A DIGITAL FUTURE

FinTech

23 Nov

We may be in the same storm but not in the same boat. Theo Dix looks at the change the world is going through due to the pandemic that has changed the business landscape, some in a positive way, others not so much.

The world has never faced so much change in such a short period. How we work, how we live and how we shop are all being fundamentally altered. While the pandemic will pass, many changes we see today, whether intensified from existing trends or altogether new, will remain with us as we move forward.

For many businesses, the pandemic accelerated the pace of change. Amid so many challenges and so much uncertainty, they are learning that adapting and evolving isn’t as tricky as they may have thought.

The switch to remote working has challenged people’s conventional views about the workplace. How much time did we spend on traffic and meeting in-person? How could that time have been spent more usefully? Tech companies, famed for their lavish offices, are telling employees that remote work will continue until 2021 — with some global tech players recently announcing that they let employees work from home permanently. And with these changes may also come new opportunities for Malta.

“If companies are now willing to let teams work remotely from different locations, the potential opportunities for Maltese workers with the right skillsets could suddenly become boundless”

In a pre-COVID-19 world, the starting point for seeking out a job was the location — what jobs are available in the city or country I live in and am I prepared to move for the right opportunity? If companies are now willing to let teams work remotely from different locations, the potential opportunities for Maltese workers with the right skillsets could suddenly become boundless. On the flipside, local workers also need to consider that their Malta-based employers might do the same and resource parts of their workforce from overseas.

In the short term, such work is likely to be freelanced or gig-based due to the potential tax implications that remote working from another country may create for the company concerned. But this may change as companies explore new structures and governments consider changes to tax legislation as they get to grips with the rapidly changing environment we are in today.

Falco Weidemeyer, EY-Parthenon Leader for EMEIA recently stated that “When it comes to COVID-19, we are all in the same storm, but we’re not all in the same boat.” All sectors are affected, but the impact varies considerably by industry — and optimal strategies vary per the sector and the company’s position within the industry. While companies in more robust sectors are investing in expanding, those in the weakest sectors are transforming their operations as they fight to survive.

On both sides of the divide, the pandemic has turned a “should do” wish list into an urgent “must do” agenda for company transformation, with much of this built around digital.

But creating a digital company is far more radical than merely augmenting physical operations with digital equivalents. It involves re-imagining the business from its foundation, driving innovation to differentiate against competitors, re-focussing on customer needs, and understanding the foundational technological layers that will underpin it. Leaders also need to think hard about what talent they need for the new challenges ahead. They need to ensure every member of the workforce is equipped to understand and implement rapid digitalisation.

As challenging as it may be, business and policy leaders need to think not only about the now but also what comes next and beyond. We are on the cusp of what has been coined the next industrial revolution, powered by a range of human augmentation technologies - AI, autonomous vehicles, robots, augmented and virtual reality - that will allow us to do more than what was ever imagined. Significant investments in new infrastructure will be required, and new regulations will need to be developed, as technologies such as 5G, edge computing, precision sensors and next-generation batteries enable many advancements to be brought into the mainstream.

Malta’s potential as a pilot site for innovation should not be overlooked. Its size, EU membership, English language attributes and telecommunications infrastructure, coupled with supportive regulatory frameworks and policies towards emerging technologies, make it a great place to test new ideas and showcase them to the world.

Challenging scenarios are often an excellent time for disruptors to enter the fray. Operating on a different set of value drivers, they seek out where others fail, identifying pain-points and needs that incumbents often overlook. This is an opportunity to reset, re-imagine and reinvent. The stakes and the rewards are high for those who win the battle for the beyond.