COVID-19 Revealing the Future: How Prepared Are We?

Author: Bright Oniovokukor, April 27 2020 - The global effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in lots of innovations with positive and negative consequences. The positive consequence is the new ideas and business opportunities created. The negative impact is that many businesses may not recover from the downturn from this pandemic. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in major global changes even if to some, it seems the world is at a standstill.

For one, there is improved clarity about what is an essential and non-essential service.

This should actually lead to many people thinking about the essentiality of their services, and the implications for continuing in business.

If we flash back, we will remember how we used to patronize photographers' studios but Smart phones robbed these studios of patronage though creating new opportunities for others to explore. This explains how a single policy change, can impact the lives of many.

Policies will change post the covid-19 pandemic.

Forward thinking individuals need to reflect on what they need to change to remain economically viable once the pandemic is over.

COVID-19 resulted in some dramatic cost saving changes.

One of the most obvious is the way conferences were organized and will likely be organized going forward. Though a number of local and international conferences were cancelled and events were called off because of COVID-19, but amazingly many others [were] held virtually.

In addition, the number of seminars, training, meetings, teachings that now goes on online is unprecedented.

This will remove some stress from planning and organizing meetings and conferences.

The large migration to online services has implications for subscription for data services: participants will opt for data networks that can best support their need in terms of speed, availability & cost (business opening).

The Zoom, a Chinese company founded in 2011, allows its users to host a group meeting with a maximum of 100 participants for 40 minutes free. Now with $15 per month, you can host a meeting with more than 400 participants.

During the current covid19 epidemic, the company grew its active users from less than 5 million in January 2020 to 26.9 million in March 2020: an addition of more than 23 million users in two months.

The stay-at-home [order] has two implications:

You either stay-at-home or do nothing since your business is lockdown (not modifiable)

or you Stay-at-home and work from home (modifiable business).

A significant number of people are indoors doing businesses by modifying what they had been doing or acquiring new skills and taking on new businesses.

Those not responding and adapting to the changing times are likely among the majority brawling for a lift in the national directives.

It is critical for all Business Owners to think about alternatives for service delivery. It is also important for Customers to think of viable alternatives for receiving goods and services.

Some questions....Do you need to meet your customers physically for services to be delivered or transactions to be completed?

Do you need to compulsorily hold physical meetings for results?

Must students be present in physical classroom to receive lectures and gain knowledge?

Thinking about the future: there is the need to adapt to changes.

Proactive thinking will enable businesses to take advantage of the new ways of life that will evolve post the COVID-19 pandemic.

Simulating the future

The COVID-19 pandemic is asking us all to think and do things differently.

Lets take a look at some examples of businesses that modified their businesses before the pandemic and how their pro-activeness must have paid off during this pandemic.

a. Banks created alternative means of doing business hence [the] majority of their customers are not complaining but those yet to adopt it have issues.

b. Schools are closed down but many students are learning virtually from home using Google classroom and other platforms tools.

c. In the last couple of years people have gone shopping online with...Jumia, Ali Baba, Konga, Amazon, EBay and the likes, they have also saved on renting office spaces and avoiding paying tax in most countries where they operate.

e. Opay Bikes...users in Lagos [Nigeria] tell you how easy it was to utilize them.

f. There are mobile applications now available to enable you access lots of information, and People order all they need from the market from the comfort [of] their [own] homes.

g. E-health programs are facilitating health access virtually and this is the future direction for ambulatory health care management.

h. The internet and social media has opened up lots of opportunities and so is the evolving world of use of artificial Intelligence: artificial Intelligence is rapidly changing the world of service delivery with a likelihood that more human dependent manual work will reduce.

Reflecting on your business:

• What is currently happening to your business?
• How has the shut-down affected your business?
• How will the extension of the lockdown affect what you do?
• Is it likely that your customers have adopted alternative means of doing business?
• Do you think...your employer will still engage your services when business benefit (profit) analysis is conducted?
• Do you have the basic skills to adapt to these emerging technologies?

You should be pondering on the ease of doing business during this lockdown.

The upcoming expanded access to 5G will make it possible to do a lot more things virtually, more effectively and cheaper.

Learn about the 5G and the opportunities it can afford you. Think pro-actively. Think about your value.

I guess none of us has thrown away our smart phone because we have a friend that does not have one but rather, we have encouraged them to upgrade or continued to be left behind.

So upgrade, be ready for the future and also note that though there would be opening for frauds, it should not limit the opportunities you can explore.

We can think of the following:

• Why is WhatsApp free for now?
• Why is Facebook free for now?
• Why is Instagram free for now?
• Why is YouTube free for now?
• How does Google make their money?
• Why are they all linking themselves?

Considering our getting used to them and almost already addicted to them; if we are now asked to pay for the services, what do you think would happen?

They are actually business platforms that do more than catch fun; think of the business in it to enable you pay the bill when the need arises.

COVID-19 has exposed the numerous gaps in the system we have operated and used to for a very long time. Some businesses have gone bankrupt, people have lost their job just the same way some business have boomed and some person's business became relevant.

Where do you fit in now that the world is still running despite COVID-19 lockdown, think outside the box now, nothing is going to wait for you.

There are so many chances in the future but only the prepared mind would be favoured.

Dr. Oniovokukor is Project Director, Indomitable Youths Organization (IYO), Lagos, Nigeria.

Click here for the original blog on Bricache, the author's blogspot.

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