#DigitalDialogue: Discover, Design, Deliver, De-Risk for biz transformation: Manish Dureja

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown has led to a challenging economic situation and uncertainty in the market. Some of the businesses are responding by cutting down on spends, salary cuts and even laying off employees, while others are taking affirmative action to gain the most out of limited resources and fortifying themselves for the new normal once the crisis abates.

While digital has been on a growth trajectory even before the pandemic, the global crisis has accelerated digital transformation in businesses. Most industry experts believe that Digital will lead the industry’s recovery and will permeate through every sector.

As a build up to our marquee event – DIGIXX 2020 – Adgully is continuing with its new series, #DigitalDialogue, which will have a special focus on the digital sector, how Digital is paving the way forward for companies and brands and how it will be a brand-building imperative.

Manish Dureja, MD and CEO, InterMiles, underlines the importance of staying agile to new changes and encouraging teams to adapt as well. He also stresses on first acknowledging the situation, and adjusting the brand speak in a way that feels true to what the company stands for, and to the new landscape, we are living in.

How can companies and agencies accelerate their digital transformation process in the current scenario?

None of us could have predicted the impact that COVID-19 has had on the world at large. The nationwide lockdown has far-reaching implications on all – from government institutions to diverse industries, economies, and individuals. Hence, understanding the transformed behavioral patterns of consumers, in the wake of this pandemic, should be a priority.

Buddha said, the more you try to control something, the more it controls you. The “new normal” as we call it, is nothing close to what anyone could have anticipated. In the given scenario, towards ensuring that business is thriving rather than surviving in the new environment it is important to stay agile to new changes and encourage teams to adapt as well. With digitalisation and technology having overnight transformed from being the future to becoming the present, it is important that as business experts we be the first to acknowledge the situation, and adjust our brand speak in a way that feels true to what we stand for, and to the new landscape, we are living in.

Our world was a rapidly shifting one even before the Coronavirus pandemic hit us. With the change of our brand we were using the 4D principle for our digital and business transformation, that is, Discover, Design, Deliver & De-Risk. The need to continue using the same principles cannot be more emphasised as the world has tilted on its axis in the last few months. In the wake of uncertainty of consumer behaviour, we must keep discovering the consumer sentiments and then accordingly design our CVP to maintain a competitive edge over others.

How can Digital lead the recovery for brands in the new normal?

There is no denying that the COVID-19 situation is acting as a catalyst for change, and we will continue to see shifts in consumer behaviour on an on-going basis as the situation continues to evolve. Even before COVID-19 hit, brands were skewing towards digital mediums of communication. The surge in digital content consumption will rapidly transform how consumers will engage with brands. With the accelerated shift to digital, consumers are getting comfortable to interact with online platforms for all their needs, be it entertainment, daily essentials, healthcare, e-learning, to name a few. Amidst all the uncertainty of the future, we can be convinced that digitalisation will play a significant role in shaping up the new normal for all.

What kind of investments are most needed to create the technology environment that will allow companies and agencies to thrive in the new normal?

With consumer behaviour moving towards digital consumption, organisations need to invest in marketing technology stacks that will integrate data from multiple sources to create a single view of the customer. Investment in customer engagement platforms will help orchestrate seamless customer journeys that are segmented, targeted and individually relevant, which will help drive the desired behaviour change and build affinity and stickiness towards your brand.

Secondly, the culture of work-from-home has fostered a new normal in the future of how organisations operate. As a result, businesses will have to be nimble to create an environment that is fostering of team spirit and employee productivity. The most seamless and flexible way to go down that path would be to increase dependency on technological mediums.

Today, organisations across the globe are increasingly harnessing the power of digitalisation to thrive and identify innovative solutions to adapt to the new world. In the days to come, it is important that companies continue to deploy investments in digitalised solutions such as Virtual Reality, AI and Data Analytics to scale up and ensure smooth sail to recovery.

How can digital innovation be turned into a business-building imperative?

The acceleration of digital transformation requires key decision-makers across government institutions and business leaders to take a step back and review the road maps for the future, including their assumptions about value and feasibility principal to them. These predictions need to be based on the foundation of new evolved consumer behaviours, logistic dynamics, and regulations.

What steps can companies and agencies take to reskill their workforce to work in a new digital ecosystem when the recovery begins?

Despite initial fears of being able to manage the concept of remotely working, most organisations have now been able to identify this method as a cost-effective blueprint for the future. Taking cognizance of this, companies need to know and understand that we will get past this hurdle stronger as long as we have our taskforce echoing the same thoughts of hope, encouragement, and faith in the future. COVID-19 has transformed not only consumer behaviour, but has also impacted employee behaviours on account of the fear of the pandemic, insecurity about jobs, and adjusting to the new work set-up of working from home. As a result, employees are undergoing multiple shifts in their internal sentiment and emotions. This makes it even more necessary to ensure that time is invested in reskilling employees to help them stay relevant to the evolved times.

Today, technology has emerged as a critical tool for both living and working. Therefore, companies need to relook at the organisation goals and align employees accordingly. It is imperative, that companies increase focus on digital training programs and developing a culture of learning and fostering innovation amongst employees. To meet this result and become future-ready, large-scale investment must be made towards developing digital and cognitive capabilities and business resilience of the workforce.

At InterMiles, we recently completed Thinkathon, our business idea contest – wherein employees regardless of department or designation collaborated remotely to think out of the box to come up with various customer engagement ideas keeping the current situation in mind. The initiative saw more than 50 per cent participation across the organisation and some very strong engagement ideas, which are now in our way forward initiative pipeline of development and rollout. Additionally, employees are regularly encouraged to upskill themselves and with this thought, a ‘Think Growth’ channel was launched for employees to crowdsource information on webinars, interesting courses, etc., where they can nominate each other to attend these sessions and upgrade their knowledge. A testimony to this is also the partnership between InterMiles and TEDxGateway, where our members can not only learn, but also earn miles while listening to inspiring content.