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Finding Opportunity in Challenging Times The Covid-19 pandemic has created the greatest economic crisis the world has faced since the Second World War, says the World Bank in its June 2020 Global Economic Prospects. Even in this bleak scenario, tech industries have fared quite well. Sheila Singam highlights the various tech industries that are likely to thrive during and after the pandemic.
he Covid-19 pandemic has changed our way of life and of doing business forever. No one was prepared for this non-linear discontinuity in the world economy and there was a wide discrepancy in the way organisations reacted world-wide. These organisations can be loosely divided into three categories. In the first were those corporations that had a digital strategy in place and they immediately fast-tracked their plans for the future. They were the ones that were almost, but not quite, ready for this new, unexpected episode in our history. The second category were the companies that were totally unprepared, but agile enough to mobilise their digital teams, which though unprepared, managed to muddle through their uncertainty to achieve some semblance of business sustainability. The third type
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Malaysia Retailer Vol 8 No 3
of organization just froze and waited, caught unaware, and hoped it would go away quickly. It didn’t. Eight months down the line, we have not returned to normal and it looks like we never will. The pandemic accelerated trends that were already shaping before it hit. Changes that were expected over the next five years occurred within weeks. This has forced all organisations to rapidly adapt or fall by the wayside. Aside from having to figure out how to operate in a world cowed into submission by this pandemic, one of the most challenging tasks for most businesses is learning to respond to new consumer trends that have arisen during the global lockdown. Many are struggling, and some have caved in to the challenges and closed shop, but there are companies in many sectors that have found opportunity in the midst of the pandemic by reacting
quickly to market demands. One of these sectors is the tech industry, which has seen a surge in demand as businesses turn to digital solutions for business continuity. A recent report by Accenture states that the consumer habits formed during the global lockdown caused by Covid 19 will “endure beyond the crisis, permanently changing what we value; as well as how and where we shop and work.� There is no doubt that working, living, eating, leisure and buying patterns have changed dramatically worldwide and are likely to be here to stay. These trends offer new business opportunities for the tech industry to pivot and create new income streams in various sectors as outlined below.
BLENDED LEARNING A hybrid of in-person lessons and distance learning via virtual platforms
