Market scenario can be challenging but opportunist can find a great juncture from these challenges. The 21 days’ lockdown will cost $120 Billion loss to the nation. India’s GDP might be further affected to 4%, work related to Operations, Sales, banking, supply chain would be disrupted. Farmers may not be able to resume the farming while India’s approximately 90% population depends on farming. There is no pollution and we could see the blue sky with no interruption of flights & factory smoke. China and America were having trade war but now the situation is different and countries are struggling to save life of their people and self, during this explosion like situation other countries might isolate the country which they feel is the cause of this trouble. Although there are many speculationson this.

But here is an opportunity for India, the lockdown is to save the lives of people and to control the spread of disease. The opportunity for us during the lockdown is that we have 125+ million English speaking population, which is the 2^ndlargest in the world, just behind the USA. This comes with great IT talent, cost effective labor, hard working people, innovation and “Skill India” to further develop & support our young talent. Diversity and Inclusion of so many cultures and still remaining as one is the strength of the country. The recent example was when few days back the leadership of India suggested to get together and clap for thanking all countrymen involved in extending essential services to us, while the rest of the country was on lockdown, during “Janta Curfew” at 5:00 PM. People from all the regions, age group, caste, color and creed came forward and the entire country was one to fight back together.

The brighter side to lockdown is that most of us have started re-focusing our energies towards ourselves and understanding the value of ‘irreplaceable’ human life. This period can further be used on self-development, drafting new strategies, optimizing cost, innovative thoughts, improving services and post lockdown acting on – “how we can be number 1 in the world in coming years?” All of this comes at the cost of our countries economy running behind by a year or 2 but the same is the case for the rest of the world.

The auto parts industry and similar manufacturing unit which are recently affected, they can be further used to diversify the talent in manufacturing ventilators which may improve the health facility of the country and outside.  Some of the companies like Mahindra and Maruti are already planning to produce ventilators at its factories. Schools in India can work on innovative and interactive quiz based on-line class modules, to make it interesting points can be awarded to students for participation. Beauty product companies can diversify business line by making masks and similarly soap making companies can focus on manufacturing sanitizer. Pharma industry and entire healthcare sector can evolve further with better health facilities including vaccines. Being the great innovative IT hub, India can further leverage agriculture industry and bring automation there. More digitalization and robotic to reach the era of Technology O5 before other countries, let’s evolve the Indian industries completely and get more competitive.

 

The current situation and future of the world seems to be undergoing a rapid change. People are struggling hard to maintain their livelihood, remain relevant to their organizations, struggling to keep their jobs, basically an all-out fight for survival. What does this downturn present for Education and Universities of the future, how will they get recruit students when they can’t meet them or see them. The future of Edutech will lead this foray, the top trends will emerge in education and only the fittest and most futuristic will survive

 

Digitize Education– Taking all popular courses online partnering with Elearning providers like Udemy, courser and Upgrad for exclusive customized course packs for students. The Universities of the Future need to see the learner trend evolving. Elearning tools like Microsoft teams, Zoom, Google classrooms, interactive learning apps, breakout rooms, VR/AR led experiences, cloud based platforms are all the new normal.

Democratize Education– All the cards are on the deck, the Elearning model makes everything accessible to the learner and they engage in their own time. The sessions, videos, assignments are all available for all to view and access, most content companies have made their content free for all, to empower and support the learning continuum.

Dematerialize Education-This era will see the increased dependency and reliability on online content, this learning model does not need books, note pads, stationary, bags and traditional items. It is the need for digipads, stylis, earphones, access to databases and ELearning software.

Demonetize Education- Education providers can no longer command a price premium, with Ivy league institutions having gone free with world class courses, India’s topnotch institutes taking their content online students have a wide access to the best.

Only organizations that can envision the future, prepare and provide for them will thrive, the world is changing faster than we imagined. The learner of tomorrow is a highly digital being, plugged into technology, with a wide access to unlimited information, learns at her/his own convenience maybe at work. The jobs have changed and companies will look for new skills, its time Universities recoiled and reformed themselves. The future student will learn remotely, online and in his own time….realtime.

 

