Strategic Plan

COVID-19

Plan Details

This report explores of some of the key implications of COVID-19 for business and society. With a bias towards the UK.

Great uncertainty, such as that presented by the current pandemic, can make long-range planning seem daunting. However, for those brave enough to be bold, the rewards can be significant.

As Richard Rumelt said: "During hard times, a structural break in the economy is an opportunity in disguise. To survive—and, eventually, to flourish—companies must learn to exploit it. [...] There is nothing like a crisis to clarify the mind. In suddenly volatile and different times, you must have a strategy." (Source: Strategy in a ‘structural break’ | McKinsey)

If you want to discuss this material and how you can better prepare your business for the future you can arrange a free 30-minute consultation with Chris C Fox.

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Chris C Fox

Analysis

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Insight Details

The disruption of globalisation

Globalisation was already under pressure:

  • The middles classes in the developed world were feeling left behind.
  • The US and China are economically intertwined and a cold trade war was building.
  • A new sense of nationalism was emerging. This was particularly evidenced by the #MAGA (Make America Great Again) and Brexit (#VoteLeave) campaigns.

Implications for businesses could be profound. We have already seen that, in pharmaceutical development, residents of the country where a pharma company has its headquarters may expect to get a new drug first. (Source: Coronavirus: 15 emerging themes for boards and executive teams | McKinsey)

Recession

The recession is event-driven, rather than cyclical or structural. Despite its depth, the recovery may be quick.

In the UK:

  • Official forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility now predict the economy will shrink by 11.3 per cent this year, marking the largest fall in output for more than 300 years. Experts forecast that the economic scars will be felt until 2025. Source: Economy to remain 'scarred' by Covid until 2025 - FTAdviser.com published 25/11/2020

    • 300 years ago, the Great Frost swept Europe.
  • Public debt set to top £2trillion by end May 2020 as the government borrows an estimated £300billion this year
  • The number of people claiming employment benefits has soared by a record 856,500 to 2.1million during April 2020 (the first full month of the coronavirus lockdown). This despite the furlough scheme keeping millions formally in work.
  • February to April saw the biggest fall in job vacancies since comparable records began in 2001, down 170,000 to 637,000.
  • The furlough scheme is now supporting 7.5million jobs and is expected to cost a net £50billion.

Source: Coronavirus UK: Charts show economy in unprecedented recession | Daily Mail Online published 20/05/2020 except where otherwise indicated.

Across the ocean, the picture is not much better. 18 million people have been furloughed int he US since mid-March. (Source: You’ve Been Furloughed. Now What? published 26/05/2020) 6.6 million people applied for unemployment benefits in the week ending March 28, the single highest spike in U.S. history. (Source: How to respond when a crisis becomes the new normal)

In France, close to 100,000 companies covering 1.2 million workers have signed up for the government to pay a portion of their wages. (Source: How to respond when a crisis becomes the new normal)

Globally, 3bn people have experienced some form of lockdown. (Source)

China is most advanced in its recovery. Three months since lockdown, it has returned to around 90% of its pre-Covid performance. However, the missing 10% includes large chunks of everyday life. Travel on public transport and domestic flights are down by a third. Discretionary consumer spending, on such things as restaurants, has fallen by 40% and hotel stays are a third of normal. (Source)

The result may be a return to austerity before the economy has recovered from the last bout of it. This could include:

  • public spending cuts and
  • rising taxes (both in terms of increasing rates, and reducing tax breaks).
Casualties are likely to include:
  • Local government funding.
  • The long-neglected social care problem.
  • Pensions and entrepreneurs tax reliefs.
  • Bloomberg:

    Bloomberg has projected a $2.7trn economic loss. (Source)

  • The Office for National Statistics (ONS):

    Reported that:

    • The number of people claiming employment benefits has soared by a record 856,500 to 2.1million during April 2020.
    • February to April saw the biggest fall in job vacancies since comparable records began in 2001, down 170,000 to 637,000.

