What is missing in the latest McKinsey Report on COVID-19? — EASTWEST Public Relations

McKinsey & Company just issued a new report entitled ‘The COVID-19 recovery will be digital: A plan for the first 90 days.’

In the report the authors say ‘recent data show that we have vaulted five years forward in consumer and business digital adoption in a matter of around 8 weeks.’ What has happened though isn’t just the warp speed adoption of new technologies to bridge distances, it is a fundamental shift in working practices and attitudes. US consumers are accelerating adoption of digital channels for a growing number of services, and in China COVID has engraved the hallmark of mobile commerce onto the tombstones of bricks & mortar retailers.

How will this impact PR?

Firstly, do entrepreneurs need to run their business differently, secondly how will they communicate these changes not only to customers but to staff and non-permanent team members who are now dispersed in home offices.

Speaking with a publisher this week holed up in Sydney, he shared that he is considering if he should follow other companies in moving his titles completely online, closing physical offices in Manilla, Hong Kong and Singapore, and having all workers become remote and quite possibly freelance to reduce overheads. “No one is visiting airline lounges, hotels, or offices — magazines which lived on proximity to crowds are dead,” he said.

A conversation with a PR agency owner in London illustrated how the fortunes of all are not the same. His mid size well established Agency has won new business from companies which are growing out of the crisis, but his staff are all now working from home. The owner is seeing new revenue and happy clients but enjoys life without the commute, and so he’s wondering if he should keep an office or save the 25% of his cost base by going virtual.

The smart people at McKinsey are saying that the first 90 days post Covid includes 4 efforts: refocus on digital efforts toward changing customer expectations, use data and AI to improve business operations, selectively modernise technology capabilities, and increase the organizational drumbeat. What’s missing in my view is the specific articulation that organizations will need to address their communications strategies.

Originally published at https://www.eastwestpr.com.