JONATHAN COOK: Businesses will get nowhere fast without adapting to the times

When online shops were required to limit sales to essential goods, back under level 5 lockdown, they had to scrabble to remove all other goods from their websites — not a trivial project. I was interested to see one (smaller) local company get it right in hours, while another (bigger) company’s site was down for days.

One of the distinguishing features between businesses that are surviving the pandemic and those that are not is the speed with which the former adapt to the changing environment. Another related feature is a focus outward on the needs of their customers rather than inward on their own difficulties. The latter focuses on problems, while the former sees opportunities, leading to innovative ways to do the previously impossible.