    (Source: Coronavirus UK: Charts show economy in unprecedented recession | Daily Mail Online published 20/05/2020)

  • PWC:

    In PwC’s April 14 survey of global chief financial officers (Source: How to respond when a crisis becomes the new normal):

    • 71% said their biggest fear was a global recession, up from 67% on March 30;
    • 77% said they are looking at cost-containment measures, and
    • 65% said they are thinking about deferring or cancelling investments.

A corporate winnowing

Winnowing is the process of separating grains from the wheat and chaff by means of the wind. The COVID-19 crisis may be the wind that separates weaker companies/industries from their more future-fit competitors.

The Kauffman Foundation sponsored a 2009 study that found more than half of the companies on the 2009 Fortune 500 list were launched during a recession or bear market. (Source: Top Companies Started During A Recession | HuffPost UK)

Business in high and negatively impacted sectors, such as travel, are most likely to struggle. More traditional players with high fixed costs and low margins, like airlines, railways, hotels, are more likely to struggle than those with more variable costs and better digital reach, like Airbnb and Uber. The stronger players stand to benefit when the market starts to return after some of their competition has been eliminated.

Other sectors, such as those catering to remote work and telemedicine are receiving a short-term boost. At least some of this will be retained in the longer term.

Across all sectors, the winners are likely to be those that:

  • most embrace flexible working,
  • provide flexibility in channels, and
  • have greater control over their supply chains.

Note that all of these factors were already present in the market. COVID-19 will not create this change. It will merely accelerate it.

There will be a flurry of creativity as increased unemployment leaves people with time on their hands and disruption opens up new opportunities to exploit.  Intellectual property lawyers have reported is a rush of new applications since the lockdown period began. (Source: Eureka moment? Law firms report rush to patent ideas amid UK lockdown | World news | The Guardian published 24/05/2020)

A new sense of community

A YouGov survey found that Brits perceive that social bonds have grown stronger. 40% report feeling a stronger sense of local community and 39% feeling more in touch with friends and family. (Source: Brits see cleaner air, stronger social bonds and changing food habits amid lockdown - RSA)

Millions of people across the UK have regularly paused to applaud frontline NHS staff, carers and health workers since the coronavirus outbreak. This typically happens on Thursday evenings at 8pm.

Flexible/remote/hybrid working becomes mainstream

The movement towards flexible working has been growing for some time. For example, in the UK in 2018, of the employed population:

  • 7.2% reported working mainly from home.
  • 30% reported having worked from home sometimes.
(Source: Office for National Statistics.)
YouGov Profiles data shows that 40% of workers think they could do their job from home, compared to 54% who say they couldn't. Regional differences show that 48% of London’s workforce say they can complete their work remotely. This is followed closely by two areas bordering the capital, with 44% of workers in both the East and South East of England saying they capable of getting the day’s work done away from the office. (Source: Who are the Britons working from home? | YouGov published 07/04/2020)
The push towards greater adoption of flexible and remote working has been held back by deeply held views that it was not:
  • technically feasible,
  • culturally acceptable.
The COVID-19 lockdown has substantially debunked both of these objections. Forced remote work during lockdown has shown that not only is remote work possible but that for many it is better.
This is despite the fact that, for many, the experience has been less than ideal.
  • The transition was sudden and unplanned. People struggled to acquire, set up and learn to use the technology required for remote work.
  • Many processes are unsuitable for remote work. In general, organisations which had invested in digitising processes found the transition easier.
  • Parents with young children struggled to make the transition to remote working on top of the already difficult transition to remote schooling.
  • Not all homes are suitable for remote work. Conducting your video calls from a well-appointed study is one thing. Doing so from a kitchen table where your children are also trying to do their homework is quite another.
  • The change comes on top of a number of other stresses. For example, people may be concerned about the health of their friends and family. On top of their work lives, their social lives have also been disrupted.
  • Newly remote workers have complained of 'Zoom* fatigue'. That is, the sense that a day spent in video-conference meetings feels more tiring than a day in physical meetings. There are many theories about what could cause this. Some of them relate to the other issues described above rather than to the nature of the meetings themselves.
Some of these struggles will be temporary. Children will return to school. Other stresses will subside. People will get used to the technology. Processes will improve.
And we know from the long-term remote workers that things like 'Zoom fatigue' are neither permanent nor unavoidable.
The advantages of office environments are well understood. For example:
  • Serendipitous conversations around the proverbial water cooler.
  • Quick conversations as you pass each other in the corridor.
  • Greater awareness of peoples' dispositions. When it's OK to interrupt them and when it's better to wait.
  • The creation of social bonds with people even when you're not formally meeting with them.
  • Those shared cups of coffee or drinks after work.
  • Increased non-verbal communications through body language.
  • The role of the commute as a buffer zone between work and home life.
  • Role modelling (informal) and mentoring (formal) between older more experienced workers and younger new recruits.

