VIEWPOINT
PREPARING FOR A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD AHMED AUDA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, METNA, VMWARE ON HOW TO PLAN FOR RE-ENTRY INTO A CHANGED WORLD
T
hroughout history, great disruption has accelerated change. Look at what the pandemic has done for those of us fortunate to be able to work remotely – we have been able to carry on. What has changed is that those businesses that were once nervous about enabling remote workforces have been forced to shift the majority of their employees to a completely decentralised way of working. It’s been a dramatic change – in 2018, EU data showed that 15% of employees worked from home – either regularly or on the odd occasion. Now, those numbers have turned on its head. It’s been one of the most rapid changes to working practices in history. But as
10
CXO INSIGHT ME
JUNE 2020
businesses start to look further ahead, they will be faced with a new horizon. Firstly, whatever happens after lockdowns are lifted, the switch back to ‘normal’ will not be a complete reset; and secondly, whether they want to stay fully remote, move as many people back to the office as possible, or have some sort of hybrid, they’re going to have to formalise the changes they’ve made to facilitate their re-entry into a permanently changed world. What’s certain is that the new equilibrium will not be in the same place as it was before – while employees may have found new benefits of remote working, there will be those still longing for the office. With this in mind, what are the big-ticket items to enable this strategic change to happen successfully?
A shift in culture In many ways, COVID-19 has forced the business case for digital transformation decisions that many organisations have been tentatively edging towards. From contactless and mobile payments, to the aforementioned remote working, the rapid development of sector-specific apps to the uptake in collaboration tools, the pandemic has mandated that businesses of all sizes are reliant on digital in today’s world – and possibly exposed or been a forcing function for those who have been late to adopt. This is one of the primary reasons why there will be a new ‘normal’ after coronavirus. In a staged climb down of restrictions, why would consumers rush to go back to paying with cash? Why would workers readily accept the previous restrictions on home working? Not all industries are the same or have the luxury of working from home, but for those that can, the fact that a significant proportion of businesses have continued to operate successfully with remote workforces means that the old reasons and excuses for not permitting out of office working are going to have much less credence than before. Of course, even though many have continued operating, that doesn’t mean they’ve had the chance to prepare, plan and execute cleanly. Indeed, in the early weeks, the mantra was: it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to work. Now, as we enter a period where lockdowns look likely to be lifted on a staggered basis, those businesses have the opportunity to think more strategically about their transition to a post lockdown world, and beyond. This is an opportunity to recalibrate how organisations work: for example, the speed of decision making. Decisions that would have taken months, even years of debate before, have been made and executed on in days and weeks. This is not to suggest that