In current lockdown situation due to Covid-19 pandemic, for some of you it must be a work from home schedule and for few of you, it could be just home quarantine with surfing social media for entertainment news and information. The busy schedule of individuals from morning to evening gets converted into surfing and engaging with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Whatsapp etc.
In view of the escalation of corona virus (Covid-19) cases across the world, businesses are reviewing their digital marketing strategy and making an opportunity to tap potential customers and engagement with existing customers.
In this scenario internet has proliferated the whole world, social media platforms becomes, the Game-Changer and online advertising campaign has become the core of marketing strategy. The pandemic situation has bought significant change in consumer behavior, internet and social media consumption. It has become necessary for brands to rethink, how they connect, engage and relate to the consumer. Research released by Gartner shows that several leading brands across the world have successfully adapted to these changing scenarios, and suggest digital ways that brands can manage their ways through difficult times.
Leading companies from automobile, banking, consumer durables and FMCG sectors across the world are emphasizing on social distancing, exercising brand building activities and creating awareness through social media platforms to fight against Covid 19.
Companies like Audi, Volkswagen, Coca Cola, Nike and McDonald have changed their logos on their social media pages like Twitter, Instagram and promoting the message of social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic which makes their ad campaign getting viral.
McDonald’s has changed its logo on Twitter page, separating the golden arches, saying “separated for a moment to always be together.” Coca Cola also created its Ad-campaign on Twitter, its brand script is normally connected letters. Now the image script is spread apart, with the tag line saying “Staying apart is the best way to stay connected,”
Along with this global brands, some of the Indian corporate brands like Reliance, Godrej Group, Mahindra and Mahindra, Paytm, Hero-cycles have made practical contributions to the fight against COVID-19,by making donations of funding ,supplying medical solutions, Hospital setup etc and prompted their efforts via social media platforms.
To summarize the above, i believe, during current crisis, redefining digital marketing strategies through the COVID 19 scenario, has become need of an hour. Social media ad campaigns play a crucial role to spread awareness, raising funds and customer engagement. Many brands have shifted its focus towards digital marketing platforms, as consumers are spending more time on these platforms. Brands are also promoting online content like blogs, short videos to connect and win consumer engagement.

Image Source: https://www.guideautoweb.com/en/articles/54621/social-distancing-volkswagen-and-audi-lead-by-example/

Can’t help but write on or in context of Covid-19. The hangover is ‘novel’ too. That’s the power of the invisible, it seems, sweeping across the mighty forts and displays of awe-inspiring ‘development’ of God’s creation with brains – Homo Sapiens. The yet unconquerable, invisible-microscopic-protein something has caught us sapiens on the wrong foot – of careless greed and stubborn pride. The resultant ‘halt’, as it now seems, and as I feel, was long coming and inevitable. Bleak and daunting as the scenario might seem now, the soul of humanity from the time of Adam, knows well, that humans will rise, build and thrive……again.

Challenge is huge and unprecedented, as game has changed. World economy and Industry 4.0 is ready for an inevitable facelift globally. The present pandemic brought about a change in perception of needs and wants in the consumers and business owners. New business models will have to be developed to cater to the altered consumer behaviour for many established industries and sectors. Industry 4.0, for generations to come, will be remembered as being ‘Novel’, for whatever Novel Corona virus did to it!

Even though, hardly any economic or business activity is happening these days, trends will start brewing and taking shape. Some new use cases or trends for economy and Industry 4.0 are presented below:

1. Make-in-India mission will get a boost as domestic manufacturing will be preferred and help the economy grow.
2. Automation will generate positive arguments in its favour. We witnessed during this pandemic when factories and processing units, using human labour were shut due to fear of contagion. More and more businesses will now see adoption of automation.
3. Digitalization will accelerate for obvious reasons of reduced ATM access, paper cash contagion etc.
4. On the job front, more jobs will be created in the digital arena as a result of need for setting up of data centres and expansion of digital infrastructure.
5. An increasing number of start-ups in the healthcare sector will emerge, as health and sanitation has become a top priority as never before. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan will get a new fillip and its necessity in peoples lives and psyche will get highlighted.

The new trends mentioned above are just a few. Use cases abound in arenas of politics, security, research, finance, international trade, travel and tourism, work and home space, leisure and day-to-day life. Sliver of hopes or ‘silver linings’ are always there and waiting to be changed into opportunities and leveraged both during and post-pandemic. The discussion is open to all. More views will bring more ideas and maybe, plant seeds of innovation and creativity in some mind, somewhere. Students can think, mull over the trends and come up with probable emergent scenarios.

The ‘lockdown’ is the best time to ease out the many ‘extras’ from our lives, think, focus and prepare. Nobody gets this solitude, again, ever.

Military forces all over the world have always responded to environmental changes with extreme agility by bringing about an innovative adjustment in the nature of the warfare. Termed as Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), this phenomenon relates to ingenuity in the use of a new technology coupled with modifications in the doctrine and concepts, which lead to widespread alterations in the fundamental characteristics of military warfare.

The world of business has also had its own share of innovations and innovative use of technology which has transformed the landscape of business and revenue models. The advent of digitization has only sped up the process with every model looking to optimize the use of technology. Whilst this has resulted in disruption in various industries such as entertainment, mobility, hospitality, etc, there are many that have still not been able to derive the maximum benefit.

The current situation forced upon us by COVID-19 is unprecedented and is enforcing a Revolution in Business Affairs. Forced upon by the requirement of social distancing to control the spread of the virus, all organisations have scrambled to embrace technology, change their strategies and working models to keep their operations running. All the industries and businesses have entered a chaotic world and should take a leaf out of the military books to revolutionize their operations.

Emerging out of this chaotic situation will require a paradigm shift in the way the businesses operate in the future. The extensive use of technology such as AI, VR and AR would enable organisations to be more efficient. Further, the use of online collaborative tools and cloud computing would also optimize the use of human resources. The current situation would lead to many organisations recognize the value of employees working from home in terms of productivity, reduction in costs due to drop in load on the infrastructure and leverage them for altering their revenue models.

