Digital Strategy In A Post-COVID World

Shruti Kaushik Aug 10, 2020

The COVID 19 pandemic has so far annihilated millions of people, wrecked economies, derailed the whole dynamics of businesses, and has instilled a consistent state of trauma amongst the masses. There is no vaccine, there is no proper treatment, and there is no stop to this, yet. In short, COVID has successfully turned out to be a black swan event. From what it seems is that we are practically living in a live decade-old documentary, trapped within the centre of a Shakespearean tragedy. Unrealistically scary and true.

And in the midst of the COVID crisis management, the pandemic revealed some wide loopholes in the previously claimed revolutionary technological breakthroughs like--

* The failure of a centralised health surveillance system

* All hoopla around Silicon Valley innovations are now blown apart

* Supply chain and logistics have become a joke of this new decade, and

* Underreporting due to centralized controls have risen

What do these defects mean? Technologies developed so far are not relevant to our needs.

But now, nearly every country in the world is now actively working towards strategizing and establishing recovery models. Businesses have moved online and it can be said that we are experiencing the biggest digital disruption ever recorded in two centuries. Every business now is rooting to set a “new normal” or to “reset” their businesses.

So what has changed due to COVID, when it comes to businesses? Everything--Business Strategy, Digital Transformation, Culture and Workspace. Which now needs an entire detox, or to be more clear--reformation. Talking about the most important thing, that needs a complete reset is “digital strategy transformation”. Let’s explain this to you, why and how

Rethinking digital strategy transformation--Going paperless and moving to cloud entirely are no longer adequate strategies. They are now only tactical initiatives. Being digital now simply means how online data (ranging from your client relationships to operations and existing workflows) informs your target audience. And digital transformation will now require a complete renewed vision of every business’s digital destination. The success of this digital transformation will emerge from a well-defined digital strategy.

In short, digital transformation is now a digital journey of any business, steered by a well-thought digital strategy.

What can companies do now, to foster a good digital strategy? Since nearly 80% of the population has now moved online. Customer behaviour has changed. How? People are now only acting on need. During this digital disruption, companies can now map data for collecting crucial strategic information. This will help organizations to stay close to the quickly evolving behaviour and needs of consumers. Mapping information will help your company manage risks and address new issues raised due to COVID. Companies that were previously following old economics of business, will now have to move beyond traditional industry boundaries.

Speaking from my tried and tested example, I used only a social selling strategy for my clients who I help with content and branding. The only extra I did was combine storytelling with their client experiences, and voila, the viewership reached to 3M, and the organic inbound leads skyrocketed to 350+ with at least 150+ requests on brand collaboration.

What changed the response? Customer behaviour has changed dramatically, and that is the main key to your new digital strategy. Companies now have to address changed behaviour, in order to create demand from scratch. It’s not easy but its definitely not that difficult. Concentration on organic selling created while keeping design thinking in view can bring outstanding results, even in the midst of the pandemic.

How can this digital movement help?

New digital offerings (organic social selling) will increase the chances of new partnerships or exploration of new digital marketplaces. In order to best interpret digital strategies that would be in sync with your business, design thinking is required. What is Design Thinking? It involves intuition and systemic reasoning to address complex problems and investigate ideal future states, which is crucial considering the pandemic.

A digital strategy created with a design-centric approach will focus more on the end consumer and also helps in getting a real-time understanding of how suppliers, competitors and channel partners are dealing with the crisis.

Another good example is how a new digital strategy will help the healthcare sector recover in the post COVID world

Digitally disruptive technologies like blockchain and AI will take over the healthcare sector post-COVID. Considering the fact that the entire healthcare sector will have to consider the rebuilding of risk and financial models, AI or Artificial Intelligence will be used to build new operational workflows. Similarly, blockchain technology will take over the administration of health care systems which were previously centralized.

Both AI and Blockchain technology will be used to redefine healthcare programs, study patient records and predict diagnosis, manage data and foretell future outbreaks.

This is a time for new organizational changes to take place, which will further be the basis of any digital journey of any business. Companies will have to evolve out of their business portfolios in order to survive in the most historic economic downturns that ever existed.