COVID-19: The Catalyst for Contemporary Business Reimagination

 by Christian Withy

The United Kingdom’s economic output dwindled by 20.4% in the second quarter of 2020, plummeting the nation into the deepest recession since records began. Airlines are braced to lose US$84 billion in 2020. In mid-March, merely just over a month into the COVID-19 hysteria, over 60% of Australian businesses reported recent downturn. Yet despite this mass contraction, is business really ‘broken?’

 Business fracture is contextual. Newton’s third law maintains that for every action (businesses contracting) there must be an equal and opposite reaction (businesses expanding). The COVID-19 pandemic poses no corporate exception. Chinese medical equipment exports jumped up 11% from January to April 2020. During its record week, the video conferencing application, Zoom, was downloaded over 14 times more than the weekly average in 2019’s fourth quarter in the United States. Amazon stock increased by 63.3% from mid-March to early-July. It is highly improbable that Jeff Bezos considers his business to be ‘broken.’ Evidently, context is key.

Zoom, Amazon and many more of COVID-19’s corporate victors have proven that business is not broken – rather, business requires reimagination. Kevin Sneader and Bob Sternfels argue that businesses must now decide “who they are, how to work, and how to grow.”

More than ever, a firm needs a defined identity, purpose and synchronised culture. This encompasses organisational structure and dynamic decision-making networks. Sneader and Sternfels believe companies that rapidly “institutionalise” decentralised decision-making systems will emerge on top.

So too will firms that immediately embrace digital innovation. Customer expectations have evolved indefinitely. Coherent, immersive e-commerce platforms are essential to maintaining, acquiring and empowering contemporary consumers. Equally, corporate efficiency will be achieved through companies’ fluid integration of artificial intelligence and software diagnosis modelling programs.

The ‘new normal’ has fossilised yesterday’s business operations. Business is not broken. Rather, it is undergoing unprecedented reimagination.