online business in pandemic essay

The rise of the have a go entrepreneur: how to set up an online business for success during the pandemic

Many of us have faced work challenges due to the long-term restrictions implemented as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, with unemployment estimated to be at its highest since 2016 at 4.9%.

However, 2020 is estimated to have seen a 12% growth in new businesses compared to the previous year and, according to a study from Growth Intelligence, the pandemic resulted in more than 85,000 online businesses being established during the height of national lockdown last year. The fashion and clothing sector saw the biggest uplift in new e-commerce businesses, with 8,665, followed by manufacturing (7,129) and food and drink retail (4,156).

With the demand for online business set to increase further during the current lockdown, leading business expert, Andres Perez, Director at The University of Law (ULaw) Business School , highlights the five best practices to help get your business venture off to a flying start:

Identify your point of difference

For any business to be successful the product or service being offered needs to not only appeal to customers, but also offer something unique. Being in direct competition with other brands which may be much better established could prove challenging, so spend time defining what sets you apart from the competition from the start.

Mr Perez adds: “Inspiration to find a gap in the market can often come from looking at your hobbies and passions, to identify if there is something you could provide that is better or varies from what is already available. It is also important to test your idea on potential customers. If you have a food product for example, ask your friends and family for honest feedback before rolling it out to market.”

Do your consumer research

Once you have established where your business will meet consumer demand, Mr Perez advises it is vital to do your due diligence when analysing the industry you’ll be entering and the customer behaviour within it.

If you have a website, Google Analytics can provide invaluable data on how your audience and customers interact, including what content and products are of the most interest. Other free Google tools, such as Google Search Trends, can give you a good idea of what people are searching for online, which can help to inform content or product development. Making use of social media to discover trends of conversation within a sector will also help you tailor your product or service to have an impact.

Do what you can on a low budget

The most likely scenario is you’ll be starting a new business project with little to no money, but you can achieve a lot through investing nothing but your own time. The logistics of setting up a business costs just £12, whilst designing a basic website in the first instance can be done for free on the likes of Wordpress to establish a base of operations for your brand.

Making use of social media is a must in order to network and promote your service or ideas for free and get your brand known and start building your reputation, says Mr Perez. There are endless free learning resources available to help you develop an appropriate strategy, such as Google’s Digital Garage and Moz’s beginner’s guide to social media .

Design a business plan

Establishing a business plan is invaluable as it will enable you to identify the business’ short- and long-term objectives as well as an outline of how to achieve them. This can include anything from how you intend to promote your product, to investment in growth, and will ensure that anyone who gets involved in the project is on the same page and striving towards the same goal.

Putting together a good business plan is relatively simple and should follow a simple structure. Start with an introduction outlining the key elements and goals of the business, before mapping out the official business model and structure. Once this is established, you should include a review of your product or service and a breakdown of the customer and market you are looking to target, followed by analysis of competitors. Finish off your plan with a clearly defined marketing and sales strategy, followed by a projection of finances to ensure your business is geared up to make a splash.

Know your obligations

When starting out with your own business, as well as establishing a good product, brand and strategy, it is just as important to make sure all the admin and legal requirements are dealt with. Be sure to register your company on Companies House, provide an appropriate name and address and swat up on what type of business it’ll be, such as a limited company or sole trader.

Once the legalities of your business are finalised, you’ll be required to set up appropriate finances, such as a business account, and be aware of which taxes you’ll be eligible to pay. Calculating the tax you pay can be confusing so keeping a record of all transactions and paperwork will save you a lot of hassle come the end of the financial year.

Andres Perez at ULaw Business School further commented: “Although the pandemic has presented some real challenges, the restrictions have given people time to pursue their own business opportunities online, from the comfort of their homes.

“Establishing a business around a passion is important and we saw a lot of small ventures catering to the needs of those living in a pandemic begin to thrive in 2020, such as quirky food services or those selling hand crafted clothes and jewellery.

“Being able to provide a product or service easily at home is the cornerstone of any successful business set up in lockdown and we hope the advice we’ve provided will inspire many aspiring entrepreneurs to take on a new project whilst living in such tight restrictions.”

To find out more about what courses are available to help you succeed in business, visit: https://www.law.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/business/  

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Impact of COVID Pandemic on eCommerce

The COVID pandemic crisis has forced many small businesses to reassess the decades-old traditional business models or face closing permanently. New and existing technologies are thrust to the forefront of every business toolkit, and forward-looking businesses are addressing talent questions that arise from these new digital business skillsets.

A Global Post-Crisis Bounce in eCommerce Sales?

Risk of further business closures from COVID-related disruptions, in addition to the inherent financial fragility of business, paints a grim forecast for many businesses still open. Or is this just an opinion based on a lack of data?

In the chart below we see a distinct upward jog in total global retail sales from 2019-2020, giving a strong boost to a steady 8% growth in retail ecommerce sales worldwide forecast through 2024 .This shows us an increase in online retail sales as a result of the paradigm shift that COVID disruptions have brought to business.

Pandemic Impact to Worldwide Consumer Behavior

As various pandemic-related business restrictions that prevented in-person activities crept across the world’s regions, business turned to the pandemic-proof ecommerce sales channels for basic survival. Online, global consumers could not stop purchasing through their favorite websites (44% of global digital purchases) and online marketplaces (47% of global digital purchases). In response to this consumer migration to digital, Brazil , Spain , Japan saw the largest increase in number of businesses selling online as a reaction to the pandemic.

  In the chart below we see a forecast increase of 19% n worldwide ecommerce revenue between pre-and-post COVID-19 timeframes in 2020. Food & Personal Care products show the most growth with a forecast increase of 26% of revenue as a result of consumer transition to online sales channels.

Pandemic Impact to Global Small B2B

The COVID pandemic has impacted business countries around the globe differently, creating opportunities for some where business was once lost. Small B2B companies in the United Kingdom and Brazil for example had significant increases in online revenue from their pre-COVID online sales figures.

Boosted by Pandemic, Cross-Border eCommerce Continues to Grow

The data tells us that COVID pandemic-related business restrictions have forced a global business paradigm shift towards the digital economy, which has negatively impacted traditional business models while also creating opportunity through sales diversification online.

This chart shows us clearly the impact to global ecommerce revenues the pandemic has had, adding an additional 19% sales growth for 2020, and additional 22% sales growth to the existing 9% and 12% regular forecast sales growth rates, respectively.

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COVID-19: Implications for business

Covid-19: briefing note #100, april 13, 2022, as covid-19 becomes endemic in much of the world, we turn our focus to sustainable and inclusive growth..

On March 2, 2020, just over a week before a global pandemic was declared, we published COVID-19: Briefing note #1. Our plan was to publish an update on the virus’s implications for business for as many weeks as the news felt urgent. We did not expect to continue for more than two years, nor to ever publish briefing note #100, as we have today.

It’s painful to reflect on these 100 editions, on the millions of lives lost, the suffering and grief, and the myriad disruptions to lives and livelihoods. But in what is perhaps a hopeful sign, we now feel the time is right to stop. COVID-19 news seems less urgent than at any time in the past two years. All of McKinsey’s published work now intrinsically accounts for the pandemic, even if it is not directly mentioned. COVID-19 has gone from being a fresh emergency to a fact of life.

In a few weeks, we will relaunch this weekly report with links to the latest McKinsey publications. Our new theme will be sustainable and inclusive growth. After more than two years of reporting on a destructive force, we look forward to sharing our research and thoughts on how people and organizations can build a better world.

McKinsey is already exploring how to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth, the topic of the inaugural episode of the new Future of America podcast . McKinsey Global Institute director and senior partner Kweilin Ellingrud and senior partner Greg Kelly discuss how leading companies can use the pandemic recovery as an opportunity to accelerate prosperity  for more Americans. Customers and consumers want to be associated with companies that are making a positive difference. Companies can accelerate inclusivity and sustainability by having real awareness, committing to change, rewarding the change, and providing coaching and development to make the change happen.

After more than two years of reporting on a destructive force, we look forward to sharing our research and thoughts on how people and organizations can build a better world.

Much near-term growth will arise from a once-in-a-lifetime wave of capital spending on physical assets  between now and 2027. This surge of roughly $130 trillion in investment will flood into projects to decarbonize and renew critical infrastructure. But few organizations are prepared to deliver on this capital influx with the speed and efficiency it demands. Companies should consider implementing a portfolio-synergistic strategy in which planning is top down, a major business challenge requiring savvy stakeholder management, capital markets expertise, and an understanding of complex approval processes.

Sustainable, inclusive growth will require changing the workplace to maximize the contributions of all people. In the COVID-19 era, women across all sectors have shouldered more household responsibilities, and more women report feelings of burnout. These problems can be more acute for women in healthcare, who have fewer opportunities to work remotely and report feeling greater pressure to prioritize work over family. In spite of these challenges, healthcare continues to outperform other sectors in the representation of women , who make up more than two-thirds of entry-level employees and 53 percent of employees in roles at the senior-manager level or above, which is 18 percentage points higher than the average across all sectors.

Each sector, industry, and function will have to reinvent itself to achieve maximum growth and sustainability. Procurement leaders, for example, are facing one of the toughest market environments of their careers. Procurement organizations need to take a leading role in protecting enterprise margin and growth , invest in proven technology and process automation, and build deep expertise in supply market dynamics, among other fundamental changes. A pair of articles featuring McKinsey and outside experts explore how the CFO’s role is also rapidly evolving —expanding in scope, requiring new capabilities, and demanding greater collaboration with C-suite peers. Among the most significant changes to the role is the demand for CFOs to help promote capability building and talent development  within their organizations.

Here are other key findings from our research this week:

• Lithium is needed to produce virtually all batteries currently used in electric vehicles (EVs) as well as consumer electronics. We believe the world will secure enough lithium for the EV revolution , as long as new mining technologies and potential mining sites receive funding and end users communicate upcoming needs so that lithium miners have enough time to react.
• Our interactive explores how fashion is finding ways to participate in the metaverse .
• McKinsey’s methodology can be used to prioritize investments in innovations based on the economic impact of the health improvements they deliver to society .

Our latest edition of McKinsey for Kids   explores how programmers use games to teach computers how to think, ultimately developing AI. Kids can read, take quizzes, and watch animations to learn about how the human brain and computers are both alike and different and about a cornerstone of AI programming called “reinforcement learning.”

In our latest edition of Author Talks , neuroscience expert and Cognitas Group cofounder Dr. Laura Watkins discusses her new book (coauthored with Vanessa Dietzel), The Performance Curve: Maximize Your Potential at Work while Strengthening Your Well-being   (Bloomsbury Publishing, November 2021). Using insights from neuroscience, adult development psychology, yoga, and behavioral therapy, the book proposes practical ways to improve work performance without sacrificing mental or physical health.

This briefing note was edited by Katy McLaughlin, a senior editor in McKinsey’s Southern California office.

COVID-19: Briefing note #99, April 6, 2022

Some pandemic effects will take a long time to cure..

COVID-19 appears to be moving to endemicity in some parts of the world. But even in these places, some of the pandemic’s damaging consequences are only now being assessed and understood. This week, McKinsey studied the degrees of learning loss suffered by students around the world. We also looked at the pandemic’s lingering effects on the airline industry and on labor markets and examined how long it might take for some things to go back to how they used to be and why others never will.

On average, students globally are eight months behind  where they would have been absent the COVID-19-pandemic, but the impact varies widely (exhibit). Within countries, the pandemic also widened gaps between historically vulnerable students and more privileged peers. We estimate by 2040, unfinished learning related to COVID-19 could translate to annual losses of $1.6 trillion to the global economy. Educational systems could consider a tiered approach to support reengagement, with more support (including social and emotional) for the highest-risk students.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused airline revenues to drop by 60 percent in 2020, and air travel and tourism are not expected to return to 2019 levels before 2024. Challenges vary across the global aviation landscape. In particular, airlines need to bolster their resilience  by increasing their cash reserves, which would reduce the need for bailouts every time a crisis hits, and by improving their ability to reduce supply quickly and cost-effectively when demand abruptly falls. McKinsey’s latest survey of more than 5,500 air travelers globally  revealed a potential long-term challenge: the share of respondents who say they plan to fly less to minimize their environmental impact rose five percentage points since 2019 to 36 percent, and more than half of respondents said that aviation should become carbon neutral in the future. “Flygskam,” or shame about flying, plays a role. Leading airlines that build a brand promise on sustainability will likely attract a growing share of business.

In a current episode of McKinsey Talks Talent , McKinsey talent experts Bryan Hancock and Bill Schaninger discuss the power workers have gained as an indirect effect of the pandemic . Although there has been some high-profile organizing activity, the real source of worker power comes from the current high demand for labor and because remote workers have a wider-than-ever range of job choices.

• On the latest episode of The McKinsey Podcast , Sven Smit, senior partner and chair of the McKinsey Global Institute, discussed some potential effects of the ongoing war in Ukraine . Refugee numbers may climb from the current few million to ten or even 15 million. The potential doubling or even tripling of food and energy prices could cause hardship for less well-off populations around the world.
• Distributors can learn from Amazon Business and other large digital players that are building best-in-class distribution networks  and offering products they used to avoid due to technical or supply chain challenges.
• Paper and forest product CEOs should consider future-proofing companies with strategies such as “precision forestry”; by leading on environmental, social, and governance (ESG); and by harnessing digital and analytics capabilities to strengthen competitiveness.
• The semiconductor industry’s aggregate annual growth could average from 6 to 8 percent a year up to 2030, resulting in a $1 trillion industry. Amid the growth of remote working, AI, and demand for electric vehicles, manufacturers and designers should now take stock and ensure they are best placed to reap the rewards.
• General and administrative functions can optimize for speed and flexibility by eliminating the silos that traditionally occur between different departments. This will drive better cross-department coordination and allow leaders to realign staff more efficiently.
• Health provider systems could prioritize efforts to meet patients’ unmet needs  by creating partnerships with schools, community organizations, payers, private businesses, and government agencies.
• In 2020, Californians bought and wore more than 500,000 tons of clothing, almost all of which will eventually enter landfills covering an area about 3.5 times the size of the City of Los Angeles. The key to reducing fashion waste is circularity —building a closed loop for recycling materials back into the manufacturing process.