In this age of Industry 4.0, the dawn of the new Revolution in Business Affairs and its ramifications need to be understood by all business leaders and strategic planners. The organisations that evolve stronger, smarter and more powerful from this catastrophe would be the one that recognizes the opportunity for transforming their operational and cost efficiencies.

The Corona Virus has had a large impact on the global supply chain industry. As per the report from Dun & Bradsheet – “ 938 of the Fortune 1000 companies have a tier 1 or tier 2 supplier that has been affected by the virus”. We’ve heard in news and through different social networking sites, the brands like Apple, Microsoft, Nissan, and JCB about the disruption they’ve felt as their factories in China are either closed or are operating with limited production capacity.

Effect of COVID 19 on Global Supply chain

China is the global center of production and is a major source of finished goods and products. With China being locked down, the global pipeline of parts and components, has become emptier. This pipeline feeds directly to producers, manufacturers, and distributors worldwide. Thus, if the disruption continues, many manufacturers and retailers can see their operations suspended and businesses coming to a standstill.

China is also a major market for consumable goods and services. The COVID- 19 event has come down as a major impact on the demand of these goods and services for the relevant industries spread across the world, the United States of America and Europe in particular.

Global Supply chain: Fragile nature

There have been many instances in the past which have disrupted the global supply chain earlier as well. Consider for instance the 1999 Taiwan Earthquake, 2003 SARS epidemic, 2011 Japan Earthquake. With Taiwan being a major exporter of memory chips in 2011, the earthquake cut off a major source of memory chips for computer manufacturers, driving up RAM prices drastically in the international market. The 2011 earthquake that struck Japan affected many automotive manufacturers who relied heavily on inputs coming from Japanese factories, thus disrupting the demand and supply in the market.

An analysis of the global supply chain shows that it is very fragile and the following are the major reasons which are responsible to lend it to this character.

· Reduced inventory levels: The concept of JIT manufacturing (just-in-time) increases efficiency and lowers the cost of the supply chain, but it also leaves supply chains less resilient to these kinds of sudden shocks and shortages occurring in the world.

· Rigid supply chains: This wouldn’t be a problem if companies were running flexible supply chains. Thus in times of stress, they may move order volumes to alternative suppliers. However, very few companies don’t do so, leaving them unable to locate and communicate with alternative suppliers when unexpected disruptions arise in their supply chain leading to a tangible impact on production.

· Manual supply chain management: A key reason supply chains become rigid is because they are managed manually. Changing orders or shifting suppliers is a lengthy and complex process and is a luxury few businesses have in times of stress

· Lack of supply chain transparency: Businesses are still unaware of what’s happening in the first tier in their supply chain, so they can’t figure out where production capacity risks occur. So that makes effective control of a situation like the COVID-19 outbreak almost impossible.

· Consolidated center’s of production: The globalization of supply chains has led to the creation of specialist production zones — towns or countries specializing in the manufacture of certain main goods. These have helped ensure the availability of key supply chain components and lowered the overall production cost. And while this is useful when times are healthy, when there is uncertainty it may cause problems That’s because there isn’t the capacity in other parts of the world to plug the gap in supply.

What to look at now

Leading companies are taking several actions to combat the effects of COVID – 19

• The leading companies are considering to shift there available inventory from the present quarantined zones to the areas which are either away from the quarantine zones or near the ports.

• The companies are constantly working with Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers by either securing allocated supplies or by ensuring overtime assembly capacity .

• Firms are taking proactive measures by keeping inventory and raw materials which are currently in shortage in impacted areas.

• Firms are also negotiating for future air transportation as capacity becomes available to avoid the ocean freight based lead times.

• The Major players are actively looking to substitute the components or the raw materials in situations where the primary supplier has been affected and secondary source has not been affected.

• Few of the Industry giants are also considering to redesign the product or alter the material certification where the reliable alternate sources are not readily available.

• Industries who currently have their manufacturing units in China are considering to introduce the new products to the alternate manufacturing locations.

Where to focus next

Improve supply chain visibility

There is an urgent need to ensure a greater supply chain visibility in the system. It is needed to provide a sight into the capacity constraints in the first, second-and third-tier suppliers. When looking further into their supply chains, multinational producers will achieve a more complete and comprehensive supply chain mapping of the assemblies and sub-assemblies.

Model new risks and costs

There is an urgent need to get visibility of the supply chain in the network and provide a line of sight and capability. There is a need for new tools and technology that can provide more information. Risk assessment tools that use machine learning, for example, may identify trends that may suggest futuristic opportunities or threats in geopolitical and global health, macroeconomic and other related areas.

Focus on resilience
The persistent nature of such outbreaks would continue to shift the focus of the global supply chain operations toward more a rigorous proactive modelling and multiple dimensions. The COVID19 outbreak is likely to result in a long-term reconfigurations in the supply chain globally to create an inbuilt resilience in the system.