Digital Transformation: The Advantages and Challenges Amidst a Pandemic

By: Carla Graciele Suliman.

Faced with the “new normal” that emerged since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2019, we found ourselves in a scenario of many insecurities and uncertainties in the business environment. Isolation skyrocketed consumption, and companies sought to digitally transform themselves to meet this new demand and not be left behind.

According to Porter (1998), technological change is one of the main drivers of competition, allowing companies to highlight their competitive advantages in the market. Advantages threatened by the pandemic, which created a new type of consumer, with new behaviors, priorities, and values, impacting all market scenarios. The need to reinvent and accelerate digital investments to remain active in the market was the subject of a survey carried out by SBCV in March 2020, which showed that 90% of retail companies would invest 0.73% of their revenue in digital transformation. Therefore, the search for more efficiency to meet the new needs and continue adding value to the final consumer-created an accelerated and favorable scenario of technological transformation in companies.

Digital transformation has allowed companies to expand their business and equipment, and improve techniques, among other undeniable benefits, but consumer satisfaction makes a difference in this scenario. According to the Gartner website (2021), the Consumer Values and Lifestyle survey in 2019 shows that 61% of respondents in Europe and 59% in the US link their consumption to sustainability and cites as an example of transparency and added value to the Carrefour's IBM Food Trust application. Therefore, the technological investment related to creating value for its customers has kept companies profitable and is considered a differential in the new scenario.

Companies need to seek constant innovation by defining strategies linked to the technological context to remain competitive and agile while also adding social and economic values to their products.


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