1 Positive of COVID; it’s push to innovate!

1 Positive of COVID; it’s push to innovate!

You don’t fix something that works… right?

It’s easy to sit on this thought during more peaceful times as innovating becomes a potential risk of losing what you already have. And naturally, as we all have some extent of loss, it means little change is made when things still have the potential to be better. Normally, start-ups keep us on our toes as they have nothing to lose thus are more daring, exploring newer ideas to gain that edge. But what happens when a crisis hits?

It is only then is there a stimulus for the anchor to be raised. When there is a drastic shift in the supply chains, markets, and behaviours. The silver lining of disruption at an unprecedented level is that it floods markets with new problems that urgently need new solutions. More established companies start to realise that they too, may end up having nothing to lose, and start-ups are invigorated with an opportunity innovate. This mass mobilisation of businesses scrambling to adapt means that those who don’t, will be left behind.

“It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able to adapt to and to adjust best to the changing environment in which it finds itself…… Charles Darwin - Origin of Species.”

Companies have started to question traditional methods or why they didn’t do certain changes earlier. For example, it has taken COVID-19 for the stigma behind video calling, instead of meeting of face-to-face, to be lessened despite it being easier to arrange and time-efficient or for businesses to finally make the switch to contactless payments despite the technology being readily available.

Webinar’s are a great example of how when there is a substantial audience that are now willing to use technology, businesses will also use the technology and even improve upon it. Providing better content with a scope wider than any 5-star venue would bring.

With the issue of social distancing, businesses have been forced to improve on the logistics, taking advantage of collaboration technologies like zoom, Microsoft teams. Working from home has allowed businesses to take the leap of faith to trust their employees too! Businesses may even realise that it’s actually been more productive to do so!

Closures of pubs and restaurants have led them to new ventures such as deliveries or creative solutions such as offering gift-cards that will be worth double when they re-open to maintain cashflow.

What I find to be the real positive is how many businesses have repurposed themselves or created technologies to tackle the problem directly. From Dyson creating the Dyson ventilator or BrewDog producing hand sanitizer to meet demand, it helps bring some of the ‘great’ back into Great Britain.

How have you adapted? Where could you continue to innovate? How could you be more productive?

As we start to work in ‘the new normal’ let’s not forget how this crisis made us review our operations and helped us innovate more. Keep this insight and motivation at the forefront of your thoughts and it will keep your organisation moving forward.