In our latest edition of Author Talks , Todd Rose, a former Harvard University professor and the cofounder of the think tank Populace, discusses his latest book, Collective Illusions: Conformity, Complicity, and the Science of Why We Make Bad Decisions   (Hachette Book Group, February 2022). The book explores why people are likely to buy into fundamental misunderstandings of what most people think.

Also in Author Talks , we spoke with Amy Zegart, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University, where she is also a professor of political science. Zegart discussed her new book , Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence   (Princeton University Press, February 2022). The book explores the current state of intelligence, why the government is behind on adopting new technologies, and what the public misunderstands about the spy business.

COVID-19: Briefing note #98, March 30, 2022

One of covid-19’s health effects is the transformation of healthcare..

The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the world’s health but may leave a lasting legacy of improving how the world addresses healthcare. The effort to develop and distribute vaccines demonstrated how much can be achieved with global collaboration, lessons that can be applied to ambitious improvements in well-being. This week, McKinsey explored how the pandemic changed healthcare approaches, including expectations, delivery, viral-vector gene therapy, investment, and consumer attitudes.

Humanity mobilized against COVID-19 at a speed and scale previously unseen. While far from perfect, the undertaking’s successes should inspire the world to challenge the view of what is possible. Over the past century, life expectancy has dramatically increased in most parts of the world, but the portion of life that human beings spend in moderate and poor health hasn’t changed (exhibit). The McKinsey Health Institute believes humanity could add roughly six years per person on average of higher-quality life  by making six major shifts in how the world approaches health.

Even when COVID-19 becomes endemic, healthcare delivery in the United States will continue to transform rapidly . McKinsey’s 14th annual healthcare conference explored the next wave of industry evolution and how healthcare organizations must innovate to thrive. The future of care delivery is evolving to become patient-centric, virtual, ambulatory, in the home, value based, and risk bearing. It will be driven by data and analytics, enabled by new medical technologies, and funded by private investors.

COVID-19 accelerated viral-vector gene therapies . Some of the earliest viral-vector-based therapies targeting rare diseases required companies to produce only about 1,000 doses across development, access programs, and two years of commercialization. In comparison, the unprecedented demand and funding for COVID-19 vaccines enabled a ten- to 100-fold increase in production when adjusted by dose amount, with over two billion doses of the AstraZeneca viral-vector-based vaccine already produced. Keeping pace with increasing demand requires the consideration of challenges, the potential for standardization, and strategizing for accelerating patient access.

In light of growing opportunities, private investors are pouring into healthcare. That becomes clear throughout McKinsey’s annual Global Private Markets Review , which delves into the data and details of a wide range of private markets asset classes, including private equity, debt, real estate, and infrastructure investing. Healthcare is a recurring theme in this year’s report: in 2021, the healthcare sector had the fastest deal-volume growth globally since 2016. Of the largest ten private equity deals in 2021, three were in healthcare, and the largest deal involved a manufacturer and distributor of healthcare supplies. Many of the top 20 private equity firms have dedicated teams for healthcare, which speaks to its growing importance within the asset class.

The number of vaccinated US respondents in McKinsey’s Consumer Health Insights Survey  has remained about the same since November of 2021, when 77 percent reported that they were vaccinated. Approximately 75 percent of respondents to the February survey reported that they’d been vaccinated; in addition, 63 percent of vaccinated respondents plan to stay current on COVID-19 vaccinations as recommended by healthcare leaders. Consumers are increasingly comfortable testing for COVID-19 at home; in fact, it now ranks as the most preferred testing location. Additionally, more than half of respondents indicated that they would prefer a health plan with virtual-health benefits.

• In the next decade, expect giant leaps in outer space. In the latest edition of McKinsey’s multimedia The Next Normal series, “ The future of space: It’s getting crowded out there ,” McKinsey experts and industry executives envision the space industry’s near future.
• Inflation could challenge the buying power of the Department of Defense (DOD) for the $773 million budget approved for fiscal year 2023. To address these risks, the DOD and industry leaders should increase affordability, improve inventory management, and develop better contracts that will help both buyers and sellers if costs rise.
• The US construction sector faces a labor mismatch . In October 2021, 402,000 construction positions in the United States remained unfilled at the end of the month. That’s a headwind for a sector that our modeling suggests could create 3.2 million new jobs across the nonresidential-construction value chain over the next decade.
• More than one-fifth of global greenhouse-gas emissions come from agriculture, making the development and consumer adoption of alternative proteins a meaningful opportunity  to reduce negative climate impacts. Top executives from alternative meat companies spoke to McKinsey about opportunities and challenges facing the industry.
• On the latest episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey partner Mekala Krishnan talks about how companies can get started on the path to net-zero emissions .
• On the McKinsey on Consumer and Retail Podcast , McKinsey retail experts Tiffany Burns and Tyler Harris discuss five things retailers need to improve in omnichannel sales , including making the experience more seamless for customers and getting products to customers faster.

In our latest edition of Author Talks , Tessa West, an NYU associate professor of psychology, talks about her new book, Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to Do about Them   (Portfolio, January 2022). If anyone in the C-suite embraces jerk behaviors, it’s going to trickle down through the company because jerkish behavior is contagious at work, she says.

Also in Author Talks , science journalist Catherine Price discusses her new book, The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again (The Dial Press, December 2021). People can improve their mental and physical health by getting in touch with what is really fun for them and making it a priority—rather than just vegging out in front of a screen, she says.

COVID-19: Briefing note #97, March 23, 2022

Uncertainty returns—but this time, the cause is not covid-19..

The COVID-19 pandemic created short-term disruptions and provoked long-term changes in how the world lives and does business. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is now doing the same. This week, McKinsey published on what we know about the war and some of its possible global consequences. Among them are likely impacts to supply chains and how companies think about preparing for crises, two of our other topics this week. Another article provides a hopeful look at the investment pouring into decarbonization and renewal of infrastructure.

We, like many others, are shocked by the unfolding humanitarian tragedy resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine  (exhibit).

As a result of the war in Ukraine, the era of not looking too closely at supply chains, trusting suppliers, and optimizing for cost is probably over. Those behaviors, already made suspect by new tariff regimes and the COVID-19 pandemic, are now likely to be consigned to history. Our latest research finds that despite progress over the past several years, companies are still struggling to build the capabilities that their emerging digital supply chains  need. The most effective capability-building programs invest in foundational, end-to-end supply chain knowledge building, coupled with advanced functional, technical, and leadership training.

As in any conflict, uncertainty is high, although it is already certain that global consequences will include disruptions to energy and food markets, testing many companies’ resilience. McKinsey’s annual global board survey of approximately 1,500 corporate directors found that a mere 7 percent of respondents gave their boards the highest rating for risk management, and only 40 percent say their organizations are prepared for the next large crisis. On the Inside the Strategy Room podcast, McKinsey senior adviser Nora Aufreiter; senior partner Celia Huber, who leads McKinsey’s board services work in North America; and associate partner Ophelia Usher discussed how boards can improve how they handle big crises .

The world will see a once-in-a-lifetime wave of capital spending on physical assets  between now and 2027. Roughly $130 trillion will flood into projects to decarbonize and renew critical infrastructure. But it won’t be easy: constructing and justifying the cost of a physical asset such as a manufacturing plant is much more difficult than it was decades ago, given inflation, rigorous sustainability requirements, and rapid changes in technology and regulations.

• The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated online purchases and package deliveries at an unprecedented rate. Even conservative estimates project that cross-border e-commerce in goods will expand to about $1 trillion  in merchandise value by 2030, from its current value of approximately $300 billion. Regulations and tariffs are also likely to increase, as are customer expectations for speed, decentralized supply chains, and specialist segments.
• The increasing frequency and magnitude of economic volatility have put more pressure on traditional financial planning and analysis (FP&A) processes and teams. Next-level FP&A teams  have figured out how to build more speed and flexibility into their processes, which can trigger more efficient and effective operations throughout the company.
• Health equity is an opportunity and a challenge for pharmaceutical and life sciences players. By following the data and by working together, organizations can meet needs and create a cycle of trust in underserved communities.
• Debra Facktor, head of U.S. Space Systems for Airbus U.S. Space & Defense , spoke to McKinsey about her job responsibilities, the future of the aerospace sector, and her experience as a woman in a male-dominated industry.
• On the McKinsey Talks Operations podcast, Bruce Lawler, managing director for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Machine Intelligence for Manufacturing and Operations program, and Vijay D’Silva, senior partner emeritus at McKinsey, discussed why some companies are pulling ahead of others with machine learning .
• On the Inside the Strategy Room podcast, Robert Uhlaner, who co-led McKinsey’s Strategy & Corporate Finance Practice until his retirement this summer, and Liz Wol, the global leader of McKinsey’s work on M&A capability building, discussed programmatic M&A . This approach to mergers and acquisitions has proven to be the most successful at delivering results—provided you execute it right.

Our latest edition of Author Talks features Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code and an activist for women’s economic empowerment, discussing her new book, Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work (and Why It’s Different Than You Think) (Atria/One Signal Publishers, March 2022). Working mothers are overburdened and exhausted, so companies that want them to come back to the workforce need to help with childcare, paid leave, and mental-health support.

Also in Author Talks , retired Navy SEAL commander Rich Diviney talks about his book, The Attributes: 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimum Performance (Random House, January 2021). Diviney dives into how we can—and should—assess and develop our own attributes, equipping ourselves for optimum performance within our lives and throughout our careers.

COVID-19: Briefing note #96, March 16, 2022

On the second anniversary of the covid-19-pandemic, we reflect on what we’ve learned..

Just over two years ago, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. Since then, one in every 1,300 people alive in 2019 has died from infection with SARS-CoV-2. Two years on, it is easy to forget how remarkable the development of COVID-19 vaccines was: moving in just 326 days from a genomic sequence to the authorization of a vaccine shattered all previous records.

For this anniversary, we reflected on ten core lessons of the pandemic  (see sidebar), some of which exposed fault lines in our society and others that demonstrated amazing capabilities. A separate initiative compiled two years’ worth of research on pandemic impacts, while a third article examined how the pandemic set input prices rising and what to do about it.

Ten core lessons of the pandemic

• Infectious diseases are a whole-of-society issue.
• The vaccine-development paradigm has been transformed for emergencies and, potentially, for more.
• Conversely, weaknesses in vaccine manufacturing and equitable distribution will require systemic change.
• Trust is one of the most delicate but critical requirements for an effective pandemic response.
• Agility and speed will be the new basis for differentiation.
• Government policy matters—but individual behavior sometimes matters more.
• Schools are the true fulcrum for the functioning of society.
• Work will never be the same.
• Economic stimulus works, but only in concert with strong public-health measures.
• Whether we experience these problems again will depend on the investments and institutions we establish now.

As part of our examination of where the pandemic took us and what’s next, we’ve gathered interviews and articles about COVID-19 from the past two years . Interviews with General James Mattis; Steven M. Jones, co-inventor of the first Ebola vaccine; and McKinsey senior partner Shubham Singhal addressed the crisis as it occurred. Packages of articles examining the pandemic’s effects on areas including healthcare, operations, and sustainable and inclusive growth show how industries have been shaped by the experience and how leaders are looking toward the future.

The aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to rock the global economy. Following the shutdowns of 2020 and the supply chain challenges of 2021, another wave of disruptions is now breaking over businesses around the world: rising input prices . Accurate cost models and advanced digital operations help organizations respond to rising costs and equip them with the tools and capabilities they need to thrive when prices fall.

• Cybersecurity threats are growing and threaten companies of all sizes, municipalities, and state and federal governments. The solution is to reinforce defenses by anticipating emerging cyberthreats and understanding the new defensive capabilities that companies can use today and others they can plan to use tomorrow.
• On the McKinsey on Healthcare podcast, Errol Pierre, senior vice president of state programs at Healthfirst, discusses what New York’s largest not-for-profit insurer learns from working with diverse communities .
• By 2020, 40 years after the development of the first commercial machines, the additive-manufacturing sector  had become a €13.4 billion industry. As technical barriers fall, the onus is on manufacturers to build skills, processes, and business models.
• McKinsey’s second annual review of the progress of digitization in German healthcare  shows solid uptakes of telemedicine and consumer health apps, but lagging use of e-prescriptions, health-data exchange, and use of electronic health records.
• McKinsey and Club 21e Siècle created the French Corporate Diversity Barometer to measure the diversity of national origins and socioeconomic backgrounds of the executives of large companies in France .
• Prioritizing privacy, sustainability, and inclusion will soon be essential to successful tech development . Companies must provide the tools, training, and resources for product managers to make responsible innovation ubiquitous.
• Internal-combustion-engine suppliers must manage uncertainty during these challenging times for the industry. To succeed, they will need a new operating model that includes formulating dynamic responses to continuing disruptions and focusing on building value through higher return on invested capital.
• Sustainability and digital (particularly e-commerce) will create significant challenges for packaging industry leaders , as well as once-in-a-lifetime transformational opportunities.

This week, McKinsey senior partners Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vik Malhotra launch their new book, CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest (Scribner, March 2022). The authors spoke about their interviews with 67 CEOs as part of our Author Talks series and how they identified the traits that separate the best leaders from the pack.

