Ep.1 Digital Acceleration: a Booster Shot

Back in July 2020, when I decided to become a COVID-19 vaccine volunteer, I thought that by 2022 the Pandemic would be over.

Last December, I sent thousands of personalized greeting cards to friends, coworkers, and customers, and I asked a few of their opinions on economic recovery. To my surprise, the responses I received varied significantly, depending on the geography and the industry segment, so I decided to publish a survey on LinkedIn asking people to share their opinion about their expectations on the topic.

LinkedIn let me know that more than a thousand professionals saw the survey, and the outcome, after two weeks being published, was that 65% of the people who responded to the survey consider the economic recovery hasn't started yet, and 46% have doubts it will begin to this year.

I took all that feedback very seriously, and I asked myself how that may be the case if today we are more prepared to deal with people infected or reduce the number of people infected via vaccines.

Sadly, I learned that good news has a short-time impact on people, but bad news has a long-time effect on them. In general, people are more compelled to do something to avoid harming themselves than follow the information or advice to reach a better outcome.

So, I ask myself, what can I do to reverse this effect?

I think the time is right for professionals of credibility to share the good news about the challenge ahead and the possibilities to achieve these goals.

It is like offering an "emotional" booster, knowing that if many business leaders share the good news in parallel, it will trigger a Tsunami effect of business recovery.

So, I have decided to become part of the solution and not part of the problem, and this is my first emotional/motivational/confidence booster for the readers.

In 2020, many consulting firms utilized the tag "The New Normal" to describe the challenge of businesses supporting customers living remotely with employees working virtually.

I also saw people giving emotional connotations to this tag to highlight business disruption, loss, and despair, but the label was not intended originally for that purpose.

Moreover, in 2021, a new business tag was introduced, "The next normal," to document the possibility of recovering the business activity before the Pandemic, benefiting from what we learned in the previous stage: supporting customers remotely with virtual organizations.

So my question to you (no free lunch, here comes the homework) is to answer these two questions:

• Have your customers' expectations changed regarding how they want to do business with you?
•  Do you have a competitor willing to change its business models to match the new customer expectations?

If your answer to both questions is YES, your moment to act is NOW, and I will do my best to give you some ideas about what is happening in multiple industry segments.

If any of your answers to these questions is No, you may decide to become a leader in your industry segment by acting now.

So, what is the challenge ahead? Why do I need to change?

In general, the new customer expectations may be fulfilled and exceeded with business innovation and technology adoption to support the new business models.

I know you think I want to call that Digital Transformation, and everybody has an excellent definition of what Digital Transformation is about. Probably you are an expert on the topic.

And believe me, the name is not relevant but the timing.

This newsletter aims to create a place for reflection and collaboration among business leaders and peers.

In the next chapter, I will talk about the typical challenge an industry segment has, and some use cases of business transformation and technology adoption to meet and exceed customer expectations. 

My goal is to talk about as many vertical business segments as I have previous experience, with no preference for the industry segments. If you are interested in one particular industry segment, feel free to put your comments in this forum or direct message on LinkedIn.

I hope you find it relevant and valuable.

Cheers,