Page 134 - COVID-19: The Great Reset

2.1. Micro trends

We are still in the early days of the post-pandemic era, but
powerful new or accelerating trends are already at work. For some
industries, these will prove a boon, for others a major challenge.
However, across all sectors, it will be up to each company to

make the most of these new trends by adapting with celerity and
decisiveness. The businesses that prove the most agile and
flexible will be those that emerge stronger.

2.1.1. Acceleration of digitization

In the pre-pandemic era, the buzz of “digital transformation”
was the mantra of most boards and executive committees. Digital
was “key”, it had to be “resolutely” implemented and was seen as
a “precondition to success”! Since then, in the space of just a few

months, the mantra has become a must – even, in the case of
some companies, a question of life or death. This is explicable
and understandable. During confinement, we depended entirely

on the Net for most things: from work and education to
socialization. It is the online services that allowed us to keep a
semblance of normalcy, and it is only natural that “online” should
be the largest beneficiary of the pandemic, giving a tremendous
boost to technologies and processes that enable us to do things

remotely: universal broadband internet, mobile and remote
payments, and workable e-government services, among others.
As a direct consequence, businesses that were already operating

online are bound to benefit from a lasting competitive advantage.
As more and diverse things and services are brought to us via our
mobiles and computers, companies in sectors as disparate as e-
commerce, contactless operations, digital content, robots and
drone deliveries (to name just a few) will thrive. It is not by

accident that firms like Alibaba, Amazon, Netflix or Zoom emerged
as “winners” from the lockdowns.

By and large, the consumer sector moved first and fastest.
From the necessary contactless experience imposed upon many

food and retail companies during the lockdowns to the virtual

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