COVID-19: Briefing note #95, March 9, 2022

Another global crisis is now overshadowing covid-19..

For the first time in two years, concerns about another global crisis overshadowed the COVID-19 pandemic: the Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine and the humanitarian tragedy it is causing. Implications for the world economy will become more visible in the coming weeks and months; this week, McKinsey identified some immediate global economic impacts. Coincidentally, our other major publishing initiative this week is a deep dive into insurance—an industry that exists, in essence, in case things go wrong.

The Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine is causing a humanitarian crisis and economic risks. Our Global Economics Intelligence executive summary  for February discusses how the invasion of Ukraine has mostly set energy prices surging. The oil price (Brent) was near $60 per barrel on December 1 but climbed steadily thereafter, touching $100 in late February. The price of natural gas and coal has similarly climbed during this period (exhibit). Prior to the invasion, the US dollar was depreciating slightly against most major currencies; it is now rising in value. Other immediate economic effects were spikes in the prices of gold, crude oil, and natural gas, as well as stock market losses.

As part of our celebration of International Women’s Day 2022, 20 female McKinsey partners offer insights in a series of interviews on the insurance industry . Topics include operations, growth, claims management, underwriting, product innovation, digital business building, and motor insurance. Further interviews examine women’s representation in the insurance industry and look at the broader issue of diversity in insurance.

New customer expectations, low interest rates, and new sources of competition (such as leading tech companies, insurtechs, and third-party capital) are putting pressure on insurance carriers to be more innovative . It’s not easy: successfully profiting from innovation is a complex, company-wide endeavor, and most insurers have not yet consistently cracked this code. Steps for building innovation into the way an organization works include shifting resources from core business tasks to breakthrough innovation initiatives and developing distinct product-development pathways and processes.

Insurers should consider programmatic M&A : systematically acquiring small to midsize businesses, services, and capabilities and integrating them as new businesses or capabilities. Insurers can use this approach to tackle issues including sustaining growth in core life and annuity businesses and enhancing property and casualty presence in growth markets.

• On The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey partners Michael Chui and Mark Collins share their thoughts on the findings of McKinsey’s latest Internet of Things (IoT) report . Fast-growing areas include consumer applications (especially in the connected home); hospital, acute-care, and residential-care settings; and factories, cities, and work sites. Integrating IoT is often easier in greenfield settings but harder to integrate into legacy environments.
• Of 346 large M&A deals announced between 2013 and 2020, 47 were canceled for antitrust or regulatory reasons . While executing remedy separations, it is vital to adhere to the perimeter set by regulators, move fast in identifying potential buyers, and ensure a close integration between the remedy separation process and the overall transaction and integration process.

In this edition of Author Talks , Deepa Purushothaman talks about her new book, The First, the Few, the Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America (Harper Collins, March 2022). Drawing on more than 500 original interviews, Purushothaman examines work life for women of color and what needs to change to improve their experiences.

COVID-19: Briefing note #94, March 3, 2022

The covid-19 pandemic may finally be ending..

A new variant may yet trigger another chapter in the COVID-19 pandemic, and societies must be prepared to respond if and when that happens. But for now, the pandemic phase looks to be ending. With a possible conclusion in sight, this week McKinsey focused on how postpandemic workforces can be supported with expanded opportunity, digital tools, more equitable promotions, and better office design.

In the latest edition of our “ When will the COVID-19 pandemic end ?” series, McKinsey examined scenarios that would lead to either reigniting a pandemic-level crisis or further steps toward endemicity. As long as Omicron remains the dominant variant, there is reason for relative optimism; in the United States, for example, hospitalizations would remain low (exhibit). By and large, the six-month outlook in many countries is brighter than at any time in the past two years. The main risk to the transition to endemicity is a significantly different and more severe new variant that replaces Omicron as the dominant strain.

The latest episode of the McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast features David Autor, the Ford Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Autor identifies pandemic paradoxes, which include that many thought US poverty and joblessness would skyrocket, but the opposite occurred when poverty rates plummeted to unprecedented lows and the United States ended up with a labor shortage. Leaders should think about ways to expand opportunities, including by being honest with themselves and the labor market about which jobs truly require a college degree.

On McKinsey Talks Talent , HR expert David Green speaks with McKinsey talent experts Bryan Hancock and Bill Schaninger. HR leaders can use people analytics  to identify big-picture attrition patterns, illuminate how office space is being used, and automate parts of the recruiting process, including finding diverse candidates.

In technical roles, only 52 women are promoted to manager for every 100 men, according to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2021  report, coauthored with LeanIn.Org. Companies can improve women’s promotion rates  by providing equitable access to skill building, implementing a structured promotion process that seeks to remove bias, and building a strong culture of support for women via mentors and sponsors.

Diane Hoskins, co-CEO of Gensler, a global design and architecture firm , has been thinking about effective workplaces for decades and is now helping her clients navigate the next normal. In a conversation with McKinsey Real Estate Practice leader Aditya Sanghvi, Hoskins discusses how COVID-19 made it even more essential to design offices around organizational strategies, leadership models, operational frameworks, and potential outcomes of a company.

• The Consumer Price Index rose faster in January than at any time in the prior 40 years. Businesses facing inflation are caught  between the need to reprice and sustain margins and the damage this can do to customer relationships and sales. McKinsey’s suggested approach can help companies establish sales-led pricing for inflation while maintaining long-term value for the business and its customers.
• Banks can learn to manage nonfinancial risks by observing the effective approaches corporates have developed. These include embedding risk into strategy and improving overall resilience.
• Our analysis suggests that in 2030, demand for green steel in Europe could be twice as great as the available supply, and there may be global shortages of recycled aluminum and recycled plastic. By planning green-materials sourcing strategies , companies can achieve immediate emissions reductions and sustain progress toward longer-term goals.
• COVID-19 accelerated the sophistication of China’s logistics industry , a crucial node in the global supply chain. Greater consolidation and integration are likely in some subsectors—such as third-party logistics and express-delivery carriers—and expect growth in other areas, such as warehouse automation and air cargo.
• On the McKinsey on Government podcast, McKinsey senior partner Scott Blackburn and partner Brooke Weddle discuss how the US government’s leaders can implement an effective transformation.

In this edition of Author Talks , Whitney Johnson, the CEO of tech-enabled talent agency Disruption Advisors, talks about her new book, Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company  (Harvard Business Review Press, January 2022). Mastering new skills follows an S-curve, where there’s a difficult introductory phase, a “sweet spot” where you’re enjoying applying new knowledge, and an end part of the curve where boredom can set in. Leaders need to understand where their teams are to create the right supports for each phase, Johnson says.

COVID-19: Briefing note #93, February 23, 2022

The covid-19-pandemic accelerated our need for a new kind of growth..

The COVID-19 pandemic served as an accelerant in multiple ways. This week, McKinsey looked at how the pandemic spurred the adoption of telehealth and e-commerce, exacerbated pressure on nurses, and made company operations more complex. In the big picture, it increased the urgency for a new vision of global growth, one that benefits more people and leaves our planet healthy.

Crises such as COVID-19 can become watersheds of policy and strategy. In an editorial published in Fortune , Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive director of the World Economic Forum, and Bob Sternfels, McKinsey’s global managing partner, propose pursuing a sustainable, inclusive growth agenda  that supports the health of the natural environment while improving the livelihoods of wider population segments. Leaders can shape a resilience agenda by addressing the interrelationships between climate, healthcare, labor needs, supply chains, digitization, finance, and inequality and economic development.

To build a better future, the emphasis must now shift from defensive measures and short-term goals to a sustainable, inclusive growth agenda.

The pandemic ignited telehealth: as of mid-2021, utilization was 38 times higher  than before the pandemic. However, McKinsey’s most recent Physician Survey showed that most doctors don’t love telehealth as much as patients do . Most expect to return to a primarily in-person delivery model over the next year, and 62 percent said they recommend in-person over virtual care to patients.

The pandemic essentially forced consumers to try e-commerce and to increasingly rely on product ratings and reviews to give them the confidence to make purchases. The total number of global reviews roughly doubled in the year after COVID-19 started. On The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey partner Dave Fedewa and McKinsey senior expert Chauncey Holder discuss how companies need to adapt to the new world in which reviews matter more than ever .

Healthcare workers and their organizations continue to face unparalleled demands stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Thirty-two percent of registered nurses surveyed in the United States in November said they may leave  their current direct-patient-care role, according to McKinsey’s latest research. Healthcare organizations can consider a number of medium- and longer-term strategies to support their workforces.

As companies look at areas to automate, they need a clear, complete picture of service processes . The complexity of services, which often involve coordinating multiple functions in nonlinear ways, makes bad handoffs a perpetual problem. Add to these factors the burgeoning number of customer touchpoints and the accelerated move to remote working since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the challenge looms even larger. An approach we call process insights—which marries technology tools and analytics in a disciplined, three-stage process—shows promise.

While our theme this week is the pandemic’s accelerating effects, we also looked at the opposite: how COVID-19 can spur lightning-fast pullbacks. Although consumer confidence is growing, desire for travel has shown a faltering recovery due to sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks. Our examination of China’s tourism industry  showed that a predictable pattern is emerging where desire for travel recovers roughly two months after a decline. Furthermore, travelers’ preferences are shifting, with implications for travel companies.

• Signed in November, the US Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will provide more than $1 trillion in public investment. One core component of the legislation is addressing the country’s aging water system . The act provides funding to replace lead pipes, address emerging contaminants in small and disadvantaged communities, and support rural water projects.
• A relative lack of top software companies threatens Europe’s economic competitiveness. But Europe could take a lead in software  and build large players by playing to the continent’s strengths: vertical B2B software, software platforms for digitizing small and medium-size enterprises, and horizontal platforms built on European R&D excellence.
• Software sourcing , now a major driver of overall product cost, requires critical investments in capabilities and technologies, as well as significant financial resources. Those players that can procure software and related services at minimum cost and risk have a distinct competitive advantage.
• Asian acquirers are key players in the Asian M&A landscape , and many are setting their sights worldwide. Our research finds that the most effective dealmakers practice programmatic M&A  tied directly to a stated strategy.
• On the McKinsey on Consumer and Retail podcast, McKinsey partner David Feber and Amcor CEO and managing director Ron Delia talk about exciting innovations that could transform the packaging industry .

This week in Author Talks , Ruchika Tulshyan, an award-winning inclusion strategist and speaker, discusses her new book, Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work (MIT Press, March 2022). She explores the bias behind terms such as “lean in” and “culture fit” and proposes that inclusion efforts target the needs of women of color.

This briefing note was edited by Katy McLaughlin, a senior editor in the Southern California office.

COVID-19: Briefing note #92, February 16, 2022

As omicron reminded us, health is everything..

McKinsey focused on health this week, starting with a discussion of how Omicron has played out so far and what is likely next in the pandemic’s trajectory. An article on women’s health explores the remarkable tradition of viewing it as a healthcare niche, rather than a core concern of half the world’s population. Technology is increasingly merging with healthcare, so we extrapolated this theme further to examine how to keep companies’ technology healthy.

In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , Shubham Singhal, senior partner and global leader of McKinsey’s Healthcare and Public & Social Sector Practices, reflects on where Omicron has taken us so far and where we go from here . Omicron spread so fast because it evades prior immunity and is more transmissible, allowing it to out-compete the previously dominant strain. Society will begin viewing COVID-19 as endemic when we’re comfortable getting on with life even though the risk of disease is not zero (and for the unvaccinated, it remains high).

Half of the world’s population is women, and women account for 80 percent of consumer-purchasing decisions in the healthcare industry. Yet women’s health has been considered a niche market  and a mere subset of healthcare. A particularly illuminating statistic: only 1 percent of healthcare research and innovation is invested in female-specific conditions beyond oncology. Changing how the industry thinks about women’s health is an important step toward identifying value-creating opportunities for meeting women’s healthcare needs.

It is not a light switch event to get to an endemic phase, because it is as much about the behavior and psychology that we all exhibit as it is about the epidemiology of the virus itself.

FemTech is an emerging category consisting of tech-enabled, consumer-centric solutions addressing women’s health. Depending on scope, estimates for FemTech’s current market size range from $500 million to $1 billion, and forecasts suggest opportunities for double-digit revenue growth. Our analysis of 763 companies indicates that the dynamics underlying FemTech are accelerating and that public awareness, company formation, and funding are surging.

When employees feel understood and supported by their employers, they tend to be happier, more effective, and more likely to stick around. Companies can use the power of AI and machine learning to coach employees . An AI-driven system can be designed to identify key moments when employees would benefit from a “nudge” that guides them toward positive actions, including improving their health, accessing training, and trying a different performance approach.

To protect the health of our work environments from ransomware , everyone from the board and C-suite to down the line must work to ingrain security into an organization’s DNA. Ransomware costs are expected to reach $265 billion by 2031. Supply chain attacks rose by 42 percent in the first quarter of 2021 in the United States, affecting up to seven million people, while security threats against industrial control systems and operational technology more than tripled in 2020.

• McKinsey’s Global Insurance Report 2022 explores long-term challenges facing the industry as well as a raft of trends unleashed by COVID-19. Insurers face fundamental strategic questions of how to create more value for shareholders and how to reframe the role of insurance in society. The report proposes nine imperatives that will help carriers navigate the current environment and focus on the businesses of which they are the best natural owners.
• With a target of a 78 percent reduction in economy-wide greenhouse-gas emissions by 2035 now enshrined in law, there is a strong impetus to transition the United Kingdom’s energy system to net zero . Looking at electricity demand, technology, and the grid, McKinsey examines options available to investors, regulators, policy makers, and energy companies.
• Companies used to outsource business processes primarily as a cost-saving strategy. Today, companies outsource to capitalize on sophisticated provider offerings , including customized industry solutions and advances in digital technology, such as AI, analytics, and machine learning.

