Operating Systems, Revisited

In The Weekly issue #31 we explored the idea that businesses are merely operating systems that repeat functions. This week, we are revisiting the idea of operating systems given how virtually all companies are refreshing their operating systems in the face of rapid change. There are technology stack and non-technological improvements that can be made to business operations, but this week, we'll focus on technological changes in a few industries as well as by business function.

COVID-19 is forcing many businesses to transition rapidly to cloud-based solutions to fulfill customer demand and adapt to accelerating industry trends. It is also highlighting the risks for businesses who tend to adapt slower to new technologies.

Here are a few examples by industry and business function that we've noticed over the last few weeks:

Industries

Retail - scrambling to adopt to online fulfillment and on-demand delivery, moving from offline to online

Restaurants - adapting to ghost kitchen operations, Doordash and delivery, and emphasizing value of offering vs. experience and location

Healthcare - adapting to telehealth: remote triage, diagnosis, and prescriptions 

Commercial real estate - office redesigns for touchless entry and exit, potential increase in flex needs, potential decrease in overall square footage needs

Education - asking existential questions around in-person vs. online education models, pricing of the '4 year experience', and questioning student-debt problems

Business Functions

Finance - digital payments are heavily preferred over checks and cash due to COVID-19 transmission issues

Project management - a robust cloud project management platform is a must during mandatory work-from-home conditions

Communication - absolute emphasis Zoom, Google Meet, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Workday

Marketing - increased emphasis on online ad spend vs. offline physical marketing

Logistics - touchless delivery, omnichannel approach for retail shifting heavily to online channel

All of these observations reinforce our thought that the adoption timeline for new technologies will shrink post-COVID.

After all, technology's purpose is to provide leverage for a given task to be done in a faster, cheaper, easier manner. Businesses that fail to adopt new technologies risk falling behind relative to competitors.

We would love to hear from employees and owners of SMB's on what new trends they are observing by industry and function. What functions of your business have improved as you have been forced to move them to the cloud? What industries have you seen adapting well to the new technological needs? 

A leader's toolkit for reopening (Scott E. Page, Michigan Ross School of Business)

+ "The coronavirus pandemic creates a set of complex, unanticipated challenges for businesses and organizations. This site is designed to assist with planning a safe reopening:  how to maintain core functions while keeping employees, customers, and communities safe, and how to make work meaningful despite proximity constraints. These same challenges can be reframed as opportunities.  Changes to behaviors, relationships, and structures might improve  organizations in the long run."

How freight master Flexport's Ryan Peterson learned to CEO (TechCrunch)

+ "I didn’t know what the term ‘freight forwarder’ meant until a year into starting the business.” Considering his shipping logistics startup Flexport was last valued at $3.2 billion, that quote from my first interview with CEO and founder Ryan Petersen back in 2016 seems even more surprising now. But it also hints at why he’s one of the most talented and exciting executives in tech: He learns. Humbly. Relentlessly. About whatever the role requires as it evolves."

Flex-office heads discuss industry’s survival (The Real Deal)

+ "Going forward, Hodari said he expects more flex-office companies to opt for management agreements with landlords over leases — as Industrious does — to protect themselves."

The pandemic will change American retail forever (The Atlantic)

+ "We are entering a new evolutionary stage of retail, in which big companies will get bigger, many mom-and-pop dreams will burst, chains will proliferate and flatten the idiosyncrasies of many neighborhoods, more economic activity will flow into e-commerce, and restaurants will undergo a transformation unlike anything the industry has experienced since Prohibition. This is a dire forecast, but there is a glimmer of hope. If cities become less desirable in the next few years, they will also become cheaper to live in. In time, more affordable rents could attract more interesting people, ideas, and companies. This may be the cyclical legacy of the coronavirus: suffering, tragedy, and then rebirth."

Mary Meeker's exclusive COVID-19 trends report (Axios)

+ Mary Meeker is known for her annual Internet Trends Report, which many use as a touchstone for where tech is now and where it's going. This report is Meeker's attempt to distill technology trends accelerating during COVID-19.

The retail pulse (Within)

+ "Using data from a sampling of clients, we are tracking year-over-year trends in ecommerce revenue, ad spend, and conversion rate relative to the pre-COVID benchmark period."

Digital strategies to get your brand through COVID-19 (Within)

+ This Q&A white paper is a follow-up to the retail pulse above on how to think through branding and marketing during COVID-19.

Where Americans are moving - 2019 migration report (North American Moving Services)

+ "For inbound moves, the top five states in 2019 were identical to 2018, with Idaho first followed in order by Arizona, South Carolina, Tennessee, and North Carolina."

Employee COVID-19 impact survey (Permanent Equity)

+ "In our Owner/Operator survey, 70% of business owners did not intend to expand work from home options post-crisis. Employees seem to feel differently, with 62% reporting that they have the same or more productivity when working from home and over half stating they would prefer to work from home after restrictions are lifted. Bigger concerns are raised with childcare. Only 39% of those with children say they can return to a normal schedule post-crisis, with the balance needing to either continue working from home, relying on family, or unsure of how they’re going to handle their childcare needs."

Jubilee Jim Fisk and the great Civil War score (Boston Globe)

+ "In 1865, a failed stockbroker tries to pull off one of the boldest financial schemes in American history: the original big short."

We'd love your help.

If you stumble across something great, send it to weekly@permanentequity.com.

If you know an owner, operator, or someone who works with SMB's, please give us the highest compliment and send them our way. You can find previous The Weekly issues here.