The crisis unleashes a wave of innovation and launches a new generation of entrepreneurs.
Over the past year we have seen that the best innovations are created in response to specific, urgent and important problems. In some ways, the COVID-19 crisis has made our most pressing problems and their possible solutions more obvious.
In this sense; After the SARS COV 2 virus was detected worldwide, the area that has seen enormous growth is digitization, ranging from online customer service to teleworking, reinventing the supply chain, using the artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) devices and machine learning to improve operational processes. Medicine has also changed substantially, thanks to tele-care and biopharmacy, which are in full swing.
Disruption creates spaces for entrepreneurs and that is what is happening all over the world. We recognize that this is a phenomenon that we did not see coming. For instance; In the United States in 2020 alone, more than 5 million new companies applied for a tax identification number, almost double the number registered during the same period in 2019.
Necessity is, indeed, the mother of invention - Plato
Now, if we look for the positive in this pandemic, we could point out that in the past it took a decade or more for disruptive technologies to go from being great discoveries to being engines of productivity. The pandemic, on the other hand, has accelerated that transition for several years in areas such as AI and digitization, and this process has been even faster in Asia. A McKinsey survey published in October 2020 found that companies today are three times more capable of conducting at least 80 percent of their customer interactions digitally, compared to what was happening before the pandemic.
Identify the market
Today it is more important than ever to have a change of attitude, we must be agile.
The important thing is to keep your eyes open, study the environment, look, analyze and make decisions quickly, but always in a proactive and thoughtful way. If we look at what has happened this year and a half, we will see that many companies have varied their business models to adapt to the pandemic, but they have done so in a reactive way in a frantic struggle to survive.
The new post-COVID-19 normal is encompassed under the term VUCA, which is the acronym for Volatile / Uncertain / Complex / Ambiguous. Companies will have to face the new reality from different angles, but the main thing is to understand the environment.
It is useless, despite everything, to act, if we do it thinking about today. To do this, it is important to know if you are tackling a problem that will last over time, identify the market, be able, if necessary, to pivot without fear, and not lose sight of the business model.
The COVID-19 virus has definitely been an opportunity for the entrepreneurial world. New businesses and startups have emerged in sectors that have hitherto little exploited and, beyond the initial circumstances, the data shows that the sector is growing. Be that as it may, the really important thing in situations like the one we have experienced the last year and a half is attitude, that is, knowing what we want, and how we want to do it.
The growing sectors post pandemic
For some of these sectors, the new normal brings new opportunities. A completely new market that did not exist before or that was stopped and that now has great growth opportunities. These are some of the sectors investigated that, based on what has been explained above, seem to have more possibilities to grow:
Education
Online education platforms, tutorials, web courses, etc. they have become a necessity since the time when schools and universities cannot function normally. The online education sector is experiencing a surge and alternatives to conventional teaching and learning are being sought.
e-Commerce
With mobility limitations and social distancing, people have seen their presence limited. Businesses focused on e-commerce are booming, offering a secure way to purchase basic and non-essential products. While it is true that this industry was already on a growth trajectory, the recent turn of events pushed the market to unprecedented levels.
Online games, e-Sports and streaming platforms
Streaming and online games have grown enormously due to bans and restrictions in movie theaters, shopping malls and other entertainment venues. I present the success story of the Professional Video Games League (LVP), which experienced a growth of 28% in the year of COVID-19. In 2019, the company had an audience of 38.9 million viewers, while in 2020 the audience was 50 million. In Spain, the growth has been 40%. During 2020, users have been discovering new forms of online entertainment that provide a more personalized experience without having to leave home.
Pharmacy and laboratories
The health sector is one of the great beneficiaries, if you can call it that, from the pandemic. With the vaccine already developed, it is not clear how we will face the future to keep the pandemic under control, but it is clear that something has changed, and that startups related to health will grow.
Coworkings
The growing wave of remote work culture combined with the fact that companies are aggressively reducing costs, necessitates comfortable and profitable office spaces, more secure than conventional office centers and with a reduction in operating costs.
To finish the topic; Businesses have spent most of the last year struggling to adapt to extraordinary circumstances, and while the battle with COVID-19 has yet to be won and despite having vaccines already in sight, there is at least a little light at the end. of the tunnel.
The year 2021 will be one of transition. People like businesses and society will be able to start looking at how to shape their future rather than just trying to survive the present. The new normal is going to be different; it will not imply a return to the circumstances that prevailed in 2019. In fact, just as the terms "prewar" and "postwar" are commonly used to describe the twentieth century, it is likely that future generations will come to speak of the times before and post-COVID-19 era.
The COVID-19 crisis has created an imperative for companies to reconfigure their operations, and an opportunity to transform them. Productivity will be proportional to the degree of transformation.
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