At Zaelab, our priority is the health and safety of our employees and families. To our clients and business partners, the Zaelab team continues to work remotely and is available to respond to questions and concerns. Whether you are a client in the midst of a digital journey or a business considering digital transformation, we are here. In these precedent-setting times, Zaelab is diligently monitoring industry disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a daily-evolving disruption with an unpredictable trajectory. And it continues to leave a devastating path.
The closure of non-essential businesses in many states, provinces, and countries has been devastating for organizations and their employees. Government support and economic stimulation may lessen the gravity of loss in these sectors, but it will be up to consumers and communities to resurrect these organizations when this pandemic comes to an end.
For other businesses, necessity has become the mother of reinvention. Answering the PPE shortage for frontline medical professionals, product portfolios are being repurposed to accommodate the dire need. Major distillers are using supplies to produce hand sanitizer, with alcohol being a necessary ingredient to meet World Health Organization standards. Auto industry production lines are building ventilators and enterprises around the globe are pledging trillions to combat the pandemic.
Amazon is one such company funding and championing the COVID-19 war. Amazon emerged strongly out of the gates at the start, delivering essentials for businesses unable to meet demand. Soon, however, the term pandemic became synonymous with hoarding and empty shelves. Hopeful Prime consumers turned to Amazon for the speedy delivery of necessities, only to learn that bulk orders of toilet paper would not land on their doorstep within 24-hours. Even Amazon is not immune to pandemic disruption.
The tables have turned for disrupters like Amazon and Uber. Meantime, other digital counterparts comfort a world in isolation. Netflix, Spotify, Google, and social media apps like TikTok entertain, console, and, most importantly, connect remote people and businesses currently operating in survival mode.
As a digital advisory, Zaelab guides corporations through unfamiliar territory. It’s our business to know potential disruptions and prepare accordingly before emergence. In a typical industry disruption, there are three phases a company will experience. Paralysis: the sudden shock to business-as-usual. Reaction: resulting in introspective business evaluation and alignment of the next crucial steps. Transformation: the business model is transformed to keep pace with a changing landscape and mitigate market losses.
Usually, it is a competitive disruption and not a pandemic that ignites digital transformation. Since the COVID-19 virus advanced to pandemic status, we have learned global health-related disruptions can be unforeseeable, timeframes incalculable, and the aftermath uncertain. Zaelab will ensure the learning outcomes from this pandemic are incorporated into client roadmaps now and in the future.
Pandemic wounds are agape and raw. Healing will begin when the COVID-19 pandemic ends – and it will end. Our scars will remind the world of a disruption overcome and history will show global preparedness for the next. Crisis Management Teams are already rewriting business protocols and policies with digital transformation moving to top priority.
The Zaelab team is accelerating companies through this battle and arming them for the future. Now is the time for your businesses to consider digital transformation or revisit your digital transformation roadmap. Together, Zaelab will prepare you for the other side of COVID-19.
