The Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Digitalization

The coronavirus, which swept across the world, changed both our working lives and our social lives. Countries responded to the global pandemic in very different ways. Suddenly, everyone around the world had to stay at home and find a way to keep work going. When countries that did not want to face the deadly impact of the virus were late to take measures, the devastation was terrible. While efforts were made to isolate people to stop the virus from spreading, solutions were also sought to keep the economy from grinding to a halt. Although every country fought the virus with similar methods, differences in the details made some countries more successful than others.

Besides the psychological problems caused by people being confined to their homes, the need for business to carry on created other problems. The social imbalance between those who could work from home and those who had to go to work to make a living became even more evident.

While some companies took care of their employees, others made the situation worse with layoffs. The same was clearly seen in the support countries provided to companies. Some countries stood behind all businesses, large and small, and their employees. All needs were met immediately and unconditionally. Very large budgets were allocated and cash needs were met right away. Other countries made extremely weak interventions with token packages.

Because of my job, I often have the chance to talk with companies all over Türkiye. Organizations' views of the coronavirus vary by region. I saw that companies in Istanbul and the nearby industrial zones took the pandemic very seriously and started introducing measures such as working from home, pausing production, producing while maintaining social distancing and restricting travel as early as March. Organizations in Central Anatolia and the regions to its east, on the other hand, seem more reluctant to take these measures. Some carry on as if nothing has happened, while others take inadequate measures. Until the pandemic, most companies in Türkiye did not look favorably on the idea of working from home. Now, restrictions are making it mandatory. There are also quite a few company owners who insist, "If I'm coming to work, my managers will come too." Companies that have not gone digital do not know how to work from home. Owners find it hard to believe that people can work remotely in digital environments without being seen.

We know how much the Internet and the Web affect our daily lives. We have seen the rise (and sometimes the fall) of entrepreneurs who moved the gathering and dissemination of information to the Web, such as Napster, Amazon, eBay, Dell, Flickr and MySpace. Dozens of articles have been written about how command and control has eroded as a model for leading and managing organized activity in every field where people get things done and work together.
It is critical that friends and employers treat people who have contracted the coronavirus without marginalizing them. Communication should not be cut off, and every possible help should be given. If people who fall ill are alienated by both their company and their friends, it has a negative effect on them and divides society. Let us not forget that the more we help each other, the stronger our bond becomes.

The coronavirus showed the world the hard way how important digitalization is. Most companies in Türkiye were caught unprepared because they had been slow to digitalize. Workflows that ran on paper forms, Excel and email made tracking work almost impossible once working from home became necessary. Most companies in Türkiye did not prioritize digitalization because they assumed the world would never change and everything would continue to be done as before. It was always given pride of place in investment plans, yet token actions barely moved it forward. Seeing digitalization as drudgery rather than an opportunity puts a company's future at risk.

In my view, the biggest reason digital transformation projects fail is the adaptation problems caused by generational differences in the workforce. Managers, owners and key employees who see digitalization as unimportant work have caused projects to fail and time and money to be wasted.

With the coronavirus, new terminology began to emerge. As working from home became a necessity, words like "homeplace" instead of "workplace" started entering our daily lives. A room or a desk in our home began to be used like our workspace at the office. Online meetings became part of our lives. Once a work discipline was established, it became clear that work could be carried out from home too. Organizations that did not want to invest in digital transformation slowly began to realize its importance.

Companies' futures now depend on their ability to carry out digital transformation. Rejecting this and not investing in this area will cause companies to disappear in a short time. In the modern world, it has become almost impossible to innovate without digitalizing. Whether you can keep the position you earned by entering the market 50 years ago for another 5 years now depends directly on your digital transformation capabilities.

Let us not forget that "the world keeps turning" and you cannot board the digital transformation train without digitalizing. Nobody will wait for you. Competitors that invest in this area will offer their customers more advanced products and services at lower costs than you.

Sources

https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/nisantasisbd/article/1459265
https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/beyder/article/1163107
https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/digitally-transforming-microsoft-our-it-journey/