Business transformation has been on the agenda of many market-led industries prior to COVID-19. The pandemic has forced most businesses to review the ways in which they operate, and have to ‘innovate, adapt or die’. What now remains is how to win the next phase of business transformation which cannot be done by reassessing previous efforts, and using expert advice to implement an effective growth acceleration strategy.

Here at EROE, our core mandate as a digital and business transformation agency is to help organisations win the sustainable growth and profitability race. Hence in times like these our role in helping organisations to reinvent cannot be overemphasized.

CEO of EROE, Daniel Solomon who is also a delivery advisor hosted our inaugural webinar edition to discuss business acceleration in 2020 through transformation. He was joined by guest speaker Kareem Monem, an industry expert & Digital Visionary.

What has changed?

The year 2020 can be used as a case study and catalyst for change across various sectors of the economy.

For Kareem, factors have not changed much. “What existed in 2019 in terms of catalyst (social challenges, age and demographic challenges, healthcare considerations) are no different from the same just that it has accelerated drastically.” 

Environmental and economic factors have not been spared, and there could be a no better time to implement business transformation techniques that we at EROE have been ‘preaching’ for so long. There is a growing need for enterprises to be more agile in adapting to the new business climate normal.

In agreeing that internal & external factors affecting businesses have not changed, it is noteworthy that whenever there is some sort of crisis there is a need for some sort of disruption which may be beneficial to certain industries but not to others. Transformation is therefore important, and so it is imperative to implement them in a business or organisation, be it profit or non-profit.

What does effective transformation involve?

Transformation can be classified in terms of:

• Business, 
• Digital, 
• Organisational, 
• Management-led and,
• Cultural transformation.

Even though we are in a period where innovation is technology driven, transformation is not only synonymous to digitization but rather business transformation is core.

Companies cannot substitute their organisational needs to mean that they need a digital transformation as business transformation is generally the main topic. The fundamental core of business transformation though is the use of technology. This is because it is not about only what you do, but where you operate as well matters.

In Kareem’s estimation, transformation works with three components: digitally enabled transformation which shows how organisations are set up to meet customer commitments, solution-based transformation which is specific to a solution and more of niche end-to-end support, and data transformation which deals with issues such as privacy.

When talking about leadership, organisational, cultural transformation, three fundamental reasons that define organisational purpose and culture are defending the market, differentiating and identification of disruptors.

Which industries have seen, or need transformation?

Regarding which industries are in the need for transformation, Kareem thinks that “the more traditionally established industries are the ones that have the biggest challenges in transforming”. These include banking, financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, retail and so on, all of which are historically big spenders on technology but the demand in their business by consumers have changed drastically and these could be the reason why they need these.

With focus on healthcare, transformation is really urgent. Artificial intelligence (AI) is really affecting how healthcare is accessed and delivered in a more effective way. Machine learning is able to predict and adopt future behaviour, and is also helping to accelerate the ability to get drugs in the market and at a cheaper cost.

Virtual reality is helping create safe learning environments, for example people with autism and even with payments.

Both consumers and providers of healthcare are all driven by technology, saving time, money and energy through techniques such as providing biometric information. Blockchain capabilities are even used to manage electronic healthcare records to identify irregularities, hence improving the whole experience in the long run.

And so, in all these, how can entrepreneurs and small and medium scale businesses adapt to the ever-changing business environment?

Kareem thinks they have a better chance of adapting to dynamic markets. They may not have the budget but have the right organisational structure and a higher probability to have a mindset of change and therefore need to overcome the barrier of fear. They also have to accept that they are in the phase of continuous evolution, and need the right talent to overcome certain barriers as one person does not know it all. Access to funding is also key.

With focus on healthcare, why should businesses invest in other sectors for accelerated transformation?

Based on information and data, organisations can invest into other sectors such as healthcare.

EROE CEO Daniel makes his case, focusing on digitization in the healthcare sector with interesting statistics:

• AI powered tools market size is expected to grow over 34billion dollars by 2025.
• Over 77% of the global population are expected to go online or use a kind of online tool to make their booking rather than calling a doctor/healthcare institution for treatment.
• 77% of healthcare organisations are using patient data for predictive analytics already.

Key barriers for business transformation and how businesses can prepare for transformation implementation

For Kareem, it is a pivot between theory and reality considering the complexities of business transformation. Businesses, especially SMEs need to look at things using a long-term approach, and whether the alternative business model is sustainable or not.

Also, there needs to be an answer to the question of where the transformation mandate starts and how it is rolled out in organisation no matter their size. 

The biggest barrier to transformation is people, and so there should be high interest in investing in the right talent. Transformation works with change management and so the ‘people’ factor is rather critical.

Conclusion and the way forward

The future is defining what we need to be doing, and in some instances, we need to define how we get to an outcome that is market-led. Business transformation is all about agreeing that we need to change by understanding shareholder value.

On the way forward, businesses should be capability led rather than restrictive. There should be flexibility and readiness to change.

Sustainability is also important, using innovation to drive change.

Talent should be greatly considered as most of the barriers to transformation are people based. Governments and leadership can also play various roles through vision transformation. The core concern should be more of a business transformation rather than a digital transformation.

EROE also believes that enterprises have to be forward thinking. It is important to implement new techniques that encourage systems and processes to operate to their maximum capacity. Innovation is important in achieving business goals, reducing cost, and pushing for continuous improvement. Leadership has a part to play in thinking out of the box, reflecting on how they have handled past transformation led initiatives, and also having a positive and flexible mindset towards change and adaptability.

Doing this must be in a strategic way, and with a sense of urgency. This is where EROE comes in.

