Organisations tested by the pandemic will have to retain and improve their ability to pivot in the face of ongoing change and economic challenges.
This is according to speakers participating in a Dell Technologies virtual TechBytes show on business agility this week.
Doug Woolley, Managing Director of Dell Technologies South Africa, said the new business norms and imperatives had proved to be a catalyst for remote work and a true test of business agility.
The technology for remote work has long been available, but it took the crisis to accelerate adoption, he said, with most companies being able to adapt to this change. Woolley said: “The next wave of workforce transformation will probably be what companies are looking at now, where they will keep people working from home. I think we will move to an outcomes-based work scenario in future. This is something we will have to adapt to, and it will challenge how staff are managed. This new environment opens huge scope in terms of skills – now, graduates and talent sitting in smaller centres around the country are available on tap and this paradigm shift will allow businesses to attract talent from anywhere.”
Woolley noted that a host of new businesses had come to the fore during the pandemic. “We see new services like personal shopping emerging. The paradigm shift is happening; and it shows that innovation comes to the fore much faster in a crisis.”
The speakers assessed how adaptive companies have thrived in the face of change, what true business agility should deliver, and how to achieve it.
Sanjay Krishen, who manages IT@Intel for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, outlined how the technology giant had demonstrated its own agility by moving over 100 000 employees and contractors from 147 sites in 56 countries to working from home, in just 48 days.
Krishen said the company had determined that the pillars of successful remote work are: proactively ensuring business continuity; a strong transition change management plan; replicating the collaboration you had in the real world in the virtual world; having standard builds on all devices and having the ability to handle problems like hard crashes, application hangs and crashes on employee devices, no matter where they are; building capacity in networking and data centre; adopting a security first mindset where the entire employee base is out there using their own networks and devices; implementing a strong technical support base across multiple channels; and taking care of employee ergonomics with advice on posture, work seating, lighting and the need for regular stretching.
However, he noted: “Working from home will not work if you don’t trust your workforce or if employees abuse that trust – and this culture has to be created well before a pandemic.”
Veteran journalist Jeremy Maggs said his interviews with scores of leading businesses had revealed a consistent focus on empathy, understanding and authenticity among market leaders. “Those brands that did well during the pandemic were those that embodied empathy, understanding and authenticity,” he said.
Greg McDonald, Director – Systems Engineering at Dell Technologies South Africa, said that beyond the pandemic, a new era of business had arrived and brands would have to become more agile. “Business agility has to be put front and centre,” he said. “We see changes in customer expectations – for example, 83% of consumers now expect to be able to purchase products that are customised quickly. At the same time, employee expectations have changed, with 60% wanting to work outside of traditional office hours and from home.” In addition, most businesses now faced new economic constraints; threat actors and cyber attacks were increasing; and the emergence of new technologies was changing how businesses operate, with AI and data analytics becoming increasingly important for innovation.
McDonald said recent research in partnership with Gartner had found that 87% of CEOs said they would increase their focus on cost management during an economic slowdown, while at the same time, by a ratio of five to three, CEOs are more likely to accelerate their digital initiatives than to slow them down.
Now is the time to drive agility and innovation by overcoming multi-cloud complexity, automating and by using data to drive innovation, he said. “Workforces can be more agile by creating rule-based personas to deliver the right apps, data and devices; deliver faster, more efficient workforce services with automation and self service; and enabling secure collaboration and communication anywhere, any time and on any device.”
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