Mumbai: The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated several global business trends in favour of digitalization & focussing on digital avenues and collaborating beyond boundaries will be the stepping stones for the global economy to climb out of this disruption, said the keynote speakers at ET Unwired Reimagining Business Series on Thursday.
Sir Martin Sorrell, executive chairman, S4 Capital and founder WPP, said that India is in the midst of a shopping revolution. The multi-billion-dollar investments by Facebook and several others in the telecom-technology-commerce triple play of Jio Platforms show that.
“People who run enterprises may have been resistant to change to digital but now all that has vanished as the pandemic has forced us towards the digital age,” Sorrell said. The lockdowns to contain covid-19 pandemic have inculcated new “e-habits” in people, said Harsh Mariwala, chairman, Marico. “E-learning, shopping, E-consultation with doctor, virtual meetings, working from home — we have been doing these for over two months now, so we have become good at it. Digital is the way forward,” he said.
Biocon executive chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw rued that “the pharma industry still has not heeded the message.” There is competition to find a billion-dollar vaccine for Covid-19 and “instead of knowledge collaboration, knowledge competition is happening,” she said.
Talking on the importance of virtual learning, Sal Khan, founder & CEO, Khan Academy said that the viral pandemic will catalyze a lot of things and education is the first half of rapid evolution we are going to see. “At this time, if you do not have internet access you will feel isolated. That’s where bridging the digital divide comes in. We are seeing positive energy to close the divide; within weeks things are being addressed, added Khan.