The COVID-19 lockdown has made illuminated, on the other hand, the many advantages of remote work:

  • Fewer interruptions.
  • Better work-life-balance as a result of less time spent commuting.
  • Less time and money wasted by travelling between meetings.
  • The ability to hire the best person for the job; not just the best person for the job who just happens to live near your office or is willing to relocate.
  • Greater opportunities for people with certain types of disabilities.
  • A reduced environmental footprint.

A survey of just under 1,000 firms by the Institute of Directors (IoD) shows that:

  • 74% plan on maintaining the increase in home working.
  • >50% planned on reducing their long-term use of workplaces.

(Source: Home working here to stay, study of businesses suggests - BBC New)

A smaller survey of bosses whose firms had already cut workplace use suggested 44% of them thought working from home was proving "more effective". (Source: Home working here to stay, study of businesses suggests - BBC New)

A survey of 1,000 UK and US employees who have been working from home since the beginning of COVID-19 found that:

  • 90% said they would remain with an organisation if they were offered the flexibility of remote working.
  • 75% said the level of communication from their employers had increased since they had been away from the office.
  • 51% said communication with colleagues had improved.
  • 85% said they were more positive about remote working.
  • 52% said they wanted remote working to be a permanent fixture.
  • 36% said they would prefer a flexible work/office balance.
  • 70% said their productivity levels have increased since working from home.
  • If work from home became a permanent benefit:
    • 34% said they would miss seeing colleagues every day.
    • 23% said they would miss leaving the house.
    • 49% said the lack of a commute was a bonus.

Source: 90% employees would stay with an organisation if they offer remote working - Employee Benefits published 04/09/2020

A survey conducted by the research firm Gartner reported that 75% of respondents plan to increase the number of permanent remote employees. (Source: How Working From Home Is Changing The Way We Think About Where We Live)

A study of 2,000 UK employees by Owl Labs found that:

  • 45% of employees would be interested in taking a pay cut to continue working remotely long-term.
  • 15% of staff would take a pay cut of 5% to continue working remotely
  • 46% would leave if their organisation chose to reduce their pay as a cost-cutting measure.
  • 41% of staff would consider resigning if they were forced to return to the office.
  • 84% of respondents will continue to work remotely for the rest of 2020.
  • 44% of employees plan to work from home five days a week
  • 55% plan to work a hybrid of home and office working with up to four days being office-based.
  • If their employer made changes to their salary based on new working costs:
    • 51% of respondents would begin looking for new jobs
    • 8% claim they would leave the organisation even if they did not have another job to go to.

(Source: 55% of staff willing to take pay cut to work remotely - Employee Benefits published 15/10/2020)

Another survey by the Future Strategy Club (FSC) found that:

  • 52% of employees feel closer to their families and enjoy better work-life balance after working from home due to Covid.
  • 40% of employees said having now realised they had had a poor work-life balance they would not return to it.

Source: 52% of UK employees enjoy a better work-life balance after home working - Employee Benefits published 05/01/2021

According to a new study commissioned by Slack, data from a survey of 9,032 knowledge workers in the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan and Australia found that:

  • only 12% want to go back to working entirely in an office.
  • The majority of workers—a whopping 72%—want to continue with a hybrid workstyle, a mixture of office work and remote work.
  • 51.6%, report improved work-life balance from remote work, with only 17.8% showing a decline.
  • 45.8% saying things have gotten better in their overall workplace satisfaction, versus only 20% who report a drop. The world’s biggest experiment in work from home is showing that we are generally happier and more satisfied with it.
  • 74.5% have felt no change or an improvement in workplace productivity.

