Innovation in a Pandemic

The Coronavirus pandemic is impacting all industries at a global scale with small and medium size businesses significantly impacted.

As per the English phrase “Necessity is the mother of invention”, some businesses have taken it into their own hands to quickly pivot their offerings ensuring cash continues to flow while the country is in lockdown.

Below are some key principles being applied by those businesses which should also be leveraged for corporate innovation:

1. Identify new gap in the market

As individuals were advised to stay at home, some products and services were no longer required and other became much more sought after.

Businesses were not only able to understand the change in the market but also to identify new gaps and pivot their businesses to service them.

Gaps in the market:

• Fruit, vegetables, drinks and fridge essentials (and some may say toilet paper)

• Personal protection products (like mask, hand sanitiser)

• Wellness, entertainment products and experiences

2. Innovate and pivot

Local businesses having understood the new gaps in the market have shifted their offerings via four main routes:

Digitisation of current business

As individuals stay at home, wellness and entertainment products are in high demand. Businesses that provided these in person experiences have moved their offerings online; examples:

• Bakery shops and yoga teachers are now providing online classes (cooking and yoga classes respectively)

• Escape rooms are now providing escape games online and/or delivered to individual’s house

Sell raw materials of previous services

Unable to provide their service or final product, businesses have shifted their model to sell the raw materials to end users; examples:

• Restaurants and bars are now selling stock (e.g. beers, oil, butter, milk) to generate cash in the short term as well as reduce pressure on big supermarkets

Create new products with old materials

Recognising that their main product would not be in high demand, businesses have pivoted their product offering to products that are in high demand and for which they already have the raw materials in stock; examples:

• Clothes suppliers are now producing masks with pre-acquired materials

• Gin and Beer producers are now manufacturing hand sanitisers

New Business — Partnerships

Niche businesses have decided to increase their market segment by partnering with independent producers; examples:

• Florists have leveraged existing supply chain and delivery capabilities by partnering with groceries shops and providing delivery of food and essentials boxes

• Niche food sellers (e.g. Doughnut shops) have also partnered with independent food producers to sell a bundle box which includes their product (e.g. doughnuts) and fresh fruit and vegetables

3. Leverage Social Media and Community channels

Businesses have leveraged social media and community channels to market their new offerings. These digital channels have enabled businesses to quickly reach customers at scale and receive fast feedback on their initiatives.

4. Implement with speed

Rapid implementation was a key trend across all business and is a key skill in digital/innovation.

As many businesses observed, the fast implementation of a new idea (or also called Minimum Viable Product — MVP) allows quick customer feedback and the possibility to iterate on the end product in a short time frame.

5. Courage to Fail

Teams should be proud of having had the courage to experiment and pivot their business. Although not all ideas and offerings have succeeded in the first round, many businesses have learned to quickly stop failed initiatives, learn from failures and start new ones.

Crisis and pandemic situations demand that we adapt quickly and innovate at speed. Those essential skills have been demonstrated by small and medium businesses during this crisis.

In the next article we will discuss how large corporations in the financial sector can leverage the above principles at the same time as they balance BAU activities.

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