Social distancing and digitalization will change consumer habits: Yogesh Misra, DMA

Nowadays, It's very important to do what you can to reduce the risk of you and other people getting ill with coronavirus. Digitisation, remote working and social distancing is the new way of life.

Yogesh Misra is currently VP at Thomas Assessments for its India and SAARC business. He is the newly-elected president of the Delhi Management Association (DMA) as well.  He has consulted globally over 300 organizations across India, Pakistan, Middle East, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, China, U.S., Tanzania and E.U.

Here’s his take on Covid-19 and beyond. Excerpts from an interview:

Yogesh Misra, VP at Thomas Assessments, India and SAARC business

DQ: How will the post Covid-19 world be different?

Yogesh Misra: The Covid-19 crisis is still unfolding. As per WHO, we are in the first phase. Over 350,000 people have lost their lives, and the economic activity has virtually come to a standstill. There is demand destruction, and WTI crude prices, at one time, had briefly touched negative figures, meaning that sellers would have to pay money for delivering crude.

The mass production of vaccine, if it is found, is still at least 18 months away. So, we will have to learn to live with this pandemic. There is nothing in the living memory similar to this,and the nearest one we have is the Spanish flu which was a century ago and killed millions. Covid-19 is like a black swan event, and it will change the paradigm at individual, organization and societal levels.

At the individual levels, people will become risk averse, spending will come down, social distancing and digitalization will change the consumer habits.

At the organization level, movement will be away from structures based on industrial age thinking to one that is agile and embedded in the connected era. Remote working will become norm, life time employment will see gradual shift to GIG. Health and safety will become important. Digitalization will be all pervasive.

Remote working will have a domino effect on travel, real estate, media, hospitality and travel industries.

I think, globalization, as we see it, will end. Countries will try and protect their individual interests, national boundaries will harden, and we may have trade wars in a big way.

DQ: Will we see a rise in automation? Why?

Yogesh Misra: I forsee a rise in automation, digitalization, the increasing use of AI and machine learning and Internet of things (IoT). The biggest reason for rise in automation is economics. The cost benefits are enormous, plus in the west, the aging working population, and now, social distancing and remote working, will give it further impetus.

We see self-driving cars is now a reality. Transportation is one of the biggest employers, along with the services. Lots of jobs will become obsolete, and there will be temporary pain during the transition. However, it will give rise to newer jobs, which will require skills that will be very different.

The corporate landscape is changing at a speed and in a way,unimaginable, even a decade ago. Technology has disrupted well-established business models. The employee expectations and preferences will change the same way in which consumer preferences have changed. Intelligent platform strategies are aligned to business strategies, to make business processes real-time, productive, agile and data-driven.

DQ: How will the various industries re-imagine the offerings with digital-first DNA?

Yogesh Misra: The saying, ‘Uberise yourself before you get Kodaked’, sums up how much the companies will have to re-imagine themselves. The fourth industrial revolution is taking place at speed of light, and it is at times difficult to gauge its impact and plan for it.

We have already seen how Uber has changed the local travel, Amazon has changed shopping and retail, Grofers has changed grocery purchase, Netflix entertainment, Air BnB, hospitality, Zomato and Swiggy, the food industry. I forsee  patients taking advice from doctors, virtual medicine, etc., professions like  legal, tax, accounts, changing completely with lot of DIY, in  education there will be massive open online courses, online certification and reskilling, etc. Even the automotive industry will go driverless and cars will be fully digital. Banking and credit cards industries will face competition from the Paytms of the world. IoT and 3D printing will impact manufacturing in a big way.

DQ: How DMA allow members to learn from this pandemic?

Yogesh Misra: Delhi Management Association (DMA) is the oldest management association in the country. It was founded in 1955, even two years before the AIMA.  For the last 65 years, it has been at the forefront of management excellence by conducting training programs, seminars, conferences, industrial visits, publishing white papers, research papers and doing consulting for its members.

However, this pandemic, and the subsequent social distancing, has ensured that the above activities cannot take place in their usual manner.

As the newly-elected president of DMA, and using my over 20 years of consulting experience across the word, my priorities will be to revive, restore and rejuvenate the past glory of the organization by re-imagining all our offerings with infusion of digital-first DNA, making membership appealing and beneficial for management professionals, as well as the corporates.

Knowing the scale of this pandemic, we have realized that our members will require specialized inputs in different sectors and functions. We have joined hands with leading associations of the country and are in the process of tying up with the various service providers. For example, we feel that with Dataquest, itcan be an excellent tie-up to educate our members about the latest happenings in IT.

We have started series of webinars, where experts from various fields have interacted with our members.

We feel that the SME sector is under represented and plan to act as the bridge between them and the government. We have approached various government agencies to look for opportunities for our members.

The message that I want to give my members is what Lord Krishna instructs in the Bhagavad Gita 2.14.

“O son of Kunti, the non-permanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.”

This too shall pass, and we will have a new dawn!