We had little choice but to pivot to all available digital resources for conducting business internally as well as with customers and partners. For many, that meant a major transition to completely online sales and service, as was the case for Minnesota-based Legacy Toys, which had been established and developed based on providing an in-store, hands-on customer experience. However, owner Brad Ruoho told Fortune that “he had to quickly pivot his business and accelerate plans (which were already in motion before the pandemic) to build an online store immediately.” Ruoho said, “We grew so quickly from literally shipping nothing to shipping several hundred packages a day.”
Adapt and advance your business during a pandemic The traditional office culture of commuting to a physical office building and gathering with colleagues or traveling thousands of miles to meet with clients has been such Italy Phone Number List an ingrained way of conducting business that many organizations were reluctant or outright refused to offer a work-from-home or virtual option. Why? Because that’s the way we’ve always done things, and nothing was forcing us to change. Enter: COVID-19. The world discovered simultaneously how much it needs both the human and the digital aspects working in collaboration to enable life and business to pivot, adapt, and reinvent normal.
It’s nothing that digitally mature businesses didn’t already know. But such scale and diverse application required continued innovation and adaptation to each unique context and circumstance, whether business, education, social, or personal. While in-person office life is sure to remain important in many respects, thousands of companies discovered that they can indeed function with a largely remote workforce. Because they had to. Suddenly, the world had to find ways to manage stay-at-home orders while working, schooling, socializing, and even entertaining from home. Thankfully, digital tools had been developed to the point of enabling these many adaptations across sectors, industries, and businesses. Now it is time to recognize that the digital era has fully begun.