In 
We have done a cover story on a company’s technology journey after a long time. Though the cover text has explicit reference to the extraordinary situation created by the pandemic, the story is mostly about the technology journey of SpotOn Logistics, a mid-sized B2B express logistics company, which helped the company sail through the situation.
Yes, it is not much about the ‘responses’ to the pandemic. All of us have discussed enough of that. And they all sound similar – connectivity, secure access, collaboration, contactless…some of that you would find in this story too. But that is very little.
There is one reason why we picked up this company. Here is a company, which was not a greenfield, but which was beginning a new journey and was willing to challenge the biggies leveraging what we love the most – technology. Every aspect of its business leverages tech fully. But what we really loved most was the way it had integrated data-based decision making into every aspect of business and using AI/ML to get the best out of data. If you have to read only one part of the story, please read the section on how it uses data and analytics.
Once you build that ability to get and analyze data at granular level, taking any decision is easier—be it on next business opportunity or how to respond operationally to a new change. The COVID-initiated changes are as much about changes in the way we do business as they are about changes in the way we think about it.
I think, that is the elusive New Normal. Initially, all of us had thought this phase would pass away and we would see a new stability, which will be very different from the pre-pandemic stability, which we called New Normal and behaved in a manner that the current phase is somehow a transit phase. But that post-pandemic stability, is nowhere in sight.
But we are carrying out all our regular activities—there is IPL, there are festive sales, there are celebrations. We are doing everything without too many people gathering at one place. I think we are already in that New Normal.
It started for many with the COVID and for many others like SpotOn, well before that. It is continuing. And it will continue well after the virus goes—or becomes ineffective.
Add new comment