Implementing business transformation is quite a complex process, hence the need to introduce the service of experts who have successfully changed the way organisations operate in order to gain new markets, increase revenue, as well as customer satisfaction for continuous improvement. The time to innovate is now!

Infographic source: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/promoting-an-overdue-digital-transformation-in-healthcare

Statistics source: https://www.digitalauthority.me/resources/state-of-digital-transformation-healthcare/

Webinar Link:  https://www.eroe.co/webinars/future-arrived-2020-accelerating-business-transformation/

Crisis has its own way of changing how businesses operate and adapt. A McKinsey Global Institute finding of August 2020 concluded that over the course of a decade, companies can expect disruptions to erase half a year’s worth of profits. 

The growth of some companies increased while revenue plummeted, and others were not so lucky. To survive, companies have had to rapidly pivot their business with speed to adapt to the new world. Life will not go back to normal after the global COVID pandemic, but the good news is that there has been some positive impact made on worldwide business markets.

For us at EROE, our core mandate is business transformation and so with a crisis situation such as this pandemic, we believe it provides an opportunity for businesses to reinvent some of their systems and processes in order to thrive in a rather competitive market.

We organised a webinar in collaboration with Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), moderated by our CEO, Daniel Solomon where he discussed with his panelist of entrepreneurs on how to devise effective business strategies in a post COVID-19 world with practical tips and real-life experience. 

How have businesses responded in the past few months of COVID-19?

The past few months have impacted businesses in different ways; clearly as the panelists shared their experiences. 

Muhammed Mekki is the Founding Partner at Astrolabs, a capacity building company in the UAE that works both online and offline, and provides many services such as being a business incubator. He was on the panel and shared his experience of how they received the news of COVID-19 and how they have pulled through so far. According to him, it was initially a “big shock to their system.” He narrates how they had a training for Digital Marketing due to start on Sunday only to get the message on Friday from KHDA, the regulator for education informing them about the ‘no in person’ training restrictions. So, they had to figure out alternative ideas and how to inform people who had already paid for the course. Eventually they ended up having a virtual program by reducing onscreen hours, doing prework and post work etc. They had to build a virtual platform for their course which is now out. Currently, a self- paced version of it is also underway. For him, the whole experience has gotten them to be more creative in the way they approach their product and also increased their geographic reach to other parts of the world.

In the case of Tech entrepreneur and Founder of Dimension 14, Melda Akin, her business took the health and wellbeing of their teams both in UAE and Turkey very seriously from mid-February when the pandemic was gaining ground till March when it became full blown. Her company is an AI company that also focuses on e-commerce and so her team has been able to deal very well with the change, even beneficially to the extent that and they have gotten to know each other better through video conferencing as a means of communication. Ravi Bhusari, Co-Founder and CEO of DUPLAYS has had a different experience in all these. It has been more of “reframing their value” as their business involves co-working spaces and outdoor sports. They have had to rethink their product and how it is relevant to their consumer space. Since most people are no longer going to the gym for example, there has been a sharp drop in demand for their services.

What are some of the steps put in place for effective business transformation?

When asked about the actionable steps put in place to accelerate business growth and transformation to fit the post COVID world, Ravi says that for his business, what they can do is to take advantage of their network and of learning experiences from the last decade and really try to connect to Sports, Health and Fitness. Currently, they are connecting Fitness entrepreneurs with other real estate in Dubai so that they can monetize their own service for the old or even new customers. His company is also trying to provide a marketing platform so that they can go out and acquire new customers because many of them have lost their old customers. They are also working on concepts to improve mental health, and admits that the pandemic has forced everyone to prioritize what is important.

Business adaptation strategy

In terms of how businesses can adapt in their day to day operations in an ever-changing environment regarding reporting, performance and client relation till efficient delivery to the end customers, Muhammed and his team focused on introspection, reassessment and how to align these to efficiency.

Melda, who brought more of the human side to the conversation talks about how her team worked on “keeping both the team and technical bonds “so this is actually helping their KPI’s at the moment and have helped put in tools to make work faster. 

We totally share in this opinion at EROE, as we believe that working remotely has helped teams to communicate seamlessly because certain barriers such as traffic and movement have been broken.

The way forward post COVID-19

The future must be to create enhanced cultures that fit into the new world and transition into it by thinking out of the box to fit new company cultures. This would involve trust, focus on key projects and improving organisational cultures.

Speaking about practical steps they are implementing to transform their business to someone who hasn’t had the experience or taken all these steps, the panelists took turns to offer their advice. For Ravi, it depends on the type of business and what it is going to be. His advice is to be as agile as possible and find ways to cut costs. Their business type means they will have to be more agile, because they do not know when this situation will change, so they are doing their best to reduce costs.

Melda also thinks it depends on the nature of business and how it wants to be transformed by what players and stakeholders are doing, so as to know whether to focus on cost cutting or efficiency for example. She mentions the need for collaborations and also finding out whether there are other industries to invest in.

Muhammed also believes that governments can do a lot to help businesses, by putting in regulations that improve the ease of doing business.

In conclusion

COVID-19 is not only having adverse implications on the health of people worldwide but also economic indicators. In reality, enterprises have to start, stop, and accelerate in order to rethink the whole business objective and pivot it into a new dynamic, without losing the human touch.

 At EROE we will keep monitoring the impact COVID-19 is having on business survival in order to implement viable techniques which will accelerate growth for our clients in order for them to gain competitive advantage. We believe that there is a need to have structured processes that measure KPIs and how businesses are operated as a whole in order to ensure effective business transformation and adapt to further disruptions that might occur in the coming days.

Sources & Links

1. McKinsey

2. DMCC

3. Eroe