In this edition of Author Talks Amy Webb, a leading futurist and business adviser, talks about her recent book, The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology (Hachette Book Group, February 2022), coauthored by microbiologist Andrew Hessel. The book explores a new field of science that combines engineering, design, and computers with biology, enabling the engineering of living cells. Webb says that synthetic biology—the ability to reprogram the fundamental units of life—is going to change industries such as healthcare, agriculture, and industrial materials.

COVID-19: Briefing note #91, February 9, 2022

The ceo job description just got a bit longer..

CEOs have always carried a heavy workload, but the issues they confront today add several fresh layers. Climate change requires a new way of looking at asset value that models the potential impact of various types of risk. COVID-19 and its aftermath means leaders must engage empathetically in topics relating to their employees’ well-being. This week, McKinsey examined how the pandemic and other world events have added to leaders’ list of most important tasks.

Climate change and the risks it imposes upon assets and markets is one of the biggest challenges confronting CEOs and other leaders today. The real-estate industry is already facing the need to build new capabilities that allow it to assess how climate-change risks alter values and what subsequent actions to take. Part of capability building involves understanding both physical risks and transition risks stemming from regulatory, social, and market reactions to climate change (exhibit). Once real estate and other leaders understand value impact, they can proceed to decarbonizing and finding new sources of value throughout the climate transition.

COVID-19 brought on a new set of employee pressures , including trying to take care of work and children at a time when school doors close suddenly, and managing the 24/7 nature of working from home. These burdens also imply a new set of pressures for CEOs and other leaders as they attempt to support overburdened workforces. On the McKinsey Talks Talent podcast, McKinsey talent experts Bryan Hancock and Bill Schaninger discuss how leaders must engage in employees’ lives and well-being in ways they seldom did in the past.

We’re in one of the most bewildering labor markets  in a generation, said Asutosh Padhi, McKinsey’s managing partner for North America, in a CNN Business Perspectives commentary. CEOs can respond by expanding recruitment efforts to people who have work experience but don’t have degrees; supporting more “gateway jobs,” or stepping-stone positions that provide an income boost; and by challenging their organizations to embrace a more inclusive, skills-based approach to hiring and talent management.

Across industries, product-development functions are encountering a perfect storm of supply chain issues  arising from the pandemic, the current labor mismatch , and evergreen themes of managing cost, quality, and time. Rather than becoming part of the much-bemoaned war for talent, companies can develop the capabilities of their existing workforce  to fill skills gaps.

As the economy continues to reel from the effects of COVID-19, consumer-packaged-goods companies are under more pressure  than ever. Prices for food and packaging commodities have increased by more than 22 percent. Manufacturing wages and labor costs rose in 2020 from 5 to 20 percent of total costs. To respond to these rapid, sweeping changes, companies need to transform their operating models to the new reality.

Given that economies are expected to shift away from stimulus spending and other policy supports, forecasters and economists generally project a slower pace for global growth in 2022—but one that is still faster than prepandemic levels. January’s Global Economics Intelligence executive summary  focuses on how inflation is playing out around the world, efforts to control it, and its impact on growth and employment.

• To better understand recent developments in sustainable packaging , we mapped regulations in 30 countries and found four common patterns. To ensure they comply with evolving requirements, packaging companies should track regulatory changes in their focus markets and implement processes to address future requirements proactively.
• Responding to a McKinsey survey, two out of three Americans told us their social values now shape their shopping choices, and 45 percent believe retailers should actively support Black-owned businesses and brands. Most retailers will need to make changes to meet the needs of these “inclusive consumers” by sourcing products that dovetail with consumer values and by communicating the changes to the public.
• Up to four-fifths of a product’s lifetime emissions  are determined by decisions made at the design stage. By building on proven cost-optimization techniques, companies can get those choices right.
• Myths often hold back heavy industries from activating agile working practices . However, agility in heavy-industry organizations can be used to make operational improvements, to enhance run activities, to augment all-important safety standards, and ultimately to become an enduring source of competitive advantage.

In this edition of Author Talks , Neil Hoyne, Google’s chief measurement strategist, discusses his new book Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers’ Hearts (Penguin Random House, February 2022). Data alone is not the answer for companies trying to grow, Hoyne says. Instead, companies can find growth by creating the right data strategy, leadership, and processes.

COVID-19: Briefing note #90, February 2, 2022

The postpandemic world calls for fresh leadership ideas..

Organizations increasingly recognize that modern leadership means knowing how to make the most of digitization and technology, diverse talent, and the opinions of a range of stakeholders. This week, McKinsey dug for the details. Articles and an interactive explore how companies can take advantage of advanced-intelligence technology and become truly data driven. A new interview series illuminates how three Black leaders developed their leadership styles, while further articles explore casting the idea net wider.

Leading industrial and manufacturing companies are using machine-intelligence technologies to move the needle on a broad set of performance indicators, achieving three or four times the impact of average players. The full scale of the opportunity is set to continue as more use cases evolve from simple dashboards to greater levels of autonomy.

What exactly does it mean to be a data-driven enterprise , and what would such an organization look like by 2025? Our interactive helps executives envision success by defining seven characteristics of a data-driven organization, how each would differ from what we typically see today, and how to achieve each step. Companies able to make the most progress fastest stand to capture the highest value from data-supported capabilities.

McKinsey created the Connected Leaders Academy to equip Black, Hispanic, Latino, and Asian leaders with the network and capabilities to achieve their professional aspirations. In our new interview series , My Leadership Journey, participants from the private sector, academia, the arts, and other walks of life reflect on their formative experiences and leadership styles. Jason Wright, president of Washington’s football team, the Commanders , told McKinsey about getting cut nine times from the NFL and talking his way back to opportunity by honing a narrative about what he could contribute. Stephanie Hill, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Rotary and Mission Systems , discussed the importance of accepting uncomfortable challenges to build a career. Barry Lawson Williams, founder and former managing general partner of Williams Pacific Ventures , who has also served on 16 major public-company boards, spoke about how he built a network that helped position him for lucky breaks.

What does an army veteran who has returned from deployment five times have to teach a McKinsey organizational expert? Plenty, as a letter and conversations between Adria Horn, executive vice president of workforce at Tilson, a national telecom provider, and senior partner Aaron De Smet revealed. Horn reached out to McKinsey after reading about how companies can reengage employees postpandemic . She shared her view of parallels between soldiers returning from war zones and employees coming back  to the office after living through the COVID-19 pandemic. The resulting conversation explores the alienation of return and how employers can work from a place of empathy.

Brainstorming is supposed to result in conversations like the one between Horn and De Smet. But too often, the value of casting the net wide for opinions is undercut by participants feeling pressured to conform. A structured approach that guides a group through anonymous brainstorming  and silent voting removes some of the risks that can thwart honest discussion.

• Based on a survey of physicians who serve predominantly Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage patients, we estimate that up to $265 billion worth of care services could shift from traditional facilities to the home by 2025  without a reduction in quality or access. Care at Home could create value for payers, healthcare facilities and physician groups, providers, technology companies, investors, and, above all, patients.
• Korean companies would benefit from portfolio restructuring by making governance more transparent and by advancing women’s equality at work. In a wide-ranging conversation, André Andonian, managing partner of McKinsey Korea, discusses McKinsey’s near- and long-term goals in the country and how Korea is preparing for the post-COVID-19 economy .
• Investors are directing more funds to projects involving lunar and beyond orbital regimes , which have traditionally attracted less attention than regimes at lower altitudes. All signs point to continued growth.

Even the most seasoned professional was a neophyte at some point, a fact celebrated in our My Rookie Moment video series, in which McKinsey colleagues discuss the first time they had to deal with a particular challenge. The latest edition features stories about “leaps of faith,” in which partners had to do something for which they felt unprepared. Yarns include a tale of on-command public speaking and the recollection of facing a client who demanded different conclusions.

COVID-19: Briefing note #89, January 26, 2022

Tackling the other big global crisis..

Since March of 2020, we have focused this weekly update on sharing research into the health emergency facing the world. This week, we took a break from the COVID-19 pandemic to zero in on the other crisis that poses threats to lives and livelihoods: climate change, and the need to transition to a net-zero world. Additional articles looked at pressing issues including why the loss of US manufacturing has increased inequality, and how the Great Attrition is playing out in nursing.

A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute  looks at what an economic transformation to net-zero emissions would entail . The transformation would affect all countries and all sectors of the economy, either directly or indirectly. In six sections of the report, we assess economic shifts for 69 countries and changes in sectors that produce about 85 percent of overall emissions, as well as provide estimates for what it will all cost (exhibit).

The report includes an examination of effective decarbonization actions , which include shifting the energy mix, increasing energy efficiency, and enhancing sinks of both long- and short-lived greenhouse gases. Another section illustrates the economic and societal adjustments that would enable a successful transition  to net-zero emissions by 2050, focusing on demand, capital allocation, costs, and jobs. We examine which sectors of the economy are more exposed to a net-zero transition , and how the transition could play out in various countries and regions . A section about actions for stakeholders  explores what companies, financial institutions, and governments and multilateral institutions can do.

Also this week: revitalizing US manufacturing could be fundamental to resolving inequities  while driving sustainable, inclusive growth. Today, the manufacturing sector represents just 10 percent of US GDP and jobs but drives 20 percent of the nation’s capital investment, 35 percent of productivity growth, 60 percent of exports, and 70 percent of business R&D expenditure. Strengthening the sector could also address the pervasive supply chain issues wreaking havoc all over the world, easing short-term disruption caused by the pandemic while improving global competitiveness in the midterm to long term.

During a time of unprecedented need, what can employers do to prevent losing nurses , the backbone of the healthcare workforce, to the Great Attrition ? The McKinsey Podcast speaks with senior partner Gretchen Berlin, a registered nurse, about the need to pay nurses adequately and to ensure that there’s sufficient staffing, respite, and gratitude.

• In October 2020, coking coal accounted for more than half of the cost of the raw materials needed to produce a metric ton of steel via a blast furnace—a rare occurrence by historical standards. Though prices have fallen since then, steelmakers should consider the effect of longer-term coal price increases  as part of their planning and adjust their plans as the implications evolve.
• The new normal for sporting goods  includes increased health awareness, acceptance of athleisure, thriving e-commerce, and sustainability as a core concern. McKinsey’s summary of the state of the industry suggests strategies for navigating the trends.
• New and better digital tools can help companies analyze voice conversation  and unlock the full potential of digital investments to improve customer service.

In the latest edition of our Author Talks series, John Koenig, author of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (Simon & Schuster, November 2021), discusses how and why he invents new words for emotions and sensations. From “kenopsia” (the eeriness of places left behind) to “suerza” (a feeling of quiet amazement that you exist at all), Koenig’s made-up words pinpoint universal experiences and demonstrate how creative human language can be.

COVID-19: Briefing note #88, January 19, 2022

Fallout from the pandemic demands targeted action..

For much of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders have tried to prepare for what might unfold. Today, some of those possibilities have arrived as undeniable challenges that demand new ways of operating. This week, McKinsey looked at fallout, including inflation, young peoples’ mental-health struggles, a pattern of “jolting” growth, and the demand for government agencies to improve customer service.

Not since the 1970s has inflation been such a central issue for companies, so finding creative ways to mitigate price increases  is a dormant skill in many organizations. McKinsey experts offer a series of steps supply-chain leaders can use to determine whether a price increase is fair, starting by identifying the main cost inputs that have the highest level of change, estimating the percentage of the total cost these inputs make up, and calculating an acceptable price-increase range (exhibit). Response strategies include using a strong fact base for win–win negotiating and exploring new suppliers.

A series of McKinsey consumer surveys and interviews indicated unprecedented behavioral-health challenges facing Generation Z  and stark differences among generations. Gen Z respondents were more likely than other generations to report having been diagnosed with a mental-health or substance-use issue, as well as more likely to have sought no treatment for the problem. Gen Z respondents were also two to three times more likely than other generations to report thinking about, planning, or attempting suicide in the 12 months spanning late 2019 to late 2020.

There could be a postpandemic boom on the horizon, but it will likely depend on business leaders’ ability to respond to productivity and growth “jolts”  caused by the pandemic. The onset of COVID-19 brought a set of discontinuities that drove the first jolt to growth and productivity. Now, near-term uncertainties pose risks to growth; however, responding effectively could translate to a second jolt. The potential third and final jolt may be the largest as companies reshape their long-term strategies to reflect—and define—the next normal.

On the McKinsey on Government podcast, McKinsey partner Tony D’Emidio and associate partner Marcy Jacobs discuss how the pandemic forced many government agencies to modernize the customer experience  (CX) amid high demand for unemployment and healthcare assistance. Transparency has improved, but there is more work to do so that when citizens fill out applications or forms, they get status updates instead of just wondering what happened. Another insight: better CX brings costs down because satisfied customers call with fewer questions.

• Road freight accounts for 53 percent of CO 2 emissions within global trade-related transport, a share expected to rise to 56 percent by 2050 if current trends continue. Road Freight Zero: Pathways to faster adoption of zero-emission trucks is a joint publication by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey that describes how countries can reach their emissions goals for road freight.
• With a market of more than $2.8 trillion worldwide, fragmented retail is poised to be transformed by “eB2B” players : portals and applications that replace the in-person sales model for small retailers and restaurants. By understanding the market structure and properly setting the scale and speed of change, companies can design an eB2B solution capable of disruption.
• Reaching net zero in the cement and construction value chain by 2050 will require the buildings and construction industry to decarbonize three times faster over the next 30 years versus the previous 30. At the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, McKinsey brought together global property owners, contractors, materials suppliers, investors, equipment manufacturers, and disruptors to define the path forward. Among the takeaways: the industry can boost innovation by developing common standards and shared R&D resources.

