At the beginning of April 2020, we are in the midst of an unprecedented crisis brought on by the global COVID-19 pandemic that has resulted in a sudden hit to economic activity. While China appears to be emerging from disruption and South Korea and Japan have made significant progress, we are seeing the brunt of impact shutting down major Western countries, including Italy, Germany, Spain, France, the UK and United States. The pandemic is a proverbial “black swan” event that has caught most of the major economies unprepared. The broad-based shutdowns of businesses, public places and all but essential services in many areas, coupled with mandated travel restrictions and social distancing, is affecting nearly a third of the world’s population.
The difficult reality is that a recession is likely, and it’s not clear whether the strong underlying pre-COVID economic fundamentals will drive a “U” or “V” shaped recovery. Because of the new realities of social distancing, prior demand patterns in some industries are not likely to return. The vibrancy of major cities characterized by high population density may take a lingering hit as workers able to telecommute decamp to suburbs and rural areas.
There’s reason for hope, however: many countries including the US have implemented massive fiscal stimulus plans to ease the near-term pain, the lessons from countries seeing success slowing the spread are guiding others, and there is a wartime-scale mobilization of public and private resources to accelerate development of therapies and vaccines. E-commerce, delivery and supply chain businesses are hiring aggressively to address surging demand. Schools and organizations of all sizes are swiftly adapting to remote learning and working.
The biggest challenge of the current crisis is managing uncertainty - which is one part of crisis - but the other part is opportunity. When events force rapid changes in behavior, people are more amenable to adopt new innovations, and this provides a unique opening for creative entrepreneurs to break through the inertias that characterize status quo. Looking back on prior eras of recession, conflict and natural disasters, each period gives rise to new and better ways of doing things – providing fertile ground for enterprising new ventures to gain a solid foothold in their journey to success.
The new landscape will bring new regulations and policies, changes to organizational preparedness, new demands for talent, and distinct changes to societal dynamics. There are unprecedented opportunities to embrace new technologies such as cloud computing and SaaS, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, 3D Printing, Blockchain, Drones, Robotics and Automation – and most directly impacting the trajectory of future health crisis – computational Genomics.
Contribute your insights to our Digital Industry Ecosystem
______
At times like these we can leverage the power of our Digital Industry ecosystem, to not only share our practitioner's perspective but also collect insights from our ecosystem on how we ALL see COVID-19 impacting business now and beyond.
As a valued member of Momenta Partner's network, we invite you to share your insights by participating in a short survey - designed to take less than 5 minutes.
The findings and insights from this survey will be shared in our next webinar "The Newest Normal" during which we will explore the implications, challenges and opportunities for Strategy, Human Capital and Technology-led Innovation.
We would appreciate to receive your survey responses by April 15th.
How exactly will our world look when COVID-19 abates? How will digitalization be impacted? We believe this crisis accentuates digital transformation’s importance and that efforts to develop, proliferate, and implement digital strategies will accelerate. Crisis = Danger + Opportunity.
Investing In & Accelerating Digital Industry Disruptors
______
Momenta Portfolio CEOs Share Best Practices
Momenta Partners recently held a CEO Roundtable for our portfolio companies and asked them how they were coping with COVID-19 and what advice they would give fellow CEOs running startups targeting Digital Industry. See results here.
Join Our Portfolio company RevTwo, Microsoft &Tetra Pak for their Webinar
Placing Digital Industry Leaders & Building Teams ______
BrightInsight a leading global, regulated IoT platform for the world’s top biopharma and medtech companies retains Momenta Partners to appoint Executive Leadership in the UK.
Bay Area basedGeminus, developers of the world’s first industrial process centric digital twin product appoints a VP Engineering following a retained search by Momenta Partners.
Passport Parking, a Charlotte, NC headquartered, leading provider of mobility software for cities, transit agencies, universities, and private operators in the parking and transportation industries has appointed a SVP Marketing following a retained search by Momenta Partners.
Xylem a global leader developing innovative water solutions through smart technology hires Digital Transformation Leadership following a retaineded searches by Momenta Partners.
Edge Podcast
Featuring leading practitioners, innovators and thinkers across Digital Industry and the digital technology landscape.
Market leading practitioners, entrepreneurs, industry experts, authors, investors and thinkers of digital transformation share perspectives on their experience, successes, misses, lessons and outlook for the future.