COVID-19: An expensive lesson about the digital divide
Six weeks of isolation has given us all much room for thought and I have been thinking about the future — its personal impacts as well as commercial opportunities and repercussions. Technology may be drivers of the future but pandemics have, and always will, shape history.
In 1991, Malaysia heard a vision for 2020: economic prosperity, social well-being, political stability, psychological balance, amongst other goals. Granted we have made remarkable strides in most pillars regardless of which side of the political fence one sits with, but the reality of it is that in 2020, with all that progress, the world came to a halt. Thirty years ago, there were predictions of flying cars. Today, our airplanes remain parked on the ground; irony that has sparked a widely circulated internet meme.
This pandemic is, first and foremost, a global humanitarian one. As a spillover effect, it has been truly upsetting to watch legacy businesses suffer because of fair-thought reliance on traditional models without having created new foundations fast enough to to embrace modernization, i.e. new ways of thinking and working harnessed by digital technology. Were their demise and lost jobs in some of these businesses avoidable casualties? Thirty years ago, we could not have predicted how fast technology would transform our lives nor its dependence as an economic lifeline. While societies welcomed these advancements over time, not everybody focused on how new technologies would alter how we live and trade in more fundamental ways today.
The same is to be said of small businesses: half of Malaysia’s small businesses are generating over 10% of sales through digital channels and while they are well-equipped to offset some losses from traditional means for now, we cannot accurately predict what the next six months will look like. Smaller entities have little margin for error and so every decision made will ultimately determine if they can weather the storm. The hope is that if we come out of this partial lockdown thriving, companies will continue to grow and adapt to the significant shifts in consumer behavior towards online purchases that have taken place over the past few months, habits which will likely continue.
Personally, I am ready to make economic contributions to establishments other than my local grocery store, however, I also wonder if the lifts may be premature. In the same breath, I recognize the strain this pandemic has placed on our economy in losing RM2.4 billion (~USD558 million) daily and with that, a large portion of businesses are scrambling to survive. With government reliefs in place to cushion the economic blow our world is fighting head on, we are now presented with a forced opportunity to modernize for a greater good in a post COVID-19 era.
I relish in the fact that as an individual, I have been able to maintain conversations with an outside world, stay connected, entertained and consume real-time information thanks to the internet. Having said so, although modern technology has powered business continuity and helped in maintaining relationships despite social distancing, we must remember that there remains a small minority who lack access to hardware and connectivity and risk being digitally excluded, another area in which I hope policymakers will assist when addressing the nation’s digital divide.
Change is something not many voluntarily accept. Necessity being the mother of invention and innovation will hopefully push us and companies alike to starkly rethink behaviors and old models to prepare for the “next normal”. As the Malaysian economy arranges itself to open on the 4th of May, there remains a worry for some businesses who have shown resilience during this crisis to head back to being business as usual, attributable to natural human behavior. If there are any lessons the pandemic has taught us, it is certainly that digital technology is needed for daily living and business continuity in some shape or form, not a “want”. As the world readies to come out of the dark, we must, as individuals and companies — no matter the size — lay foundations for a sustainable future.