Source: Slack Found Only 12% Of Workers Want To Return To The Office Full Time; This Is Good News

However, instead of returning to the old ways of working when the lockdown is lifted, forward-thinking employers and employees will find new ways of working which provide the best of both alternatives.

If nothing else, we will gain two ways of working instead of one. More individuals will be able to choose between in-office and remote work according to their personal preferences and styles, rather than almost everyone being forced into in-office work whether it suited them or not.

This reconfiguration of work will also provide an opportunity to address some of the toxic meeting cultures found in many organisations.

  • Too many meetings.
  • Poorly structured or absent agendas.
  • Inadequate preparation.
  • Too many and/or the wrong attendees.
  • Poorly chaired meetings.
  • Meetings dominated by the most senior and/or loudest voices rather than those best able to contribute.
  • No clear outcomes.

Simply replicating in-office behaviours and processes into remote environments will reduce, instead of increasing productivity, and lead to more stress instead of less. (See The 5 levels of remote work - and why you're probably at number 2.)

This will largely benefit better educated and more highly paid white-collar workers at the expense of blue-collar workers.
Younger workers have shown great enthusiasm for remote work:
Source: The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2020
One big loser in this is likely to be commercial office real estate. Excess capacity may be:
  • used to create more spacious, but expensive, offices that better accommodate social distancing.
  • repurposed as inner-city residential space.

From: Why managers fear a remote work future, 29 July 2021

  • “Remote work empowers those who produce and disempowers those who have succeeded by being excellent diplomats and poor workers, along with those who have succeeded by always finding someone to blame for their failures. It removes the ability to seem productive (by sitting at your desk looking stressed or always being on the phone), and also, crucially, may reveal how many bosses and managers simply don’t contribute to the bottom line.”
  • "and the office started to feel like just another room with internet access"
  • "94 percent of employees surveyed in a Mercer study reported that remote work was either business as usual or better than working in the office, likely because it lacks the distractions, annoyances, and soft abuses that come with co-workers and middle managers. Workers are happier because they don’t have to commute and can be evaluated mostly on their actual work rather than on the optics-driven albatross of “office culture”.

Research from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and labour market analysts Emsi Burning Glass show that 25% of jobs advertised in December last year mentioned hybrid or flexible working, which also includes job shares and working irregular hours. That's up from 19% before the pandemic.

Source: COVID-19: Jobs that offer hybrid working and flexible hours are on the rise | Business News | Sky News

From: Why won't workers return to the office? | Performance | Grapevine Leaders | myGrapevine+

  • 50% of office workers in the US would rather resign than be forced back into the office (from a March survey by global recruiting firm Robert Half).
  • 56% of Apple employees are said to be thinking of quitting over the company’s return to the office plans, according to anonymous third-party polling site Blind.
  • up to 25% of workers in advanced economies will work permanently on a hybrid basis, partly from home and partly in the office (estimate from McKinsey Global Institute).
  • 70% - running capacity of the London Underground compared to pre-Covid capacity mid-week, indicating that commuter numbers are significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels.
  • 35% of employees had turned down a job that would require them to work full time on-site or in an office, according to an American study by Jobvite in 2021 - and it’s likely that figure is higher now.

Source: 85% of businesses are feeling the effects of the 'Great Resignation' | Performance | Grapevine Leaders | Feature

  • 84% of British businesses have already moved to a hybrid model

Source: Remote work is killing big offices. Cities must change to survive - Stack Overflow Blog

  • 8% of office employees who worked in NYC pre-pandemic are back to the office five days a week.
  • 25% of NYC’s tax base each year has historically been derived from commercial real estate, anchored by offices in Wall Street and Midtown and the plethora of restaurants and stores and sidewalk vendors that cater to the millions of people who used to flow every day to and from the city’s commercial corridors.

The threat of pandemics as a new reality

Some say that generations are defined by the threats they faced. The lost generation lived through World War II. The baby boomers lived through post-war scarcity. Generation-X lived through the threat of nuclear annihilation. The next generation may be defined by the fear of future pandemics.