What makes a CEO great? In this edition of Author Talks , McKinsey senior partners Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vik Malhotra discuss their new book, CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest (Scribner, March 2022). The authors interviewed 67 CEOs worldwide who met their criteria for excellence and diversity of both background and approach and identified keys to excellence that can provide lessons for any type of leader.

COVID-19: Briefing note #87, January 12, 2022

People are the fuel that will power the next industrial revolution..

Amid the Omicron surge, it’s perhaps poignant to note that all the advanced technology in the world means nothing without a population capable of adopting it and creating with it. COVID-19 vaccines are a good example of a technology that depends on people’s acceptance. This week, McKinsey explored how people in various industries and sectors relate to technology and the power of these interactions.

The McKinsey Talks Operations podcast brings together the CEOs of Flex, Protolabs, and Western Digital to discuss why the Fourth Industrial Revolution will be people powered . Digital manufacturing and production will change how the world makes goods but only if there is training and development to teach workers the skills to use these technologies. With the current labor mismatch in many countries, now is the time to further engage workers for a digitally enabled future.

With Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies in the hands of a workforce empowered with the skills needed to use them, an organization’s digital-transformation journey can move from aspiration to reality.

A pivot to telemedicine, remote work, and other technologies helped a leader in pediatric medicine manage the onslaught of COVID-19. Boston Children’s Hospital president and CEO Dr. Kevin Churchwell  calls for more innovation to cope with a sharp rise in children and young adults with behavioral- and mental-health issues. This generation of kids is being reared under physical distancing, lockdowns, and school closures. Churchwell believes that those presenting with mental-health issues would benefit from a tech-enabled continuum of care that encompasses the family, the primary-care pediatrician, the school system, the hospital, and the state.

Sarah Bond, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for game creator experience and ecosystem at Xbox , describes how recognizing that game playing is a fundamental human trait helped Microsoft create its “ubiquitous global gaming ecosystem.” Investments in cloud gaming, the Game Pass subscription service, and cross-platform play allow gamers to participate anywhere, anytime, on any device.

Tulsa Remote, a program that enabled Tulsa, Oklahoma, to attract 1,300 remote workers to the area, also prioritizes the human need for connection. In addition to giving relocators $10,000, the program provides membership to a local coworking space and assists in finding housing. Events, both virtual and in-person, are intended to mitigate the potential isolation of remote work. The initiative has attracted 50,000 applicants and is making a meaningful impression on the local economy.

In a typical organization, only a specific department and designated functions are accountable for quality in design, development, operations, and even postmarket activities. But in a smart-quality organization, everyone owns quality . Pharmaceutical and medtech companies can create value by redesigning key quality processes along these principles.

• As the move toward cleaner technologies progresses, the metals and mining sector will provide the raw materials required for the energy transition . The required pace of transition means that the availability of certain raw materials will need to scale up quickly—and, in certain cases, at volumes ten times or more than the current market size. We expect materials shortages, price fly-ups, and the need for technological innovation and substitutions.
• Stakeholder capitalism asks leaders to prioritize long-termism over short-term gain. In the latest episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast, senior partner Dame Vivian Hunt and senior adviser to McKinsey Bruce Simpson, CEO of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation, discuss research and experience that strongly link stakeholder capitalism to traditional sources of value.

What makes a CEO great? In a recent edition of Author Talks , McKinsey senior partners Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vik Malhotra discuss their new book, CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest (Scribner, March 2022). The authors interviewed 67 CEOs worldwide who met their criteria for excellence and diversity of both background and approach and identified keys to excellence that can provide lessons for any type of leader.

Also in Author Talks , Tareq Azim, founder of Empower Gym, trainer of NFL greats, and creator of the Afghan Women’s Boxing Federation, talks about his new book, Empower: Conquering the Disease of Fear (Simon & Schuster, January 2022), which was coauthored with Seth Davis. Azim discusses how he created a place for women to practice the most male-dominated activity in the most male-dominated society of all time and how anyone can find inner strength.

COVID-19: Briefing note #86, January 5, 2022

Omicron demands renewed focus on familiar pandemic themes..

A new year is here, but COVID-19’s latest surge feels so very last year—not to mention the year before that. To kick off 2022, McKinsey looked at issues that many people thought would have started to resolve as the virus died down, but which instead require renewed engagement. Topping our list this week are employee burnout and hits to tourism. But there is positive news as well: reports on the state of mobility and pharmaceuticals reflect that pandemic-inspired changes are leading some industries in new directions.

Compared with nonparents, employed parents are more likely to miss days of work because they are experiencing symptoms of burnout  (exhibit). Companies need to understand what the compound pressures of employment and parenting during a pandemic are doing to these workers and consider a list of interventions to counteract their experience of burning the candle at both ends.

Women also are reporting higher-than-average rates of burnout. In a new episode of The McKinsey Podcast , senior partners Alexis Krivkovich and Lareina Yee discuss results from the recently released Women in the Workplace 2021  report. Forty-two percent of women report being burned out , a percentage that is higher than it was last year and higher than it is for men. Reasons include the fact that one in three women, and 60 percent of mothers with young children, spend five or more hours a day on housework and caregiving.

Early January is when many of us go on a diet and re-up at the gym. Here’s another tune-up option: take our “Can you turn attrition into attraction?” quiz  to test how good you are at combatting burnout, rewarding employees in meaningful ways, and strengthening bonds with your teams.

Our “ year in review ” recap of 2021 highlights themes that many were hoping to leave behind, including the pandemic and the Great Resignation, as well as aspirations, such as inclusive growth and digital transformation, that will only grow in importance. The “ year in images ” collection showcases the most evocative art we published last year, while the “ year in charts ” collection tells visual stories about virus cases and vaccination rates, diversity targets and employee experiences, and how sustainable growth might be attained.

Another consequence of COVID-19 is the devastation wrought on tourism markets worldwide. We looked at a key US market and found that the financial impact of the pandemic on New York City is six times that of the September 11 attacks, costing the city $1.2 billion in lost tourism-related tax revenue. New York can reinvigorate its tourism industry  by encouraging domestic travel and by reimagining business travel.

McKinsey reflected upon how the pandemic has affected mobility and where the sector is headed . Among the findings: half of the consumers in our recent Global COVID-19 Automotive & Mobility Consumer Survey stated a clear preference to travel less than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the forecasts: by 2035, in an accelerated scenario, the largest automotive markets in the world (that is, China, the European Union, and the United States) will be fully electric.

The pandemic has also reshaped the pharmaceuticals industry , and changes are still under way. We conducted a survey of senior executives in commercial roles at global pharma companies and found that more than 80 percent think that companies will fully embrace agile ways of working, and 66 percent believe that companies will move away from the traditional sales rep model because of restricted access, virtual interactions, and perceived low return on investment.

Here are some of this week’s other key findings from our research:

• Quantum computing is about a decade away from widespread commercial application. Less well known, but also important, are two related technologies that could become available much earlier: quantum sensing and quantum communication . We explore the market landscape for both, looking at opportunities, risks, and demand.
• Based on the results of our latest McKinsey Global Survey , we identify the different stages of a transformation’s life cycle  to understand where value is lost and what companies can do to preserve it. According to our analysis, three core actions are especially predictive of value capture.
• One way to accelerate decarbonization in the shipping sector  is to implement “green corridors”: specific trade routes between major port hubs where zero-emission solutions are supported. A new report, The next wave: Green corridors , probes the feasibility of two such selected corridors—with encouraging results.

Two books in our Author Talks series address the workplace issues so prevalent in our research from this past year. Joan C. Williams, distinguished professor of law and chair of the Hastings Foundation, discusses her latest book, Bias Interrupted: Creating Inclusion for Real and for Good (Harvard Business Review Press, November 2021). Jennifer Moss, Harvard Business Review contributor and nationally syndicated radio columnist, shares her recent work, The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It (Harvard Business Review Press, September 2021).

For McKinsey’s 2021 perspectives on the business impact of COVID-19 , visit our archive of several dozen briefing notes published throughout the year.

Matt Craven is a partner in McKinsey’s Silicon Valley office;  Linda Liu is a partner in the New York office, where Matt Wilson is a senior partner; and  Mihir Mysore is a partner in the Houston office.

This article was edited by Mark Staples, an executive editor in the New York office.

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• The Internet and the Pandemic

90% of Americans say the internet has been essential or important to them, many made video calls and 40% used technology in new ways. But while tech was a lifeline for some, others faced struggles

Table of contents.

• 1. How the internet and technology shaped Americans’ personal experiences amid COVID-19
• 2. Parents, their children and school during the pandemic
• 3. Navigating technological challenges
• 4. The role of technology in COVID-19 vaccine registration
• Acknowledgments
• Methodology

Pew Research Center has a long history of studying technology adoption trends and the impact of digital technology on society. This report focuses on American adults’ experiences with and attitudes about their internet and technology use during the COVID-19 outbreak. For this analysis, we surveyed 4,623 U.S. adults from April 12-18, 2021. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the  ATP’s methodology .

Chapter 1 of this report includes responses to an open-ended question and the overall report includes a number of quotations to help illustrate themes and add nuance to the survey findings. Quotations may have been lightly edited for grammar, spelling and clarity. The first three themes mentioned in each open-ended response, according to a researcher-developed codebook, were coded into categories for analysis. 

Here are the questions used for this report , along with responses, and its methodology .

The  coronavirus  has transformed many aspects of Americans’ lives. It  shut down  schools, businesses and workplaces and forced millions to  stay at home  for extended lengths of time. Public health authorities recommended  limits on social contact  to try to contain the spread of the virus, and these profoundly altered the way many worked, learned, connected with loved ones, carried out basic daily tasks, celebrated and mourned. For some, technology played a role in this transformation.  

Results from a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted April 12-18, 2021, reveal the extent to which people’s use of the internet has changed, their views about how helpful technology has been for them and the struggles some have faced. 

The vast majority of adults (90%) say the internet has been at least important to them personally during the pandemic, the survey finds. The share who say it has been  essential  – 58% – is up slightly from 53% in April 2020. There have also been upticks in the shares who say the internet has been essential in the past year among those with a bachelor’s degree or more formal education, adults under 30, and those 65 and older. 

A large majority of Americans (81%) also say they talked with others via video calls at some point since the pandemic’s onset. And for 40% of Americans, digital tools have taken on new relevance: They report they used technology or the internet in ways that were new or different to them. Some also sought upgrades to their service as the pandemic unfolded: 29% of broadband users did something to improve the speed, reliability or quality of their high-speed internet connection at home since the beginning of the outbreak.

Still, tech use has not been an unmitigated boon for everyone. “ Zoom fatigue ” was widely speculated to be a problem in the pandemic, and some Americans report related experiences in the new survey: 40% of those who have ever talked with others via video calls since the beginning of the pandemic say they have felt worn out or fatigued often or sometimes by the time they spend on them. Moreover,  changes in screen time  occurred for  Americans generally  and for  parents of young children . The survey finds that a third of all adults say they tried to cut back on time spent on their smartphone or the internet at some point during the pandemic. In addition, 72% of parents of children in grades K-12 say their kids are spending more time on screens compared with before the outbreak. 1

For many, digital interactions could only do so much as a stand-in for in-person communication. About two-thirds of Americans (68%) say the interactions they would have had in person, but instead had online or over the phone, have generally been useful – but not a replacement for in-person contact. Another 15% say these tools haven’t been of much use in their interactions. Still, 17% report that these digital interactions have been just as good as in-person contact.

Some types of technology have been more helpful than others for Americans. For example, 44% say text messages or group messaging apps have helped them a lot to stay connected with family and friends, 38% say the same about voice calls and 30% say this about video calls. Smaller shares say social media sites (20%) and email (19%) have helped them in this way.

The survey offers a snapshot of Americans’ lives just over one year into the pandemic as they reflected back on what had happened. It is important to note the findings were gathered in April 2021, just before  all U.S. adults became eligible for coronavirus vaccine s. At the time, some states were  beginning to loosen restrictions  on businesses and social encounters. This survey also was fielded before the delta variant  became prominent  in the United States,  raising concerns  about new and  evolving variants . 

Here are some of the key takeaways from the survey.

Americans’ tech experiences in the pandemic are linked to digital divides, tech readiness 

Some Americans’ experiences with technology haven’t been smooth or easy during the pandemic. The digital divides related to  internet use  and  affordability  were highlighted by the pandemic and also emerged in new ways as life moved online.

For all Americans relying on screens during the pandemic,  connection quality  has been important for school assignments, meetings and virtual social encounters alike. The new survey highlights difficulties for some: Roughly half of those who have a high-speed internet connection at home (48%) say they have problems with the speed, reliability or quality of their home connection often or sometimes. 2

Beyond that, affordability  remained a persistent concern  for a portion of digital tech users as the pandemic continued – about a quarter of home broadband users (26%) and smartphone owners (24%) said in the April 2021 survey that they worried a lot or some about paying their internet and cellphone bills over the next few months. 

From parents of children facing the “ homework gap ” to Americans struggling to  afford home internet , those with lower incomes have been particularly likely to struggle. At the same time, some of those with higher incomes have been affected as well.

Affordability and connection problems have hit broadband users with lower incomes especially hard. Nearly half of broadband users with lower incomes, and about a quarter of those with midrange incomes, say that as of April they were at least somewhat worried about paying their internet bill over the next few months. 3 And home broadband users with lower incomes are roughly 20 points more likely to say they often or sometimes experience problems with their connection than those with relatively high incomes. Still, 55% of those with lower incomes say the internet has been essential to them personally in the pandemic.

At the same time, Americans’ levels of formal education are associated with their experiences turning to tech during the pandemic. 

