There is an awareness creeping in amongst citizens that “business” as we knew it before COVID-19 was not only environmentally, but economically and morally unsustainable. As populations globally face their demons under lockdown and question their behavioural and purchasing choices many are realising that not only will things be different, but that they want it to be different post-COVID.
This is a critical pivot point for business, and business leaders face a golden opportunity to use this crisis as a disruption signalling a seismic shift in how things are done. This is an opportunity to pivot and rapidly retool our businesses, using digital tools and delivery models in the supply chain, to enhance efficiencies to innovate with purpose for a competitive and resilient future.
“Companies are experiencing supply chain disruptions of huge magnitude globally, and some are only beginning to understand whether current structures work in this crisis. At the same time, procurement professionals are recognising and appreciating how interconnected and dependent we are on suppliers lower down the tiers,” says Ben Ngobi, Global Procurement Sustainability Lead for Accenture. “We are living in unprecedented times and what’s happened over the last few weeks has transformed our normal.”
“It’s clear there is a step-change afoot that could level the playing field as the world shifts to the digital marketplace,” said Catherine Wijnberg, CEO of Fetola, “and we have an important role as business leaders to ensure that we develop new models in a responsible and socially conscious way.”
Litha Kutta, Director of ESD at Tiger Brands reminds us this is a shared opportunity and the key to South Africa’s next stage of growth in government, who must now fast track availability of low cost, high-speed data access as an economic priority and bridge the digital divide.
These ten guidelines should be noted for businesses taking the plunge into the digital domain:
Right now customers have more risks than before, they have new problems, you need to rethink how you position solutions and value to them. Do not forget customer engagement, get the right message delivered in the right way that works for your customer.
Think systemically and in an integrated manner, jump from lean to agile, from linear to systemic, and take comfort with dealing with experimentation taking into consideration the ecosystem and optimise the whole.
Focus beyond contracted suppliers, understand dependencies, where they source, what their value chain is, and who is essential to the flow of products and services.
Use data integration to connect value streams, in understanding the value chain and its connectedness, as well as in focusing on customer centricity and information flow to execute processes.
Move from analogue to digital to enable digitisation, digital offerings, digital market access, and access to opportunities despite geographical fragmentation. Do not just focus just on external digital inclusion, look at measures to be taken within your organisation, workforce, and management team to enable access to information to execute efficiently.
Think about models on how to give customers access to data at your cost: to unlock value and to ease inclusion in marginalised communities, for small or remote suppliers and future consumers. Remember, if you want to enable your market and suppliers, you need to make sure they can get to you.
Ensure your digital footprint is targeted, aligns with your vision, and enables your delivery model.
Investigate ICT as an enabler and architectures like Blockchain to integrate and increase efficiency, establish trust, bring trackability/traceability, break silos and enable greater integration.
Bring businesses into platforms for communal problem solving and shared value creation, investigate supply chain interconnections, find gaps, think partnerships, not customer/ supplier relationships, partner with complementary product and service providers to compete globally, engage and learn from other industries/ sectors that could offer tried and tested solutions, move from linear supply chain models to that of a network, leveraging the collective value offering of the group.
Learn from the informal economy that is truly African, has a low barrier to entry, and is alive with agility, digital ingenuity, and frugal innovation.
“It may be unsettling to hurtle headfirst into the new future, but let’s remember to stay the course, not lose our business vision, and to do it in a way that we take our stakeholders, suppliers, and communities with us. There are tangible solutions in this sea of challenge and a willingness to act quickly that will bring us out stronger in the long run. Collaboration is key, though, and together we can embrace digital transformation for a better, more resilient future for us all,” concluded Wijnberg.
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