Adjust to the new normal as going back to old ways will be an opportunity lost: Karan Bajwa

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to an unprecedented and unexpected scenario that businesses across the world are learning to navigate through. Although the pandemic has had devastating effects on the economy, the positive aspect to it has been the fact that companies have had to embrace digitalization overnight and the same has resulted in a world of good.

Along the same lines, Karan Bajwa, managing director, Google Cloud addressed through the DataQuest Tech Leadership Talk webinar on how businesses can accelerate their growth. The theme of the “Ask me Anything Conversation” hosted by Pradeep Gupta, chairman and managing director, CyberMedia revolved around the three R’s that are most pertinent to the current time – Restart, rebuild and recover.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has been a world-altering event. We and two generations prior to us have not seen anything of this magnitude. It has impacted every layer of the social and economic ecosystem. The questions being asked by every business are how do we respond to this? How do we recover? How do we adjust to the new normal? And, finally how do we build in the new environment where a vaccine is yet to be found?” said Karan Bajwa, setting the context for the session.

While the economy still reels under the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, the present time is an opportunity for all leaders to re-imagine and re-invent on how they wish to work in the post-COVID world, said Bajwa. “The old ways of working might not hold good anymore, and organizations should not allow them to hold good. In the last two months, all of our assumptions on how we could work, collaborate, and be efficient have been demolished. Keeping in view the productivity and the amount of work that we are able to do in the current situation, it should be an eye-opener that nothing should be off the table when it comes to workplaces,” added Bajwa.

What Industry Leaders Need to Focus On

Even though, there will be tremendous pressure on CEOs and technology leaders to drive revenue and fill in the short-fall that has taken place over the last few weeks there are various measures that leaders can focus on to rebuild their businesses.

“We will all need to contemplate on how we rebuild our businesses. The agenda and focus can vary across segments, but thinking about how to position ourselves once this crisis has passed is going to dominate everyone’s’ mind,” said Bajwa.

“When such events have happened in the past – the financial crisis and 9/11, and so on – we went into a zone of uncertainty, and came back to doing things in the old way. Nevertheless, we must not repeat the same now. Every leader should and would like to focus the learnings and how we can move forward,” he stated.

Businesses today feel the need to embrace and democratize digitalization on scale in an unprecedented manner. “The new normal is about doing businesses virtually and digitally for customers for some time, but the trend could continue for a long time as well or if a similar situation ever arises again. As I mentioned before, and I reiterate it’ll be a lost opportunity if we go back to the old ways of working. As a company we are focusing on two things – serving and not ‘selling’ and the other thing is on the democratization of technology,” added Bajwa.

The three big learning that companies must take from this crisis, according to Bajwa, is:

1. Keep every option on the table, and re-look at every aspect of doing things.
2. BCP plans should be such that they allow companies to work in this manner for long periods and if possible, avoid going back to the old ways of working.
3. Find a life beyond balance. A lot of time has been wasted in the past doing pilots. The cost of failure is way lower than the benefits of success in current times so companies must embrace on scale and take big bold bets.