Pandemics are not new. Records extend back to at least the Antonine Plague. This killed 5m people between 165 and 180 AD. More recently, HIV/AIDS has killed an estimated 25-35m people since 1981. SARS and MERS are more recent, albeit less deadly examples. (Source - updated 24 Feb 2021)

Scientists and others warned us of the risks of pandemic. See this 2015 Ted Talk by Bill Gates, for example. Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Laurie Garrett have provided similar warnings. (Source: The Pandemic Isn’t a Black Swan but a Portent of a More Fragile Global System | The New Yorker published 21/04/2020)

Some of the risks are endemic. Others are more of our own making.

  • Factory farming produces antibiotic-laden foods with fewer nutrients.
  • Global travel and supply chains allow epidemics to spread more rapidly.
  • Our population is ageing with fewer and fewer people dying from before they reach old age.

Out attitudes towards death are also changing. Death is no longer something we have learned we must accept. It is something that must be fought at all costs for all people.

A new environmentalism

COVID-19 may have done more for the environmental revolution than a thousand Greta Thunbergs ever could.

During the lockdown, people have experienced for themselves that:

  • they can live with a reduced environmental footprint, especially from reduced travel and consumption.
  • that the planet can recover quite quickly, especially with regards to air pollution, and
  • they like the benefits in terms of cleaner air and birdsong. A YouGov survey found that 51% of Brits say they have noticed cleaner air, and 27% more wildlife since the lockdown began. (Source: Brits see cleaner air, stronger social bonds and changing food habits amid lockdown - RSA)

A new culture of localism

The fragility of global trade has been exposed.

Forced into lockdown, many people have been exploring their local areas and amenities. Some for the first time.

There is renewed interest in consuming goods, especially food, closer to their point of origin.

The network becomes ubiquitous and invisible

'Online' and 'Connectivity' ar the big winners of this crisis.

Estimates of internet usage are up 40% since the start of the year across major economies, especially in sectors including retail, education, healthcare, leisure, and entertainment - Google's top three searches in the U.S. through 12 April are Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon. (Source: Industry Voice: Post-COVID Economy: Not the Way We We)

Digital networks will become more pervasive. They will become a basic requirement to support economic and social activity. Broadband and 5G will become core utilities.

Ultimately, like electricity or even air, they become omnipresent and therefore largely invisible They become something that is just there without us being particularly aware of it - until it's not.

Capacity planning for network bandwidth and energy consumption will have to be adjusted to increase capacity in dispersed urban home-based networks (as opposed to centralised office environments).

  • Zoom:

3D printing increases self-sufficiency

We have realised that we can't always rely on the availability of goods manufactured half-way around the world. This could give a boost to 3D printing, which allows for the manufacture of some parts at the point and time of need.

The growth of virtual education

Education, like tourism, has historically relied on moving the customer to the supplier.

Unlike tourism, digital and immersive platforms (VR, MR and XR) can be used to take education to where the customers are. This could prove hugely disruptive. Any student, anywhere in the world, may soon be able to study at any university in the world. This could bring huge economies of scale to education and necessitate educational institutions to differentiate themselves and tailor their experiences.

Automation will become the norm

In the first generations of computing, humans worked for the computers. They were co-opted as data capturers. They struggled to read and reconcile complex reports and to move data between systems.

Some companies resisted automation because of the impact it had on people and jobs.

But the crisis and resulting forced move to remote work has rewarded those that invested in digitisation and automation, and punished those that did not. The latter will find it increasingly hard to survive. They will finally adapt or die.

The impact on some may be as devastating as the closure of the coal mines was. For others, it may usher in a new era of freedom and prosperity.

AI will continue to flourish, especially in health sciences

We will see significant advances, especially in:

  • telemedicine, and
  • home-based diagnosis.

The aftermath of social distancing

Those parts of the economy that rely on bringing large numbers of people together will recover the most slowly. These include:

  • Air and train travel: Travel will become less frequent (fueled by increase remote working), and more expensive (fueled by social distancing and reduced economies of scale).
  • Theatres, cinemas and live events: Could we see a resurgence of drive-in theatres?
  • Gyms: and other high-contact environments. Especially as people become more aware of their local amenities (see A new culture of localism)
  • Universities and colleges: Schools may recover more quickly because they are considered to be more compulsory.
  • Restaurants and bars.

