As disruptive as the COVID-19 pandemic has been to society, the economy and to most businesses, believe it or not, there are some positives to count as a result of this crisis.
On this morning’s WJR Business Beat, Jeff reflects on specific innovative changes made within the automotive, banking and restaurant industries.
Tune in below!
“While this crisis has been unquestionably hard on all of us and our businesses, as well, maybe there will be some positives coming out of this in the long run.”
– Jeff Sloan
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Good morning.
As disruptive as the COVID-19 pandemic has been to society, the economy, and to most businesses, believe it or not, there are some positives to count as a result of this crisis. You see, business has been transformed in ways that will result in greater efficiency and even greater productivity.
Zoom calls instead of costly travel to meetings. Work from home has made otherwise wasted drive time hours into productive hours. And with so many businesses going online, the cost of doing business comes way down. And all of this greater efficiency and productivity should lead to a drop the in prices consumers ultimately pay.
Some specific examples? One of the categories changed most significantly, well, the automotive category may be the most transformed.
Since the pandemic essentially accelerated a direct-to-consumer transition that’s been in the works for a while, but never happened until now. While they did this out of necessity because their dealerships were shut down, this will likely involve changes that are here to stay long beyond the end of this crisis.
Other industries likely changed permanently for the better? How about banking?
When physical branches were forced to close, consumers adopted the use of mobile banking apps as a primary way of conducting their banking. And who knows? With less visits to physical branches in the future as a result of consumers now interfacing digitally, maybe significant costs will be rung out as a result of not needing a physical branch on every other street corner. And that ultimately could bring savings to us and reduce costs.
And while restaurants have been hit really hard, perhaps even the most impacted, again, given that consumers and restaurant owners alike have been forced to offer online ordering as well as digitally-driven takeout and delivery services, once again, all of this near-term pain may result in positive change long-term for the restaurant sector, as well.
And so while this crisis has been unquestionably hard on all of us and our businesses, as well, maybe there will be some positives coming out of this in the long run.
I’m Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of StartupNation.com, and that’s today’s Business Beat on the Great Voice of the Great Lakes, WJR.
