To survive post-pandemic era: Business urged to invest on digitalization

CEBU, Philippines —  Businesses and industries, regardless of size, are urged to adapt sophisticated digital operations as soon as possible, if they still want to thrive post-pandemic times.

“Start now,” said Accenture PH JP Palpallatoc, in a virtual briefing held recently presenting Accenture’s 2021 Technology Vision  report entitled “Leaders Wanted; Masters of Change at a Moment of Truth.”

As companies are confronted with a new environment brought about by the pandemic, the “never normal” era also demands businesses to change their mindset or leaders, and most importantly put money on technology.

Today, he emphasized every company is a technology company. Technology has become a critical lifeline across industries, in all businesses, micro to top 500 conglomerates.

According to Palpallatoc, it is not impossible for struggling SMBs to catch-up with other businesses that have immediately fast –track their digital transformation in this time of Covid-19 pandemic, saying there are a lot of technology infrastructure out there that address specific need of a company.

“There is no size fits all solution. They just need to get started,” he stressed.

For starters, he said investments in cloud, data and artificial intelligence (AI) are not as expensive as other sophisticated tools, but are already right for a company to fully optimize technology in order to stay in business.

Leadership is critical as every business becomes a technology business, he reiterated.

According to the Accenture Technology Vision 2021, technology was a lifeline during the global pandemic – enabling new ways of working and doing business, creating new interactions and experiences, and improving health and safety. Technology forever changed expectations and behaviors and created entirely new realities across every industry.

As companies shift from reacting to the crisis, to reinventing what comes next, the boldest, most visionary leaders – those who use technology to master change – will define the future, said the 21st annual report from Accenture predicting the key technology trends that will shape businesses and industries over the next three years.

Relying on a strong digital core to adapt and innovate at lightning speed, leaders are growing revenues 5x faster than laggards today, versus only 2x faster between 2015 to 2018, according to Accenture research.

The result is a wave of companies racing to reinvent themselves and use technology innovations to shape the new realities they face.

“The global pandemic pushed a giant fast forward button to the future. Many organizations stepped up to use technology in extraordinary ways to keep their businesses and communities running – at a pace they thought previously impossible – while others faced the stark reality of their shortcomings, lacking the digital foundation needed to rapidly pivot,” said Paul Daugherty, group chief executive – Technology and chief technology officer at Accenture.

“We now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to turn this moment of truth for technology into a moment of trust – embracing the power of exponential technology change to completely reimagine and rebuild the future of business and human experience,” Daugherty added.