Those with a bachelor’s or advanced degree are about twice as likely as those with a high school diploma or less formal education to have used tech in new or different ways during the pandemic. There is also roughly a 20 percentage point gap between these two groups in the shares who have made video calls about once a day or more often and who say these calls have helped at least a little to stay connected with family and friends. And 71% of those with a bachelor’s degree or more education say the internet has been essential, compared with 45% of those with a high school diploma or less.

More broadly, not all Americans believe they have key tech skills. In this survey, about a quarter of adults (26%) say they usually need someone else’s help to set up or show them how to use a new computer, smartphone or other electronic device. And one-in-ten report they have little to no confidence in their ability to use these types of devices to do the things they need to do online. This report refers to those who say they experience either or both of these issues as having “lower tech readiness.” Some 30% of adults fall in this category. (A full description of how this group was identified can be found in  Chapter 3. )

These struggles are particularly acute for older adults, some of whom have had to  learn new tech skills  over the course of the pandemic. Roughly two-thirds of adults 75 and older fall into the group having lower tech readiness – that is, they either have little or no confidence in their ability to use their devices, or generally need help setting up and learning how to use new devices. Some 54% of Americans ages 65 to 74 are also in this group. 

Americans with lower tech readiness have had different experiences with technology during the pandemic. While 82% of the Americans with lower tech readiness say the internet has been at least important to them personally during the pandemic, they are less likely than those with higher tech readiness to say the internet has been essential (39% vs. 66%). Some 21% of those with lower tech readiness say digital interactions haven’t been of much use in standing in for in-person contact, compared with 12% of those with higher tech readiness. 

46% of parents with lower incomes whose children faced school closures say their children had at least one problem related to the ‘homework gap’

As school moved online for many families, parents and their children experienced profound changes. Fully 93% of parents with K-12 children at home say these children had some online instruction during the pandemic. Among these parents, 62% report that online learning has gone very or somewhat well, and 70% say it has been very or somewhat easy for them to help their children use technology for online instruction.

Still, 30% of the parents whose children have had online instruction during the pandemic say it has been very or somewhat difficult for them to help their children use technology or the internet for this. 

The survey also shows that children from households with lower incomes who faced school closures in the pandemic have been especially likely to encounter tech-related obstacles in completing their schoolwork – a phenomenon contributing to the “ homework gap .”

Overall, about a third (34%) of all parents whose children’s schools closed at some point say their children have encountered at least one of the tech-related issues we asked about amid COVID-19: having to do schoolwork on a cellphone, being unable to complete schoolwork because of lack of computer access at home, or having to use public Wi-Fi to finish schoolwork because there was no reliable connection at home. 

This share is higher among parents with lower incomes whose children’s schools closed. Nearly half (46%) say their children have faced at least one of these issues. Some with higher incomes were affected as well – about three-in-ten (31%) of these parents with midrange incomes say their children faced one or more of these issues, as do about one-in-five of these parents with higher household incomes.

Prior Center work has documented this “ homework gap ” in other contexts – both  before the coronavirus outbreak  and  near the beginning of the pandemic . In April 2020, for example, parents with lower incomes were particularly likely to think their children would face these struggles amid the outbreak.

Besides issues related to remote schooling, other changes were afoot in families as the pandemic forced many families to shelter in place. For instance, parents’ estimates of their children’s screen time – and family rules around this – changed in some homes. About seven-in-ten parents with children in kindergarten through 12th grade (72%) say their children were spending more time on screens as of the April survey compared with before the outbreak. Some 39% of parents with school-age children say they have become less strict about screen time rules during the outbreak. About one-in-five (18%) say they have become more strict, while 43% have kept screen time rules about the same. 

More adults now favor the idea that schools should provide digital technology to all students during the pandemic than did in April 2020

Americans’ tech struggles related to digital divides gained attention from policymakers and news organizations as the pandemic progressed.

On some policy issues, public attitudes changed over the course of the outbreak – for example, views on what K-12 schools should provide to students shifted. Some 49% now say K-12 schools have a responsibility to provide all students with laptop or tablet computers in order to help them complete their schoolwork during the pandemic, up 12 percentage points from a year ago.

The shares of those who say so have increased for both major political parties over the past year: This view shifted 15 points for Republicans and those who lean toward the GOP, and there was a 9-point increase for Democrats and Democratic leaners.

However, when it comes to views of policy solutions for internet access more generally, not much has changed. Some 37% of Americans say that the government has a responsibility to ensure all Americans have high-speed internet access during the outbreak, and the overall share is unchanged from April 2020 – the first time Americans were asked this specific question about the government’s pandemic responsibility to provide internet access. 4

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say the government has this responsibility, and within the Republican Party, those with lower incomes are more likely to say this than their counterparts earning more money. 

Video calls and conferencing have been part of everyday life

Americans’ own words provide insight into exactly how their lives changed amid COVID-19. When asked to describe the new or different ways they had used technology, some Americans mention video calls and conferencing facilitating a variety of virtual interactions – including attending events like weddings, family holidays and funerals or transforming where and how they worked. 5 From family calls, shopping for groceries and placing takeout orders online to having telehealth visits with medical professionals or participating in online learning activities, some aspects of life have been virtually transformed: 

“I’ve gone from not even knowing remote programs like Zoom even existed, to using them nearly every day.” – Man, 54

“[I’ve been] h andling … deaths of family and friends remotely, attending and sharing classical music concerts and recitals with other professionals, viewing [my] own church services and Bible classes, shopping. … Basically, [the internet has been] a lifeline.”  – Woman, 69

“I … use Zoom for church youth activities. [I] use Zoom for meetings. I order groceries and takeout food online. We arranged for a ‘digital reception’ for my daughter’s wedding as well as live streaming the event.” – Woman, 44

When asked about video calls specifically, half of Americans report they have talked with others in this way at least once a week since the beginning of the outbreak; one-in-five have used these platforms daily. But how often people have experienced this type of digital connectedness varies by age. For example, about a quarter of adults ages 18 to 49 (27%) say they have connected with others on video calls about once a day or more often, compared with 16% of those 50 to 64 and just 7% of those 65 and older. 

Even as video technology became a part of life for users, many  accounts of burnout  surfaced and some speculated that “Zoom fatigue” was setting in as Americans grew weary of this type of screen time. The survey finds that some 40% of those who participated in video calls since the beginning of the pandemic – a third of all Americans – say they feel worn out or fatigued often or sometimes from the time they spend on video calls. About three-quarters of those who have been on these calls several times a day in the pandemic say this.

Fatigue is not limited to frequent users, however: For example, about a third (34%) of those who have made video calls about once a week say they feel worn out at least sometimes.

These are among the main findings from the survey. Other key results include:

Some Americans’ personal lives and social relationships have changed during the pandemic:  Some 36% of Americans say their own personal lives changed in a major way as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Another 47% say their personal lives changed, but only a little bit.   About half (52%) of those who say major change has occurred in their personal lives due to the pandemic also say they have used tech in new ways, compared with about four-in-ten (38%) of those whose personal lives changed a little bit and roughly one-in-five (19%) of those who say their personal lives stayed about the same.

Even as tech helped some to stay connected, a quarter of Americans say they feel less close to close family members now compared with before the pandemic, and about four-in-ten (38%) say the same about friends they know well. Roughly half (53%) say this about casual acquaintances.

The majority of those who tried to sign up for vaccine appointments in the first part of the year went online to do so:  Despite early problems with  vaccine rollout  and  online registration systems , in the April survey tech problems did  not  appear to be major struggles for most adults who had tried to sign up online for COVID-19 vaccines. The survey explored Americans’ experiences getting these vaccine appointments and reveals that in April 57% of adults had tried to sign themselves up and 25% had tried to sign someone else up. Fully 78% of those who tried to sign themselves up and 87% of those who tried to sign others up were online registrants. 

When it comes to difficulties with the online vaccine signup process, 29% of those who had tried to sign up online – 13% of all Americans – say it was very or somewhat difficult to sign themselves up for vaccines at that time. Among five reasons for this that the survey asked about, the most common  major  reason was lack of available appointments, rather than tech-related problems. Adults 65 and older who tried to sign themselves up for the vaccine online were the most likely age group to experience at least some difficulty when they tried to get a vaccine appointment.

Tech struggles and usefulness alike vary by race and ethnicity.  Americans’ experiences also have varied across racial and ethnic groups. For example, Black Americans are more likely than White or Hispanic adults to meet the criteria for having “lower tech readiness.” 6 Among broadband users, Black and Hispanic adults were also more likely than White adults to be worried about paying their bills for their high-speed internet access at home as of April, though the share of Hispanic Americans who say this declined sharply since April 2020. And a majority of Black and Hispanic broadband users say they at least sometimes have experienced problems with their internet connection. 

Still, Black adults and Hispanic adults are more likely than White adults to say various technologies – text messages, voice calls, video calls, social media sites and email – have helped them a lot to stay connected with family and friends amid the pandemic.

Tech has helped some adults under 30 to connect with friends, but tech fatigue also set in for some.  Only about one-in-five adults ages 18 to 29 say they feel closer to friends they know well compared with before the pandemic. This share is twice as high as that among adults 50 and older. Adults under 30 are also more likely than any other age group to say social media sites have helped a lot in staying connected with family and friends (30% say so), and about four-in-ten of those ages 18 to 29 say this about video calls. 

Screen time affected some negatively, however. About six-in-ten adults under 30 (57%) who have ever made video calls in the pandemic say they at least sometimes feel worn out or fatigued from spending time on video calls, and about half (49%) of young adults say they have tried to cut back on time spent on the internet or their smartphone.

• Throughout this report, “parents” refers to those who said they were the parent or guardian of any children who were enrolled in elementary, middle or high school and who lived in their household at the time of the survey. ↩
• People with a high-speed internet connection at home also are referred to as “home broadband users” or “broadband users” throughout this report. ↩
• Family incomes are based on 2019 earnings and adjusted for differences in purchasing power by geographic region and for household sizes. Middle income is defined here as two-thirds to double the median annual family income for all panelists on the American Trends Panel. Lower income falls below that range; upper income falls above it. ↩
• A separate  Center study  also fielded in April 2021 asked Americans what the government is responsible for on a number of topics, but did not mention the coronavirus outbreak. Some 43% of Americans said in that survey that the federal government has a responsibility to provide high-speed internet for all Americans. This was a significant increase from 2019, the last time the Center had asked that more general question, when 28% said the same. ↩
• Quotations in this report may have been lightly edited for grammar, spelling and clarity. ↩
• There were not enough Asian American respondents in the sample to be broken out into a separate analysis. As always, their responses are incorporated into the general population figures throughout this report. ↩

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What Covid-19 Taught Us About Doing Business During a Crisis

• The Working Through Violence Research Team

A 2021 survey of seven cities around the world during the Covid-19 pandemic offers clues to how businesses handle crises. Analyzing responses from 78,000 people in Bogotá and Medellín, Colombia; Beirut, Lebanon; Cape Town, South Africa; Caracas, Venezuela; San Pedro Sula, Honduras; and San Salvador, El Salvador, the authors find that many of the biggest challenges that firms face under crisis are sociopolitical in nature, not financial. As such, these challenges are complex, systemic, and hard to quantify. They also scare managers operating in these contexts, especially in cities where extortion and business violence are pervasive. In such settings, firms benefit from community embeddedness and a recognition that they are both influenced by and able to shape the systems around them — positively or negatively.

Takeaways from a seven-city global survey.

Over the past two years, the Covid-19 crisis has forced a fundamental reordering of work and life around the world. But has the experience helped organizations prepare for future crises? To answer this question, we studied how relationships between businesses and society have changed during the pandemic in several global cities known for their dynamic growth but also deep fragility.

• The research team on Working Through Violence is a multidisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners studying how businesses can support sustainable livelihoods and contribute to safer cities. Team members are Benedicte Bull , Jason Miklian , Sarah Cechvala , and Catalina Garcia of the University of Oslo; Brian Ganson of the University of Stellenbosch Business School; Kristian Hoelscher and Øystein H. Rolandsen of the Peace Research Institute Oslo; Angelika Rettberg of Universidad de los Andes; Jay Joseph of the American University of Beirut; John Katsos of the American University of Sharjah; Ben Miller of CDA Collaborative Learning Projects; and RIWI .

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Impact of digital surge during Covid-19 pandemic: A viewpoint on research and practice

Rahul de’.

a Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India

Neena Pandey

b Indian Institute of Management Visakhapatnam, India

Abhipsa Pal

c Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, India

• • We examine the digital surge during the pandemic, and after.
• • Prominent issues in the use of blockchains, gig economy, workplace monitoring.
• • Aspects of internet governance, digital payments, privacy and security.
• • Implications for future research and technology policy.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to an inevitable surge in the use of digital technologies due to the social distancing norms and nationwide lockdowns. People and organizations all over the world have had to adjust to new ways of work and life. We explore possible scenarios of the digital surge and the research issues that arise.

An increase in digitalization is leading firms and educational institutions to shift to work-from-home (WFH). Blockchain technology will become important and will entail research on design and regulations. Gig workers and the gig economy is likely to increase in scale, raising questions of work allocation, collaboration, motivation, and aspects of work overload and presenteeism. Workplace monitoring and technostress issues will become prominent with an increase in digital presence. Online fraud is likely to grow, along with research on managing security. The regulation of the internet, a key resource, will be crucial post-pandemic.

Research may address the consequences and causes of the digital divide. Further, the issues of net neutrality and zero-rating plans will merit scrutiny. A key research issue will also be the impact and consequences of internet shutdowns, frequently resorted to by countries. Digital money, too, assumes importance in crisis situations and research will address their adoption, consequences, and mode. Aspects of surveillance and privacy gain importance with increased digital usage.

