I was reading an article on Buzzfeed yesterday called "Facts That Will Make Anyone Born Before 1995 Feel Like They're 89 Years Old" and did you know?
This year, kids who start high school in the fall will have been born in the year 2006. YUP, 2006!!!
To them, an iPod might as well be a "gramophone" or a "wireless".
And a phone book is something they can't even wrap their heads around.
But let's not forget from this EY article I have "Passled" that Pizza Hut took their first e-commerce order in 1984. Where as, this year, all orders had to be via e-commerce because of Covid-19.
I was talking to a CEO today and he said "we have seen 15 years of digital transformation in 3 months".
It's Our Duty as Leaders to Understand The Current Market Conditions
It is our duty as leaders to lead our businesses and we have a duty of care for our people. We also have a duty to stay ahead of the way business works today and provide our staff with the "tools" they need.
The New Normal is Digital
So when Stéphanie Genin, vice president of global enterprise marketing at social media management firm Hootsuite said this, I wasn't surprised, are you?
“After weeks of adapting to Zoom parties, video appointments with doctors, online schooling, social distancing and tapping into social media for virtually everything, will people be happy to go back to their old ways of working and engaging with each other?”
she then goes on to ask.
“The answer will be no. Social media has been holding communities together and organisations will need to assess how to manage the new normal.”
But Once This Covid Thing is Over It Will Go Back to The Way it Was?
Sorry, recent Gartner research showed that once this is all over people said ...
84% said they will maintain their"increased use of social media to engage with brands"
78% said they will continue with their"increased preference for digital commerce"
34% said there are now an"increased number of stakeholders in purchase decision making"
Isn't it amazing the evolution that has taken place through the use of digital because of the coronavirus?
So What As a Leader Are You Going to Do?
Now is the time to get your business ready for this "new normal" you must give your team(s) the digital skills they need to work in this new online world.
If I tell you (via an advert, via a cold call or via a email) that my product is the best in the world, what do you do?
You go on-line and validate it.
You will search on Google, you will read articles on social, you will ask questions in chat rooms and on Facebook.
This is the conundrum for businesses today. While all of these things (advertising, cold calling and email) may have worked, now what they do is to push your buyers into the arms of your competition. How?
I bet if you are advertising, cold calling and emailing you are not spending money on getting your sales teams and employees visible on social.
So are you agile enough to move with the changing consumer?
Contact me here
Within just a couple of months, we’ve seen global lockdowns push customers to adopt digital channels at a faster pace than might otherwise have been anticipated. Pizza Hut took the first e-commerce order in 1984. Despite 36 years of explosive digital growth, e-commerce penetration of the grocery market in January 2020 was just 5.8%. In March 2020, this had risen to 7.4% and by April to 10.2% - almost doubling the market size in just a few months. Many companies have been unprepared for this rapid shift,¹ and even those with established digital channels have been challenged to take sales and service delivery entirely online.
https://www.ey.com/en_gl/covid-19/are-you-agile-enough-to-move-with-the-changing-consumer
