunities are emerging for companies that cater to the need of WFH-workers to increase their efficiency at home. 
5. Workcations: One prominent buzzword that has emerged amid the burgeoning work-from-home movement is “workcations,” the idea of taking trips, such as to tourist destinations, that combine elements of work and leisure. Demand for remote-work services are on the rise as the coronavirus forces companies to move their workforces online, and a growing number of governments and tourism operators are looking to workcation as a means of enticing the growing ranks of telecommuters to visit for a working holiday.
6. Office Hygiene Management Technology: The sixth opportunity is technically not directly driven by the WFH trend, but like WFH, is also a direct result of how COVID-19 and social distancing is changing the way we work. Office Hygiene Management Technology are solutions using real-time analysis to track quantitative elements like air quality and sanitization efforts, and overlaying that information on a map that also shows foot-traffic patterns or occupancy levels can help companies monitor and promote comfort through the clear depiction of a space’s status.
7. Real Estate Repurposing: The last item in our list of opportunities related to the WFH trend relates to a potentially big loser of the trend: commercial real estate. It remains uncertain how new behavioural patterns, social distancing, lower desk densities, and corporate cost reductions after COVID-19 will affect occupational demand and corporate real estate strategy, but these changes could lead to longer-term increased levels of vacancy in global office markets. This provides opportunities for specialist developers who focus on sourcing under-utilized assets in infill locations and converting them into office parks tailored for SMEs or mixed-use commercial developments comprised of offices, co-working spaces and/or “new format” retail spaces.

WFM is likely going to be here for the long run. The pandemic is creating havoc across global economies. Yet, some businesses are able to take advantage of the opportunities arising from this fundamental shift in how millions of people around the world are now conducting their day to day work. Whilst it’s probably too early to predict exactly how the trends will play out, if eventually COVID-19 is brought under control, it is likely that WFH will remain a prominent feature of our working lives going forward. The 7 opportunity areas identified in this article should provide a useful guidance for investors and business leaders who are looking to invest behind the next megatrend.

Michel Brekelmans is Managing Director at SCP/Asia, a consulting firm that supports business executives and investors with business strategy development, performance and organisational improvement and M&A transaction support across the Asia Pacific region. He has 25 years of experience in strategy consulting and has been based in Singapore and China since 2002. www.scpartnersasia.com