1. Introduction

By late May 2020, at the time of writing of this article, over 200 countries and territories in the world were affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. This included most urban clusters and even rural regions.

With the spread of the pandemic, almost all regions have implemented lockdowns, shutting down activities that require human gathering and interactions - including colleges, schools, malls, temples, offices, airports, and railway stations. The lockdown has resulted in most people taking to the internet and internet-based services to communicate, interact, and continue with their job responsibilities from home. Internet services have seen rises in usage from 40 % to 100 %, compared to pre-lockdown levels. Video-conferencing services like Zoom have seen a ten times increase in usage, and content delivery services like Akamai have seen a 30 % increase in content usage ( Branscombe, 2020 ). Cities like Bangalore have seen a 100 % increase in internet traffic.

The lockdowns across countries have entailed a rise in the use of information systems and networks, with massive changes in usage patterns and usage behaviour. Employees are adjusting to new "normals” - with meetings going completely online, office work shifting to the home, with new emerging patterns of work. These changes have come across most organizations, whether in business, society, or government. The changes have also come suddenly, with barely any time for organizations and people to plan for, prepare and implement new setups and arrangements; they have had to adjust, try, experiment, and find ways that did not exist before.

Though now, in late May 2020, the pandemic is receding and stabilized in certain countries, it is still on the increase in many others, and with serious threats. Experts in most countries are wary of the possibility of the disease spread re-emerging, and that lockdown norms may be relaxed carefully and slowly with social distancing at the core of the new normal.

It is in this context that we see the use of information systems to continue in the same vein for some time in the foreseeable future as during the lockdown. We examine the possible scenarios in this surge in information technology usage during and post the pandemic. Our estimation of these effects assumes that there was a digital transformation already underway, before the pandemic set in, and it will take certain forms owing to the impact of the lockdowns.

In the next section, we examine the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the use of digital technologies, where we discuss some possible scenarios and research issues of the post-pandemic world. The next section summarizes the implications for research and practice, and in the last section, we present our conclusions.

2. Scenarios and research issues of the digital surge

In this section, we discuss some of the most pressing issues regarding the post-pandemic digital surge. These themes reveal the multiple directions in which IS research can focus in relation to impacts on technology.

2.1. Increasing digitalization

As the use of video- and audio-conferencing tools increases significantly, organizations will ramp up their technology infrastructure to account for the surge. This will lead to increased investment in bandwidth expansion, network equipment, and software that leverages cloud services. With employees becoming acclimatized to the idea of work-from-home (WFH), meeting and transacting online, firms will shift to WFH as a norm rather than as an exception. This is being adopted by many firms ( Akala, 2020 ; BBC News, 2020 ; Khetarpal, 2020 ), which have the digital infrastructure in place to handle the required load and bandwidth.

Education is another domain in which there a dramatic shift to the online mode of transacting. Since the beginning of the lockdown, schools, colleges, and universities around the world have shifted their classes to video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Google Meet. Along with these synchronous modes of teaching, asynchronous platforms like edX and Coursera have also seen an increase in enrolments ( Shah, 2020 ). Some institutions are now shifting entirely to the online mode for the forthcoming academic year, with the exception of sessions that require a physical presence, such as the University of Cambridge in the UK and the California State system in the US ( New York Times, 2020 ).

Digital transformation technologies such as Cloud, Internet-of-Things (IoT), Blockchain (BC), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML), constitute a bulk of the of what is being adopted by organizations as part of their transformation effort.

Blockchain (BC) technology presents an opportunity to create secure and trusted information control mechanisms ( Upadhyay, 2020 ). As education and healthcare services witnesses a shift to the digital domain, BCs enable a way to secure and authenticate certificates, health records, medical records, and prescriptions. Research on the design of such systems, along with maintaining their ease-of-use and usefulness will gain importance. Another issue is that of designing systems that work with smart contracts – how the contracts are authenticated, how these contracts will be designed in a complex chain of processes with many agents involved, and how arbitration related to contracts will be handled. Further, IS research may point to regulatory aspects of BCs with regard to what must be encrypted and shared (such as for authenticating news and information sources), and how security will be managed. For instance, government demand for access to private keys to view blocks for surveillance and monitoring, versus the requirements of privacy and protection from persecution.

2.2. Work-from-home and gig workers

The gig economy is driven by online platforms that hire workers on an ad hoc, short-contract, and mostly informal basis. Well-known examples of these include Uber and Airbnb globally and Ola and Swiggy in India. These platforms have grown immensely since the wide availability of smartphones from 2010 onwards. During the lockdown, workers employed by these platforms have suffered heavily, as the demand for their services, taxi rides, rentals, or skill work, has disappeared ( Bhattacharya, 2020 ). Further, since these workers had no guaranteed salaries, their incomes dropped dramatically.

In the post-pandemic scenario, there is likely to be, in the short term, a slow return of gig economy workers, as manufacturing and service firms return to their old activities. However, we anticipate that in the longer term as the threat of infection and spread recedes, the gig economy will thrive. This will also be driven by the WFH culture.

Work-from-home and gig work has received attention in IS research, through topics in telecommuting, digital nomads, and virtual teams. One key issue is that of work allocation and collaboration, across and inside teams, and across projects. This issue will face a rise in scale and importance in the post-pandemic world, as the numbers of WFH and gig workers increase. Research may focus on aspects of the design of work norms, work contracts, trust-building, and team-building, amongst others.

Research on telecommuting and virtual teams ( Belanger, Collins, & Cheney, 2001 ; Morrison-Smith & Ruiz, 2020 ) has a long history in IS literature. Issues include the nature of “distance” whether temporal, spatial, or cultural, and the psychological needs of workers, the technological support and design for this kind of work, and many others. This research is important for the post-pandemic period.

We anticipate that the “dark side” of virtual teams and dispersed work also assumes importance in the post-pandemic world. Substantive issues related to technostress - particularly work overload and presenteeism arise in these situations. Research will have to address issues of design of collaborative work, evaluation, team performance and motivation, stress, and the issue of continuous learning.

2.3. Workplace monitoring and technostress

Another aspect of digital use by large sections of the working population is that of constant workplace monitoring and being on-the-job continuously. Those working from home using video conferencing technology find themselves under intense scrutiny and all interactions are “hyper-focused” ( Kalia, 2020 ). Digital technology makes it easier for bosses and managers to call and locate subordinates at any time, knowing that they can be reached at all times. Though there is anecdotal early evidence that this has led to an increase in productivity, it has also led to increased technostress ( Ayyagari, Grover, & Purvis, 2011 ; Tarafdar, Tu, Ragu-Nathan, & Ragu-Nathan, 2007 ) where employees must learn new technologies, be available for work at almost all times, stay with digital devices all the time, and cope with multi-tasking.

Post-pandemic, it is likely that workers' organizations will demand no-digital hours, where they will find refuge from the constant work pressure. Research may address the concerns of work equity, balance, and managing stress.

2.4. Online fraud

Along with the surge in the use of digital technologies, we are now witnessing a rise in online fraud, scams, intrusions, and security breaches. The pandemic has created a scenario of insecurity that is inviting fraudsters to exploit the crisis situation by extracting money or information or by creating vulnerabilities ( Agarwal, Sengupta, Kulshrestha, Anand, & Guha, 2017 ) Many users are beginning to rely on digital resources extensively, some for the first time, and are becoming targets for fraud and scams. Organizations and governments are aware of this threat and are taking countermeasures – for instance, some governments took a strong stand against Zoom sessions for education, forcing the platform provider to upgrade security ( Yu, 2020 ).

It is likely that these scams and frauds will increase in intensity after the pandemic. Organizations will implement massive security arrangements, along with extensive information campaigns by government departments. Security innovations and firms that offer security services will rise. Research will likely focus on managing security, assess the causes of breaches, and the economic and social loss from them.

2.5. Internet access and digital divide

Information technology, and particularly the internet, will remain central to the post-pandemic scenario, where innovations will drive the surge in use. A key aspect of this surge will be the management and regulation of the internet itself. Though the internet is a global resource and no one country can control its protocols and features, its local access and availability remain an in-country issue. During the pandemic too some countries have restricted access to the internet ( Chhibber, 2020 ), for certain reasons.

The regulation of the internet will become crucial after the pandemic as it will remain a policy tool for governments. They can intercede on aspects of monitoring, bandwidth control, surveillance, intermediary liability, and e-commerce.

The pandemic has brought the world to a situation where those not connected to the internet are facing total exclusion. With strict social and physical distancing measures in place, new routines require accessing the internet for most services. Hence, those on the wrong side of the digital divide are completely left out. Reasons for the divide are many: unaffordable device access, unaffordable Internet access, content relevance, access skills or government ordered Internet shutdowns( Armbrecht, 2016 ; Scheerder, van Deursen, & van Dijk, 2017 ) In developing countries, the condition is more serious. Thus, it becomes extremely important to explore the possibilities of ensuring connectivity. Although these issues have been researched and discussed earlier ( Warschauer, 2004 ), COVID-19 has brought about a situation where internet access seems to have become necessary for survival. As a few studies have suggested, access or no-access to ICTs may reinforce societal inequalities ( Ragnedda, 2017 ), where the post-pandemic situation may enhance this further. With substantial use of technology in accessing basic requirements like health and education, it is imperative to understand the impact of the digital divide on social equality. Therefore, it calls for researchers to examine the impact of connectivity to draw policymakers’ interest and, perhaps, offer ways to enhance it towards better inclusion.

2.6. Internet governance: net neutrality and zero-rating

Heavy use of the internet during the pandemic, for various purposes, has raised people's data requirements. With a significant digital divide in societies, this surge in the Internet data requirement has revived the discussion on zero-rating plans.

Zero-rating plans enable firms to let users access data from their sites and services, without having to bear data charges. Usually, this is not strictly permitted as it violates the basic principles of net neutrality, where internet traffic has to have the same priority and cost.

India, for instance, had an exemplary record of regulating zero-rating plans. Although the government did not permit the implementation of such plans, in the aftermath of the pandemic, the telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) decided to allow waiving charges for data and voice for certain websites (; COAI, 2020 ). The list primarily consisted of the sites related to COVID-19 - such as the World Health Organisation and India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The list also included some private players. The principal aim was to allow people, across all socio-economic levels, access COVID-19 related information.

Given that zero-rating plans can be useful in exceptional circumstances, as is evident from the example of India, research on the conditions on various parameters where allowing ZR plans may increase social welfare has enormous practical implications, both for firms as well as regulators. The existing literature on net-neutrality regulations and zero-rating plans ( Belli, 2017 ; Cho, Qiu, & Bandyopadhyay, 2016 ) forms the basis to enhance research in this aspect. Issues to be studied include: expanding telecom infrastructure, providing subsidized internet devices, free extra data, or waiving off users’ subscription fees ( Shashidhar, 2020 )

2.7. Internet governance: shutdowns

In current times, when the productivity of people depends significantly on the internet, its shutdown can be extremely detrimental to societies ( ISOC, 2019 ) However, internet shutdowns are not uncommon even in times like these. The internet was shutdown in Kashmir, a union territory in India, since August 5th, 2019 and continued till May 2020, making it the longest ever imposed in a democracy ( Masih, Irfan, & Slater, 2019 ) Basic internet services, such as filing for driving licenses, were accessed by locals using the Internet Express, which is a train that shuttles Kashmiris to the nearest town where they can get online. The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce estimates $1.4 billion in losses owing to the internet shutdown ( Masih et al., 2019 ). Similar events are regularly noted across various other countries, Arab Spring being the significant starting point.

With the pandemic, when the internet has become the most important tool available to citizens, the impact of Internet shutdowns has become grimmer. Shutdowns lead to severe implications for all aspects of life, and there are many issues that require research in this regard. The impacts resulting from a climate of uncertainty can potentially discourage foreign investors and spill over to a wide range of sectors, including education, healthcare, press and news media, and e-commerce ( Kathuria, Kedia, Verma, Bagchi, & Sekhani, 2018 ). It is important to understand the far-reaching human rights impact of internet shutdowns, which are exacerbated in the current scenario. Shutdowns have deep political reasons and in many cases the consequences are indeterminate. Research can focus on aspects of domino-effect consequences leading to grave political crises.

2.8. Digital money

Digital payments and digital currencies are likely to have a key role in the post-pandemic situation. As digital payments are contact-less they will be encouraged by governments, and will likely see a surge. This will also be boosted by the gig economy and WFH situations.

There are two distinct phenomena related to digital money that has aided the fight during the pandemic. First, banknotes and coins were suspected to be carrying the virus and digital payment was preferred to the ‘dirty money’ ( Gardner, 2020 ; Samantha, 2020 ). Online delivery services were encouraging customers to make payments through digital payment systems like a credit/debit card or mobile payments, with mandates by the government in several parts of India ( Bhandari, 2020 ). This is likely to result in a surge in digital payment usage, which will lead to work on the diffusion of digital payment technology. Second, during the lockdown, there was a loss of jobs, and governments provided aid through payment apps and digital payment modes. These are a convenient mode of fund transfer from donors to recipients, as seen in previous crisis relief cases as well ( Pollach, Treiblmaier, & Floh, 2005 ). In various crisis and disaster events, where the mobility of civilians was restrained, many mobile payment service providers (e.g. Vodafone in Afghanistan, Safaricom in Kenya, and Orange in Africa) provided quick funds transfer of remittances from migrants to their homes, and relief aid from the government to victims ( Aker, Boumnijel, McClelland, & Tierney, 2016 ; Pega, Liu, Walter, & Lhachimi, 2015 ; Wachanga, 2015 ). This is once again observed in the Covid-19 crisis and needs further examination.

