Let’s get real for new normal after COVID-19

New Normal as the new term the world is using for post COVID-19 world. Do not get it wrong, it is not business as usual like before COVID-19. The world is undergoing dramatically change, it challenge most of the sectors and attempt to recover from this world depression (indeed, it not like most of people thought, it is recession) that cause the whole war for a pause for almost all activity, due to exercise of lockdowns, attempt to isolate or contain COVID-19 virus further spread and cause the further damage.

The world is almost a complete stop for those exercise lockdowns, it no longer brings in and allows people to travel abroad, first hit is the airlines, followed by hotel, retail, restaurant, travel. As a result, manufacturers who are taking the order and producing goods for those sectors, also affected by slowdown or competition, have no future order in place. Under this kind of related influence and the recovery depends on how the rest of the country is performing to contain or eliminate the COVID-19, and force the world to change the new way for social interaction, where distance education and remote web based communication is becoming the new norm.

Regardless how the respective country government intervention, but the world is actually run by private sector provide all kind of the services, this is why we keep seeming not just small business, but large corporation is facing difficulty due to high fixed cost of their operation, required high turnover to sustain or will impact on their cash flow as well as their original economies of scale operation become their factor kill them. This is why we keep seeing that the private sector’s lot of well run business is also falling, or make the downsizing attempt to scale down the operation. They all know the world will not be back to normal like the time before COVID-19, it is new normal. It matters to either adapt to it, or be part of history and get extinction, out of the business.

New business forming in the time just before COIVD-19 for sure they will get the big hit, in particular for the physical service intensive type. This is why we are not surprised to see them willing to close it down, because under the new normal, the previous business forecast is just not as it is. Financial and banking industry is well known sector operate based on raining principal, in good economies they are encouraged for the market to get more business loans, but in the bad times, they are the first to control all the potential turn to bad loan cases.

Under the new normal, we can see a lot of countries will suddenly change form the previous in take of foreign much lower cost workers, so they can make sure for more locals being access to most of the work opportunities. The reason is clear, under the new normal, most of the companies will choose survival first strategy, scale down operation, so they choose to operate with the less people intensive manner. Under such a scenario and context, we have less jobs available and the workforce is under competition, since suddenly the market is available for the more pool of potential candidates with the better qualification who are looking for being hired.

The purpose for writing this post is not about what you can observe. Above opening is just to bring in the new normal as the new business reality. As you can see from the food and beverage need to operate under the new normal, social distance practice, and they have less tables allowed to be served, and people are not all recovered and psychologically avoid to be dining out if possible. All planned spending most likely will be on hold, because it is better to preserve the cash flow for just in case you need it for an emergency occasion, like to cover unemployment for those who are under employed for living.

Digital transformation (DT) is not just being able to do business digitally, or change from traditional work like digitalization business process  into digital. It is all about applying digitalization into doing business in the new innovative way that unlocked the business value in the past they can not be doing. E-wallet or have mobile pay, buying online all is the new new norm. Businesses need to be flexible and willing to adapt to the new way of doing business. For those who are willing to adapt to the change and be the one who are changing at the fast speed, that is the unique character we see from the business that will be fit under the new normal for post COVID-19, if it indeed draws to the end eventually.

A great company is one that from the top, leaders have fully understood what the future now far earlier than the rest and work on change and invest for it to achieve first mover advantage. Are you fully equipped with the digital transformation (DT) strategic competency? One of the ways is to tap along for those who are, being part of the team you can leverage them for your business strategic change initiatives. E-SPIN has been tapped along for the digital transformation (DT) since 2005, and strategically serves enterprise and government clients across regionally where we did business, from global fortune 500 to local public listed corporation. Feel free to contact E-SPIN for your digital transformation initiative, we see how we can assist your journey along the way.