How Coronavirus will Enforce Digital Transformation

One minute you are hanging out with your friends and colleagues, the next minute you are required to stay at home because of Social Distancing.   

The last two weeks have been an eye-opener in Nigeria. Agreed, the coronavirus has been making airwaves globally since January even though it was first announced in December 2019. However, there’s something about not fully understanding the impact of specific outcomes until it hits close to home.   

While the impact of this pandemic has been grave, something is inevitable; it would be over, and that brings us to thinking, “what would the world learn from this” and most importantly, “how would this change our lives”? At this point, the overall lesson is still a bit foggy; however, we can start to see signs of how our lives have started changing.   

A few years ago, the buzz word was “digital is the future”; however, due to the coronavirus, we can boldly say, “Digital is Now“.   

Business owners will now be required to ask themselves the hard questions; “how can my run (almost) effectively when my employees cannot be in the same space?” “How can I conduct my business efficiently despite new realities?” 

For most companies, the tools needed are already available; they may however need to be adapted to make them more suitable to the unique needs of each organisation. For some others, the technology required will need to be created/designed, and that’s one of the silver linings of the virus. Disruption will be necessary across board and companies will be forced to adopt new strategies and processes to serve current consumer needs and also adapt to emerging consumer behaviours.   

Harsh Reality: Companies who fail to adapt will only cease to exist.  

However, two key things to note during the transformation period are;  

Start with what your consumers’ need: after all, your consumers are the ones who keep you in business. Pay a bit more attention to what they need at this time and find ways your organisation can start by solving/providing for these needs in the way that only you can.  

Start small but proliferate: there’s no point doing everything at once and fumbling through it all. Identify quick valuable wins, remain consistent and scale from there.