Covid-19, disrupting disruption

(2-4 min read)

For a decade we have heard how technology will disrupt business models, and how we all need to adapt to survive. It’s fair to say that even if our major sectors like oil, fish and finance have done much digitalization and changes, the foundation remains the same. Fundamental change has been a slow moving train. Why? There has been no sense of urgency.

Then came Covid-19. The pandemic has forced radical change for businesses and people in all corners of the world. Closed schools, quarantine, shops closing, financial markets crash, record drop in oil price, all happening in a matter of weeks. Not in many decades has such a broad line of businesses been forced to change so much, so rapidly.
In the shadow of increasing unemployment and dropping sales come stories of lighting-fast adoption and innovation. Here are some brilliant examples from our neighborhood:

Søtt+Salt

Our favourite lunch restaurant Gartneriet, lost more or less all customers when home-schooling and home-office became widespread. The same happened for the rest of the 2 000 lunch meals Søtt+Salt serve every normal day. How could they limit the impact of all their customers not leaving their homes? In a few days the dynamic management team had built a new product line, cooking batches of dinner that they deliver at your door. Healthy good food for you to serve your family when you have been doing your best trying to teach at two different grades and looking fabulous on video meetings for 8 hours straight. Check it out here (Norwegian): sottogsalt.no

Bareksten

No travels = no tax free. That was not good news for Bareksten who relies heavily on the tax-free sales for their highly awarded, premium botanical gin. Standing in the distillery looking at the unused production capacity they had a brilliant idea. Covid-19 decreased tax-free sales, but it increased the demand for another spirits based product; hand sanitizer. The extreme shortage for this product has put Bareksten back in business with full production. Only a true change-willing management team can adopt this quickly. They are even selling their new product at reasonable prices, as a response to other companies profiting on the crisis. Read about them (in Norwegian) here: bt.no (subscription) 

Quantfolio

Covid-19 is hitting the financial industry hard. Asset managers and fund managers suffer through their exposure in the markets. Banks are nervously monitoring their risk for mortgage and business loan failures. Budgets for new, cool tech are limited to secure liquidity. So how can Quantfolio adapt to this and continue providing value to our customers? By using a classic strategy, divide and conquer... in a slightly different context:
We are dividing our state-of-the-art robo product into modules that can be purchased and used separately. This way you can access the features you want quicker AND cheaper and build your robo capabilities one step at the time.
Using our standard APIs, you can offer your customers portfolio advice, advanced saving calculators and fund selection assistance, and many other cool features out-of-the-box. We can even provide ready-made widgets you can put directly on your website.

Give your customers the tools they need to make high-quality investment decisions.