This too shall pass. We will get through the crisis we face with COVID-19, but what will be the consequences? We have been speaking to numerous business leaders over the past two months and the consensus is that the world will not be the same once the crisis subsides (is it ever?). The current situation will give rise to a new group of businesses – a group of Hopeful Monsters.
Those who recognize that term will immediately see the connection. In the 1940’s, a geneticist named Richard Goldschmidt published The Material Basis of Evolution where he took to the idea that evolution could happen very rapidly under situations of profound stress. Sound familiar?
I am not an evolutionary biologist, but this idea translates well to the business realm. We know that despite the best efforts of everyone involved, many businesses will fail during this crisis. Many of the businesses that survive will have to change their operating plans, market strategies and approach to managing their workforce. These changes will force a period of rapid evolution in the surviving businesses, thus transforming them into Hopeful Monsters. Leaders of these organizations must quickly come to grips with these changes to gather advantage and thus increase the likelihood of their long-term survival.
In the hot zone of mutation, where digital organizations are morphing into service providers in the material world, we see it happening before our eyes. The pandemic has accelerated the growth of players like InstaCart and Google Classroom in profound ways. In the second wave of this evolutionary period, Hopeful Monsters seeking to carve out their new niche in the ecosystem and increase their likelihood of survival must accelerate digitalization. They must launch new service models that can be executed betwixt the material and virtual worlds.
The IT leaders we have spoken with see the writing on the wall. They are going to have to step up their game in terms of business model innovation support and deliver consumer-facing technology at a new pace as companies of all varieties seek to establish themselves in this “new market order.”
These leaders know they will face budgetary obstacles in the post-COVID-19 period. While it is impossible to understand the economic impact at this time, 2020 will have a lasting effect on most Hopeful Monsters balance sheets. Leaders we spoke with suggest they will focus on business cases with very clear returns on investment and short payback periods. Technology leaders are preparing for accelerated digitalization but are uncertain how this digitalization will be funded.
Another recurring theme in our conversations is a change in the workforce. For most organizations, the remote workforce has been growing at a pretty substantial rate. Some organizations like Yahoo and IBM have pushed back against the tide of remote work, while others have not experienced it as intensely as in the COVID-19 crisis. CIOs I’ve spoken with are asking themselves “How should we proceed? Should we hope we can return to the world of everyone working in the office or should we retool ourselves to be able to deliver to our business with largely or wholly remote work forces?”
Leaders are thinking about what they will face and how they will evolve quickly to ensure their businesses both survive and thrive in the post-COVID-19 era. What is your plan to become a Hopeful Monster?