This pandemic has rewritten the future of business and from the looks of things, this sector will never be the same again.
There have been vast changes from the adoption of new technologies to the redefining of business strategies to keep companies operational. If you are still in doubt about these changes, here are four ways of how the world of business looks like now:
1. Virtual meetings
Though bad, the pandemic has served as an equalizer. How has it succeeded in doing this? Before, large companies had an advantage over small companies because they have more staff, particularly salespeople who meet with customers in person. With the health authorities discouraging close contact, both business dimensions (big or small) have been forced to leverage virtual sales meetings to market their products. Virtual meetings have now become the new normal and are bound to here to stay for a while. The advantage of virtual meetings is that they are economical hence they will keep your sales budget at a lower threshold. While sales still require a certain level of expertise, smaller firms can now also afford to make use of virtual platforms to make their marketing pitch to their audience. Given how technology is growing, virtual meetings continue to evolve, sales approaches may just change for good.
2. Working remotely rise
While previously people still worked remotely, at the moment, there is a rise in pandemic-induced remote workers and this number will continue to go up. However, it is going to be in the form of hybrid models where the staff is going to split their time between billing hours in the office and at home. Working remotely will have an impact on urban economies in that as more people work remotely, there is going to be less demand for restaurants, shops, bars, or other services that cater to the needs of commuting workers. Even then employees and companies will save a lot more on personal expenses and office space respectively. There is also going to be a reversal of patterns as more skilled and educated professionals will move to rural settings as opposed to before. Such a shift will be possible because of the availability of clear communication channels among people. At the moment, staff can share large files in zip formats that enable everyone to receive the same file folder. Sharing single files containing multiple documents will enable the compression of large files into small documents.
3. Improved customer management
The pandemic has forced people to reinvest ways of interacting with customers. While other sectors in business such as strategy, differentiation, delegation, communication, training, and execution will remain the same, customer relationship management has been changed forever. Businesses are now more dependent and reliant on their digital presence. At the moment, if you lack presence on any of the available social media accounts, you are losing big bucks. Social media also reinvented itself such that it can link users with your website and blogs. It can also help your site rank high on search engines enabling customers to find you with ease. The usage of social media will continue to go up given that some business has been born from these platforms. You will need an effective customer relationship management plan in case you didn’t have one previously to handle your newly identified customers.
4. Business radicalization
COVID 19 provides a chance for rapid business changes to occur. In 2008 when the world experienced a financial crash, it was predicted to the end of capitalism. Over a decade later, most of the capitalistic financial institutions are still in place. So, while there are elements that cannot be changed in business, after the pandemic, most organizations will need to embrace radicalism in ways that were not inconceivable two decades ago. This means that schools of business have a vital role to play in incorporating the new business strategies learned during this pandemic in their curricula. Apart from teaching strategy, finance, and marketing, business schools will have to incorporate radical measures such as cultural, ethical, and societal issues in their curricula.
Conclusion
Given that the pandemic is still here with us, it will continue to shape the business world in ways that have never been seen before. If you are in business, the ideal thing to do is keep an open lest you will be forced to shut your business operations!
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