THE BUSINESS OF COVID ANUSHKA ARADHYULA

THE BUSINESS OF COVID

BY ANUSHKA ARADHYULA (09-20)

Experts have suggested that we are entering a new ‘era of pandemics’; if so, Covid-19 is not the last disruptive force that organisations will face.”

Anushka is the first RGS girl to be accepted to Oxford University to study Economics and Management, indeed the first person from RGS for 25 years. Anushka studied Economics at GCSE and was inspired by the subject to continue her studies to A Level, under the supervision of Michael Smalley (85-95, Staff from 05).

Anushka was one of the Class of 2020 who had their school career curtailed by Covid-19 and endured a first year at University restricted by the disease and regulations. This experience has not stopped her, and she writes here a pertinent observation of the effect of Covid-19 on business.

Covid-19 has forced extreme change in almost every aspect of life, and business is no exception. The pandemic has propelled the growth of innovations and even entire organisations that once would have been rejected by consumers. Equally, it has forced the decline of companies that once seemed invincible and deeply engrained in our lives. The last two years have signalled a striking shift in consumer and organisational behaviour – and it is difficult to predict how this will evolve.

The pandemic has been a powerful catalyst for innovation and has starkly demonstrated the repercussions of inertia. The rapid enforcement of lockdowns and restrictions has propelled the development of countless new offerings from organisations attempting to survive. Gyms, for instance, were forced to provide virtual workouts to continue charging membership fees; delivery services were expanded and adapted to provide a contactless solution for grocery shopping in the age of social distancing. Those that failed to innovate fell behind, while those that demonstrated flexibility were rewarded. Zoom is a powerful example of an organisation that played to emergent circumstances, providing a solution for schools to deliver online classes, and for employees to work from home. The company thus achieved unprecedented success, becoming a household name, and a prominent feature in the Oxford Dictionary in 2020.

The rapid emergence of new businesses has been equally, if not more, striking. In 2020, more than 400,000 startups were formed in the UK alone. This was first attributed to the tremendous ‘free time’ that many had been gifted, exams cancelled and staff furloughed. Recently, however, it has become clear that many new ventures were equally a product of opportunity, capitalising upon crisis to meet previously non-existent needs. Commercial cleaning companies developed to offer corporate ‘decontamination’ services in light of new guidance; private testing brands now offer support to customers as they navigate rules surrounding testing and travel. Such providers have emerged on high streets and in shopping centres, built above the ghosts of old department stores and multinational brands. They boast flashy branding, catchy rhyming names, and painfully high prices of up to £100.

Evidently, the success of these ventures has been tied to the events of the pandemic. The question then arises: how sustainable are the profits these businesses have seen? For instance, as economies across the globe begin to remove or alter testing rules, how will private test providers adapt their business model to continue generating revenue? The UK, notably, has relaxed the requirement for pre-departure tests and the need for PCRs upon arrival – this will have consequences for not only domestic providers, but international firms, too. Moreover, it is unlikely that Zoom or other platforms will be made entirely redundant, as we enter a new ‘age’ of work from home. Yet, as many offices move towards a hybrid working model, will the profitability of these applications decline in the future?

Experts have suggested that we are entering a new ‘era of pandemics’; if so, Covid-19 is not the last disruptive force that organisations will face. It is therefore difficult to predict what new opportunities will arise, and how businesses will continue to evolve and adapt. However, it has long been said that necessity is the mother of invention –and perhaps, now, crisis is the mother of profit.