Alternatives modes of transport and exercise, such as bicycles, on the other hand, are growing.

The demise of cash

If people are afraid of cash as something that might transmit germs, contactless payment methods will receive a further boost.

This trend is also bolstered by The transformation of the high street.

Recent research surveying 2000 adults found that since the UK went into lockdown:

  • 27% said they have not shopped with cash at all during the pandemic.
  • 76% have used a contactless credit or debit card.
  • 61% have made a PayPal payment.
  • 17% have used a smartphone payment system.
  • 15% have used Bacs.
  • 8% used a contactless card for the first time during lockdown.
  • 7% made a payment with their phone for the first time.
  • 14% said that they no longer carry cash.
  • 16% said that they would be happy to live in a cashless society.

Source: Brits shunning cash over misplaced fears about Coronavirus spread

  • PayPal:

    PayPal experienced the largest single day of transactions in the company’s history — bigger than both Black Friday and Cyber Monday of 2019. April 2020 was also a record-breaking month for PayPal in terms of enrolment and use. PayPal added 7.4 million net new active accounts. PayPal also hit a record in Q1, adding 10 million net new accounts. That pick-up was rapidly outshined in April, when its daily net new customer rate averaged roughly 250,000 per day and counting. (Source: What happens if consumers stop consuming? - Chris Skinner's blog published 29/05/2020)

  • The World Health Organisation:

    The WHO has said that coronavirus is not a "good" carrier of coronavirus. (Source: 4 futurists on how to be forward-thinking in a post-COVID-19 world published 24/05/2020) But that may not be enough to overcome the perception.

Digital law

The legal profession has hitherto remained subbornly physical.

We could see a number of changes:

  • Virtual court hearings (e.g. by VC).
  • The demise of natories.
  • The demise of "wet" signatures.

A global consciousness

We're living in a world where we have 7.7bn people on the planet. 85% of them are literate. A large proportion of those have access to the internet in at least some form. This gives them (theoretically) access to the entire cumulative knowledge of the world, as well as to each other.

And the pandemic has given people the world over a new sense of collectivism. We all share one planet and risk each others' misfortunes.

This allows people to organise, with comparative ease, global movements around common causes such as saving the environment or defeating the pandemic. (As well as to spread nationalism and other arguably less desirable ideas.)

In the knowledge sphere, organisations will be able to look for the best employees and partners across the whole globe. Similarly, individuals will be able to compete for jobs on a global scale.

The return of big government

The Conservative government's reponse to the crisis has been more reminiscent of Labour economic policy. This has created a national economic-political consensus probably not seen since the aftermath of World War II.

The main proposal to pay for the additional spending seems to be in the form of an increase in corporation tax in the March 2021 budget. The corporation tax rate will increase to 25% in April 2023 on profits over £250,000 with the relief tapering down to the current rate of 19% for profits under £50,000.

The unassailable NHS

The front-line healthcare workers of the NHS are emerging from the crisis as the saviours of Britain. Much like the fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain.

The NHS will become even more unassailable. This will prevent it from achieving the reform it almost certainly needs. It may also come at the expense of other national priorities like social care.

The transformation of the high street

Restrictions have pushed even more people away from the high street towards online retailers and grocers. Few will go back.

The traditional high street, already struggling, will struggle more.

It took about 15 years for 5% of retail sales to shift online, then another 10 to shift another 5%. It has taken 10 weeks for another 5% of retail sales to shift online by consumers who say that they will never return to doing those activities in a physical world. (Source: What happens if consumers stop consuming? - Chris Skinner's blog published 29/05/202)

In the worst outcome, high streets will dies and towns will become hollowed out.

In a more optimistic outcome, a new sense of localism will revive the high street as a social hub. Less a place to shop for essentials, and more a place to engage with your community.

