A reinventing and sustaining business can teach us a very important lesson!

Shutters are being eaten away by rust and businesses around the world are struggling to live out these few weeks that could easily stretch into months. Protecting lives is our utmost priority but if seen through lens of a business, Corona is eating away at the economy like termite. Faced with this unpleasant reality, a business should focus on reinventing and sustaining itself. Whether it is suspending production facilities or furloughing workers, they are thriving to keep with the status quo ante.

Instead of building a dog-eat-dog world, it is the need of the hour to understand how interdependent we all are. The performance of one business has the potential to affect the well being of another. The objective of meeting customer's expectations to play a fuller part in supporting public services, the safety of employees, and focusing on the interests of shareholders have left businesses gasping for air.

A few businesses are making headway in the area with their maverick-esque thinking. 

Ola and Uber: They know just what to do

On-demand cab startups like Ola and Uber have resumed operations with emergency services. Ola Emergency facilitates non-COVID riders to book a ride to the hospital in case of an emergency. With its availability in selected cities like Vizag, Bhubaneshwar, Nashik and Gurugram, Bengaluru, and Varanasi, they have many more cities in the pipeline to offer their services. Its competitor, Uber has also stepped into the cause with Uber Essential. These cab service providers claim to be equipped with masks, sanitizers, and trained drivers.

Gifting made easy 

Gifting platform, Ferns N Petals has devised an applaudable strategy for reinventing and sustaining their business by coming up with digital gifting. In an attempt to make birthdays, anniversaries, or any special occasion memorable during this never-ending lockdown, they are doing personalized video messages and virtual gigs. Performing close to 500 gigs per day, they are now thinking of converting it into a long-term business. In order to expand their market niche, they are also catering their services to kids through e-story books. 

Laughter is brightest where the food is

Apart from adapting to the basic strategies of launching contactless payments and deliveries to reduce face-to-face interactions, online food delivery platforms like Swiggy and Zomato have now started to deliver groceries in tier 1 and tier 2 cities. They are gradually covering both online and offline retailers like Grofers, BigBasket, Marico, and Vishal Mega Mart. Moreover, with Swiggy Go and Swiggy Genie, one can get any item picked and dropped from a nearby store.

Because fitness is not just a hobby

This is an industry that solely depends on face-to-face interaction, right? But they are not behind in finding new ways to reach their customers and reinvent their business. Many fitness centers and gyms are now streaming online classes through digital channels. More like a symbiotic association with these fitness classes, people are also looking for fitness influencers who are delivering content related to self-care. However, the current times seem to be a silver lining for digital fitness platforms like Aaptiv, Mirror, and Peloton who were already dedicated to remote fitness.

The power of entertainment

Whether it is BookMyShow or Insider, these are now not merely online ticketing platforms. They have emerged as the King of live streaming these days by introducing a wide range of options to live stream events. Comedy shows, yoga sessions, or music events you name it they have it. Some of the offerings include Theatre Live - The Stage Comes Home, Live From HQ, StayFitIndiaChallenge series, and LiveInYourLivingRoom. These free virtual programs are successfully making space in people's routines by providing a spot of safe and uncompromised entertainment.

The world is turned upside down by the horrors of the Corona crisis and we all need inspiration. We need to take inspiration from these businesses and get started on some out of the box thinking that will help us sail through these difficult time. 

Take all precautionary measures and stay safe.