The title is exactly what this post is on – a dilemma in my mind about our lives, personal as well as professional lives becoming more unusual than it has been for the largest part of my life. Is this the new normal? Is this pandemic going to redefine the way business is conducted, offices are run, meetings are held, and work-life is balanced? I am definitely getting much more comfortable with this whole idea of staying in my pajamas all day, donning the most professional attire from waist up, working for more than 8 hours a day, and having as many fights as possible with my partner because hey, we need to keep things interesting. I’ll keep this post more geared towards the professional / work side of things, and share my perspective on things to come.
Remote communications tools are IN, baby : We’ve all realized it by now, and wished we had bought a few stocks for Zoom and Slack. They have seen a massive growth in the number of users and are ready to convert them into paying customers. Their shares have gone over the roof, and no-one really saw that coming. While the adoption is great, and businesses are opting for these comm products, I don’t think they are going back. They will be addicted to the ease and convenience of being able to meet / call / chat remotely and that will become the new way of working.
Work from Office : Yep, this isn’t a typo – you’ve probably never used this term before, but I feel this is going to become mainstream. Home will be the new workplace, and Work from Office will be an exception / special circumstance / need basis. Don’t agree? Imagine yourself running a business, and your employees are all working from home. If things are running smooth enough, people are putting in more hours with fewer distractions, virtual meetings are much more effective than you thought they would be, would you not be tempted to let things run like this and save a ton of money on office space?
Rise of co-working spaces? Building on the example shared above, You’ll probably want to cut down on the real estate, decor, furnishings, security and what not, and invest in adoption of technology – the ability to conduct business from no matter where you are. We’ve already heard news from TCS (one of the largest consultancy firms based out of India), shifting their focus on operating more virtually and maybe, remote project management. The need for setting up a whole new office would be minimized with the rise of co-working spaces (read WeWork) and businesses will be able to lease spaces for short term, come in, do their business and be gone. This could be a long shot but I sense this could be coming.
Digital Transformation: The macro situation has forced most of the businesses to really expedite their existing (if any) projects on the adoption of digital into their archaic business models. I think that is great, and will definitely give them the competitive edge in moving along with the consumer mindset and behavior (think retail industry), there still is a long way to go. However, with the refreshed understanding and realization of the importance of digital, I see it only one way – a victory for the consumers. In the end, it is the consumers who benefit the most from this whole change.
The ‘chips’ are down? Think again! : The whole situation is probably a dream come true for chipset makers, processors and companies powering the machines : computers, systems, consoles, data centers, and all cutting edge tech products powering the products used everyday by businesses and their employees. Think Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Qualcomm and imagine the surge in growth expected for their businesses, due to increased demands in server capacities, data centers, and well, computers / processors in general. I am personally very excited about this space.
I know there’s much more impact / changes expected in the post Covid Era, when businesses recover from the upcoming, likely recession. That will be the time to bring in optimized growth, which will come in efficiently scaling up the expenses focusing on double digit (or triple digits ROIs). Many measures mentioned above could be adopted for the same.
Let me thank our guest author Rohit Kapoor for contributing to this blogpost for me. I’ll try to bring him in for a few more. 🙂
Flying away
Jugni
Hey, Jugni 