The world is changing in every area of life and it’s nothing we can do to stop it. Out of necessity, lately, CEOs have prioritized the Now – their focus is on supporting their people, customers, and suppliers.
Soon we will turn our attention towards what will come Next – an unpredictable future with great challenges and opportunities.
But how do we prepare for such a mysterious next world that we have never faced before?
Businesses certainly will not return to the pre-COVID practices, but more likely to a new era defined by fast-changing shifts in societal values and behaviors of the customer and of the companies, all mixed with technology.
Here are some tactics for business sustainability post-COVID:
Learn how to flatten the curve
Wolf Ketter, Professor of Information Systems for Sustainability and Director of the Institute of Energy Economics at the University of Cologne believes that AI and machine learning will become a sleepless task force protecting a publicly-critical service.
He hopes that the way hospitals have reacted to the pandemic (flatten the curve of demand and give health systems time and space to deal with the sick patients), will also become a way for utility industries to meet their own demand challenges in the future.
He says that “Each utility provider will need to react quickly to peaks in demand in their unique markets. Such intricate measures will require a machine-to-machine economy to manage interrelated systems and artificial intelligence to help individuals easily respond to immediate market circumstances”.
This means that machine learning will become a great tool for companies in predicting the future of companies in terms of cash flow, processes, client demands, and much more statistics.
Maintain employees happiness by occasionally WFH
In the last few months, we all had to face some changes in our lives making a fast transition towards technology.
Widespread remote working (which many organizations have been experimenting with for several years) has suddenly become imperative.
It seems that the workplace may never look the same again, once the employees experimented with remote work and managed to combine staying at home with their loved ones and also work for a living. So how do you motivate your team by staying at home, you must ask…
The secret comes from Pascale Peters, Professor of Strategic Human Resource Management at Nyenrode Business University – She says that “Effective home-based working calls for the building of trusting relationships characterized by supportive leadership, mutual support, and shared commitment.”
Even if you agree or not to maintain a WFH policy, don’t forget to include ”the human touch” in your company.
Address the shift in behaviors of your clients using ML
UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said that the COVID-19 pandemic has been accelerating the uptake of digital solutions, tools, and services, as the world struggles to carry on with their daily lives and work on-line.
”With governments and businesses imposing travel restrictions and social distancing measures, digital solutions are allowing telework and online education and enabling shopping online,” said Mukhisa Kituyi.
With the shift in behaviors engendered by the pandemic, many more people will be willing and eager to do business online rather than in person, going forward.
This means that your company’s online presence must be a top priority. Businesses are rapidly adjusting to the changing needs of their people, their customers, and suppliers while navigating the financial and operational challenges.
Conclusion
Even before COVID-19, many organizations faced considerable IT challenges. Now, COVID-19 is pushing companies to rapidly operate in new ways and IT is being tested as never before.
In this time of fast decision-making, risks, changes in volume, or workforce productivity, they must act quickly to address immediate systems resilience issues and lay a foundation for the future.
And implementing process automation along with artificial intelligence is a big step in maximizing the profit of a company, especially in this time and the years to come.