Independent outlets have responded more creatively to the crisis. They have done so by offering support in their communities. This could be by changing their product mix (think bakeries selling flour) or channels (think restaurant's switching to takeaways).

The nuclear family

Forced lockdown with your family could make or break the nuclear family. Some have enjoyed the increase in time spent with their families. For others, it may have been more challenging.

The result may be both an increase in divorces and/or a baby boom.

Parents forced to home school (or at least to support whilst remote-schooling) their children may develop a new appreciation for the children's needs and for the roles that their teachers play.

The erosion of personal freedoms

Lockdown was an unprecedented curbing of civil liberties by both central and devolved government.

The battle to protect individuals at the expense of their personal freedoms began with the war on terror and continued with the war on COVID-19.

Will it relax after COVID-19, or will the erosion of personal freedoms continue?

Altered travel patterns

The travel industry has been one of the hardest hit by COVID-19.

A panel of experts recently suggested:

  • It will be H2 2021 before the industry starts to return. It may be 2023 or 2024 before it recovers.
  • The success of remote working means business travel may never return to more than 50-75% of previous levels.
  • Flexible bookings, personalisation and improved digital will be key success factors in the recovery.

Source: The future of travel technology: A conversation with industry leaders - Odgers Interim published 21/12/2020

A rebalancing of supply chains

The UK has been particularly hard hit with the convergence of COVID and Brexit resulting in a shortage of lorry drivers and empty shelves.

However, disruption has been on the cards for some time. (Source: From McDonalds to supermarkets: The slow-motion car crash of Britain's labour shortages - CityAM : CityAM published 06/09/2021)

The COVID-19 crisis has forced executives to three conclusions about supply chains.

  1. Disruptions aren’t unusual. Any given company can expect a shutdown lasting a month or so every 3.7 years. This requires better management.
  2. Cost differences among developed and many developing countries are narrowing. Technologies like data analytics, human–machine interaction, advanced robotics, and 3-D printing can offset half of the labor-cost differential between China and the United States.
  3. Most businesses do not have a good idea of what is going on lower down in their supply chains, where subtiers and sub-subtiers may play small but critical roles. That is also where most disruptions originate. The development of AI and data analytics enables deeper understanding of the entire value chain rather than just its top tier.

Source: The next normal arrives: Trends that will define 2021—and beyond

Control

Organisations

Airbnb

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/

Aon

https://www.aon.com/

Apple

https://www.apple.com/uk/

BP

https://www.bp.com/

BT

https://www.bt.com/

Burger King

https://www.burgerking.co.uk/

Centrica

https://www.centrica.com/

CNN

https://edition.cnn.com/

Deutsche Bank

https://m.db.com/

Facebook

https://en-gb.facebook.com/

Garmin

https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/

General Motors

https://www.gm.com/

Goldman Sachs

https://www.goldmansachs.com/

Grant Thornton

https://www.grantthornton.co.uk/

Halfords

https://www.halfords.com/

Halfords sells around 25% of bikes in the UK. (Source: Coronavirus: Bike sales surge as commuters search for 'new, isolated' travel | UK News | Sky News)

HSBC

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

Intel

https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/homepage.html

JP Morgan

https://www.jpmorgan.com/GB/en/about-us

Lloyds Banking Group

https://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/

Lloyds of London

https://www.lloyds.com/

McKinsey & Company

https://www.mckinsey.com/

Metro Bank

https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/

Nationwide

https://www.nationwide.co.uk/

Natwest

https://personal.natwest.com/personal.html

PayPal

https://www.paypal.com/uk/home

PWC

https://www.pwc.co.uk/

Revolut

https://www.revolut.com/

Slack

https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/

Temple Cycles

https://www.templecycles.co.uk/

A Bristol-based independent bike maker which also has a store in London.

The Financial Times

https://www.ft.com/

The Office for National Statistics (ONS)

https://www.ons.gov.uk/

The Very Group

https://theverygroup.com/

The World Health Organisation

https://www.who.int/

Twitter

https://twitter.com/

Uber

https://www.uber.com/gb/en/

Virgin Media

https://www.virginmedia.com/

XPS

https://www.xpsgroup.com/

Zoom

https://zoom.us/

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