DIGITAL SERVICES POST PANDEMIC: AGILITY STILL COUNTS FOR GROWING COMPANIES

Building on the article series inspired from that published in Australia’s Nobel Laureates Volume III, we highlighted the amazing speed of technology adoption through the pandemic and then considered the sectors that we work with at IPG including Growing Companies.

The phenomenon put forward previously and well unpacked by Scott Galloway (Author of Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity (2020)), Professor, NYU Stern School of Business, is also very true of Growing Companies. The pandemic accelerated pre-existing trends, underway prior to the pandemic.

This is clear in the acceleration of online shopping, work-from-home or hybrid working, remote delivery of services, and home delivery of products, and the resulting increase in valuation in some firms, especially the biggest tech firms. Some that have now since reversed or returned to mean as things return to normal.

One thing that is clear across all sectors we work with is that the organisations that have proven their ability to adapt and adopt these solutions are those with culture, capability and technology that is able to support shifts in business strategy. This adaptability, includes the technology platforms, the capability to leverage and adapt those technology platforms with sound architecture, and the culture to drive and accommodate change.

Growing companies were presented with a rich combination of risks and opportunities over recent years, with some hit with massive demand, some devasting reductions in activity, some finding success through pivoting and some facing any combination of all three. Leaders in these organisations have likely navigated the most challenging period of their business careers with digital technology playing an ever more important role in that period.

Growing companies had any combination of the following three strategies they had to employ through the pandemic:

• Batten down the hatches. Demand dried up or restrictions prevented trading, making it impossible or close to impossible, to earn any revenue. Cost savings were paramount to survival.

• Run as fast as you can. Demand accelerated significantly, and there was opportunity, if you could deliver and deliver profitably.

• Pivot quickly for opportunity. Demand for your current service or product lines dried up, but your capabilities could support the delivery of alternatives that were in demand. So you could win, if you could pivot your focus.

Some companies had to encounter each of these, perhaps at the same time (across different parts of their organisation) or at different times, over the 2+ years of the pandemic.

As we emerged out of the pandemic, some pandemic inspired impacts have continued. Supply chain challenges were one of those, with access to some products, services or people becoming very

By Mark Nicholls

difficult. Then when you could get them, prices had escalated significantly. These price escalations have now become systemic, with inflation being dealt with as best as Governments can across the globe.

So, we have had or currently have demand side volatility, supply side volatility, sometimes in different directions and all at the same time. I don’t know if there has ever been a time when there is a greater need for agility and adaptability than now.

With more and more of business necessarily relying on digital technology, the technology you have either aids that agility and adaptability or it just becomes another constraint to being able to respond.

The technology alone is not enough. After all, it doesn’t change on its own. It gives you the capability to change and volve or the constraints to stop you. The culture and capability goes along with the technology to support that growth.

Zoomo was one example through the pandemic, that relied on adapting their technology capabilities to support the multiple needs of an expanding market as they grew their e-bike business internationally, with partners (Doordash, Uber Eats), catering for business partner needs and new delivery driver needs as the boom in home food delivery took off.

There are many other examples.

This adaptability includes the technology platforms, the capability to leverage and adapt those technology platforms with sound architecture, and the culture to drive and accommodate change.

These attributes could be established through the pandemic but are more likely to have been there prior to the pandemic, or not. This set some organisations up for success while some had more challenges.

Some differentiators include the following.

Application Platforms

Those with ageing legacy systems found that they could not be easily changed to accommodate new needs, and in some cases, they couldn’t be sufficiently protected from cybersecurity threats. There was a need to remediate what they already had, moving sideways, before they could move forward.

Those with more contemporary applications, particularly those that were cloud based, were highly configurable, and required less custom software development, were able to respond more quickly to emergent needs.

Cloud Platforms

Cloud is a generally accepted way of running your technology now. But that doesn’t mean that everyone is going in this direction, or have moved their current on-premise systems into the cloud. Those that have, have gained these benefits, that were pivotal through the pandemic and since:

• Scalability – the ability to scale up demand or down without needing capital investment and supply chain delays. This could be increases or decreases in users, in customers, in traffic, transactions, volume, storage, or most other business metrics.

• Pervasiveness – cloud based solutions are available pretty well wherever you need them providing global accessibility. You may be able to set up your own on-premise systems this way too, but in doing so, can expose you to cybersecurity risks that your own systems may not be able to manage.

• Expandability – most cloud based solutions will have capabilities that extend beyond what you are using. So you can expand their use, and take advantage of capabilities that are resident. And these capabilities are already integrated and available alongside the features you are already using. And in many cases, this can be at no or negligible incremental costs.

• Adaptability – the above features mean that you can adapt more quickly to new needs as you can scale, provide access, and add new capabilities more quickly than before. However, this doesn’t mean it is cheaper. In some cases, it may be higher cost. And transition timing can be material, depending on current asset values and asset lifecycle stage. Each organisation needs to make their own mind up on this. But when it comes to capability enhancement, you will be much better off.

CULTURE, CAPABILITY AND SKILLS

Those with limited digital skills did not have the knowhow to know what was holding them back and what solutions could be available to better support their organisations, customers, and staff. Those that do have this know how, do have the ability to support their organisations, customers and staff. It is that simple.

Business Models

With the culture and capability to adopt new ways of working, and the digital technology that can respond to and support these new ways, that opens the opportunity for new business models, new services and products and new ways of creating and extracting value. Zoomo demonstrated that.

Summary

Where to now for Growing Companies. If you haven't remediated core systems, then now is the time. There are ample options available, the cloud based models will create improved adaptability, will support remote working for your staff, and may reduce the need for larger scale future investments.

If you have done this already or have that in hand, what next? That comes down to your industry sector, client profiles, business model and strategy. And incorporating digital innovation, customer experience, data and analytics, and automation should all be candidates in that strategy.

We would welcome your views and input on all aspects of this article, so please get in touch to share your views.