2.9. Surveillance and privacy

Issues of surveillance and privacy are gaining prominence with digital usage during lockdowns. Commentators, such as Yuval Harari, have written about the potential for state surveillance “under the skin” ( Harari, 2020 ) as governments rely on digital means to monitor the spread of the pandemic. As many governments have started using apps on smartphones to monitor infected persons and trace their contacts, civil society organizations have raised privacy and state surveillance concerns ( Pant & Lal, 2020 ). Post-pandemic, these measures of monitoring populations for epidemiological reasons with digital means are likely to continue and become prevalent. Though the concerns of privacy and surveillance are valid and have to be addressed, these digital platforms are the most reliable and efficient way of tracking disease spread.

“Surveillance is a distinctive product of the modern world” ( Misa, Brey, & Feenberg, 2003, p. 161 ), and today we are living in a surveillance society where any internet-based activity using a mobile phone or other electronic gadgets can be monitored and accessed in unfathomable ways ( Gilliom & Monahan, 2012 ; Lyon, 1994 ). This has resulted in a surge in IS research on implications of such web or app-based surveillance in applications including mobile health apps ( Lupton, 2012 ), environment monitoring and pollution control apps ( Castell et al., 2015 ), self-tracking apps ( Barassi, 2017 ), and parental surveillance ( Ghosh, Badillo-Urquiola, Guha, LaViola, & Wisniewski, 2018 ). Covid-19 has introduced a new application of surveillance for tracking citizens with the symptoms of the virus. This includes the Covid-19 tracker in China ( Davidson, 2020 ), the Aarogya Setu app for tracking infectious citizens in India ( Shahane, 2020 ), and contact tracking apps in the United States ( Guynn, 2020 ). While these technologies are innovations for fighting the global pandemic today, the issue of government surveillance on citizens has evolved repeatedly. Research can focus on the multiple benefits of these apps, but also should not ignore the potential social complications that are possible to arise, including the historic problem of bureaucratic control by the government, using IT ( Gandy, 1989 ).

Closely related to surveillance is the issue of privacy that mobile apps, including Covid-19 trackers, often tend to threaten users’ personal information ( Gu, (Calvin) Xu, Xu, Zhang, & Ling, 2017 ; Joy, 2020 ). For example, online classes during the pandemic lockdowns have suffered issues of ‘intrusion of privacy’ as students and teachers are on camera in the private spaces of their homes ( Garcia, 2020 ). Privacy in the digital age has remained a research topic of high priority for IS researchers ( Belanger et al., 2001 ; Smith, Dinev, & Xu, 2011 ). Privacy has also been considered by IS adoption and usage researchers, with privacy risk as a dominant and recurring factor in studies on mobile payments (e.g., Johnson, Kiser, Washington, & Torres, 2018 ; Luo, Li, Zhang, & Shim, 2010 ), location-based mobile services ( Zhou, 2012 ), and social networking sites ( Aghasian, Garg, Gao, Yu, & Montgomery, 2017 ; Youn & Hall, 2008 ). It would be interesting to examine the different privacy concerns of users while adapting both Covid-19 tracking apps, and online classroom applications. The risks involved in the breach of privacy by these two technologies are unalike and must be investigated with adequate contextual references.

3. Implications for research and practice

In this section, we revisit some of the key issues that are important for research and practice. Our discussion is based on the assumptions about the post-pandemic situation and the aspects of IS research presented above.

3.1. Implications for research

• 1 While deploying security technologies like the blockchain, it will be important to understand the implications of smart contracts, their integration in workflows, and their effectiveness in complex resource-constrained settings, as in developing countries. Further, understanding the implications of secure and non-erasable technologies like blockchains will become relevant for regulation.
• 2 Many research issues arise with regard to work-from-home and gig work, which include aspects of trust, measurement of performance, communication effectiveness, and collaboration.
• 3 It can be expected that the dark side of virtual work and gig work, will raise questions of stress, presenteeism, work overload, surveillance, and monitoring. New and severe forms of digital surveillance will have to be understood and their implications gauged.
• 4 Though much work has been done in understanding the parameters and impact of the digital divide, it will be important to understand how those without access suffer more from the consequences of the pandemic when the world survives on digital communications and operations.
• 5 Management of the internet within countries is important, and aspects of enhancing networks include regulating zero-rating plans cautiously, seeing their implications for welfare, and how they can enhance access.
• 6 Internet shutdowns during and after a pandemic lead to severe difficulties for citizens, who have come to depend on these services. Research has to examine the direct, second-order, and third-order impacts of these shutdown measures.
• 7 Research on digital payments and their impact in crisis situations, for providing aid and subsidies to affected populations, and for disaster management.
• 8 Surveillance issues about the extent of data collection by contact tracing apps are important areas of research. Issues of persistence and elimination of data, the expanse of data collection, sharing of data between apps, and the multiple trade-offs involved.

3.2. Implications for practice

• 1 Design of secure technologies, like blockchain-based applications, for the surge in online education and healthcare activities.
• 2 Policy for regulating digital infrastructure needed for increased digital transformation.
• 3 Design of technologies for managing secure online interactions – for education, healthcare, payments.
• 4 Design of apps for contract tracing and disease surveillance that balance privacy versus public health.
• 5 Managers will have to understand resistance to technology and ways to manage change, both among employees as well as customers.
• 6 Given the significant role which the internet is about to play in times to come, Internet intermediaries will work with government and civil society to address privacy and surveillance issues for better adoption of technology.

4. Conclusion

We understand that a pandemic can have severe consequences ( Keys, 2000 ), including changing the political contour of the world, destroying empires, and creating nations. For the Covid-19 pandemic, we envisage a dramatic shift in digital usage with impacts on all aspects of work and life. How this change plays out remains largely dependent on our responses to and shaping of the emerging trends.

In this paper, we have outlined what we see as some key trends and research issues that need to be examined urgently. They will have substantial consequences in the future.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Rahul De’: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft. Neena Pandey: Writing - original draft. Abhipsa Pal: Writing - review & editing.

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The Virus Changed the Way We Internet

By Ella Koeze and Nathaniel Popper April 7, 2020

Stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic, with movie theaters closed and no restaurants to dine in, Americans have been spending more of their lives online.

But a New York Times analysis of internet usage in the United States from SimilarWeb and Apptopia, two online data providers, reveals that our behaviors shifted, sometimes starkly, as the virus spread and pushed us to our devices for work, play and connecting.

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With nearly all public gatherings called off, Americans are seeking out entertainment on streaming services like Netflix and YouTube, and looking to connect with one another on social media outlets like Facebook.

In the past few years, users of these services were increasingly moving to their smartphones, creating an industrywide focus on mobile. Now that we are spending our days at home, with computers close at hand, Americans appear to be remembering how unpleasant it can be to squint at those little phone screens.

Facebook, Netflix and YouTube have all seen user numbers on their phone apps stagnate or fall off as their websites have grown, the data from SimilarWeb and Apptopia indicates. SimilarWeb and Apptopia both draw their traffic numbers from several independent sources to create data that can be compared across the internet.

With the rise of social distancing, we are seeking out new ways to connect, mostly through video chat

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While traditional social media sites have been growing, it seems that we want to do more than just connect through messaging and text — we want to see one another. This has given a big boost to apps that used to linger in relative obscurity, like Google’s video chatting application, Duo, and Houseparty, which allows groups of friends to join a single video chat and play games together.

We have also grown much more interested in our immediate environment, and how it is changing and responding to the virus and the quarantine measures. This has led to a renewed interest in Nextdoor, the social media site focused on connecting local neighborhoods.

We have suddenly become reliant on services that allow us to work and learn from home

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The offices and schools of America have all moved into our basements and living rooms. Nothing is having a more profound impact on online activity than this change. School assignments are being handed out on Google Classroom. Meetings are happening on Zoom, Google Hangouts and Microsoft Teams. The rush to these services, however, has brought new scrutiny on privacy practices .

The search for updates on the virus has pushed up readership for local and established newspapers, but not partisan sites

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Amid the uncertainty about how bad the outbreak could get — there are now hundreds of thousands of cases in the United States , with the number of dead multiplying by the day — Americans appear to want few things more than the latest news on the coronavirus .

Among the biggest beneficiaries are local news sites, with huge jumps in traffic as people try to learn how the pandemic is affecting their hometowns.

Americans have also been seeking out more established media brands for information on the public health crisis and its economic consequences. CNBC, the business news site, has seen readership skyrocket. The websites for The New York Times and The Washington Post have both grown traffic more than 50 percent over the last month, according to SimilarWeb.

The desire for the latest facts on the virus appears to be curbing interest in the more opinionated takes from partisan sites, which have defined the media landscape in recent years. Publications like The Daily Caller, on the right, and Truthdig on the left, have recorded stagnant or falling numbers. Even Fox News has seen disappointing numbers compared to other large outlets.

Beating all of the news sites, in terms of increased popularity, is the home page for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , which has been attracting millions of readers after previously having almost none. Over time, readers have also looked to more ambitious efforts to quantify the spread of the virus, like the one produced by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center .

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With all major-league games called off, there hasn’t been much sports to consume beyond marble racing and an occasional Belarusian soccer match . Use of ESPN’s website has fallen sharply since late January, according to SimilarWeb.

At the same time, several video game sites have had surges in traffic, as have sites that let you watch other people play. Twitch, the leading site for streaming game play, has had traffic shoot up 20 percent.

TikTok, the mobile app filled with short clips of pranks and lip-syncing, was taking off before the coronavirus outbreak and it has continued its steady ascent ever since. It can be nice to see that at least some things remain unchanged by the crisis.

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When it comes to online business in the face of the pandemic, it seems to be the only sphere that can boast of some positive changes. Social distancing requirements made people stay away from offline shops, cafes, cinemas, etc. However, new conditions cannot kill a desire to use all the privileges of the modern world. Thus, people went shopping online, ordered food delivery, and arranged shared film viewing with the help of specialized apps. Besides, some aspects experienced almost no changes. For example, students still needed just to click here to place an order for their assignments. This moment stood abiding like the high quality and robustness of a Swiss bank.

In other words, online services have turned to be rock solid during the pandemic. It happened thanks to the fact that most companies had developed their business long before the pandemic. They foresaw massive development of the online segment since it makes many aspects easier, and people always strive to simplify their lives (well, unless it comes to personal relationships). At the same time, many customers faced negative changes in their lives due to the pandemic, so their capabilities deteriorated. It is about two sides of the coin. So, it is necessary to go deep down this question to sort things out.

Great changes in preferences

Sometimes it doesn’t matter whether you have an online or offline business since its essence (the sphere of activity) always comes to the fore. For instance, the pandemic negatively affected traveling and led to tremendous restrictions, so it is not surprising the industry faced a significant reduction in online bookings. At the same time, people were forced to stay home almost around the clock, so streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ increased profits thanks to impressive growth in subscriptions. Even though people started opting for online shopping and ordering online delivery, their purchasing behaviors were also affected by the pandemic. Customers started weighing the pros and cons of buying some products and ordering services. Students began to spend more time studying American literature research papers examples to find a reliable writing service for long-term cooperation.

Besides, you might have noticed that the pandemic provoked panic purchasing trends. People went crazy about grabbing thermometers, hand sanitizers, and surgical masks. Poor availability of required items in offline stores affected the development of online businesses.

What businesses go up?

Even though essentials run the table, most people have started showing an incredible interest in medical supplies and all possible types of vitamins. They feared getting sick and going to hospitals, so they got obsessed with preventive measures. Such online platforms as iHerb dramatically increased their turnovers around the globe since they provided international delivery. However, when the first waves of panic passed and customers took care of their essentials to feel in a safe zone, they got back on track with their more common purchases. Besides, people have developed new habits and started showing interest in the so-called new essentials.

In most cases, these items can be included in one of the following categories: beauty, hobbies, office supplies, home improvement, gadgets, high technologies, education. The latter plays a special role in many people’s lives since the labor market has become more competitive than ever. Students started visiting such websites as Midtermguru.Com more often to clear up their schedules and devote free time to some additional courses to improve their chances of finding a decent job after graduation. 

E-learning is the new black

When almost all academic educations were forced to close their doors, it became clear that e-learning would get a new status. Many companies started creating online courses in their sphere of expertise. Digital streaming services saw a tremendous increase on equal par with subscription platforms. People faced the necessity to improve their skills and gain new knowledge to stay on track after the lockdown. Thus, nowadays, you can find courses in all possible subjects, whether PHP, English language, or watercolor drawing. Even though such services as Coursera remain popular worldwide, they have a large number of rivals nowadays. E-learning is the new black, and it seems this tendency will not disappear anywhere.

Post-pandemic times

It is hard to say for sure how online business will change in the long term, but it has already become clear that it has cemented its position in the modern world. People will hardly get back to a pre-pandemic lifestyle since it will be a big step back. The further development of the online sector depends more on how long the epidemic will last and whether people will have to keep social distance. Since customers have discovered the advantages of e-Commerce, they will hardly want to return to past habits. Considering the predictions that the pandemic will slow down in the upcoming future, business owners have a chance to adjust their websites and social networks to get ready for a new stage. Social media plays an important role in the success of any business. If your online presence leaves much to be desired, you will hardly succeed and get profits in the long run. Thus, gaining digital skills has become essential for every company.

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clock This article was published more than  3 years ago

Small businesses turned to technology to survive the pandemic. But it may not be enough.

After their doors shut, small businesses have had to figure out ways to get online and stay competitive during the pandemic..

Everything about Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee and Books was designed to be experienced in person. Flipping through the pages of its carefully chosen selection of books, milling around and talking to neighbors over an espresso, crowding in to hear speakers at free events.

When Philadelphia announced its shelter-in-place order to slow the spread of the coronavirus on March 16, the three-year-old bookstore had to rethink how it was going survive.

Three months later, the store, founded by author and activist Marc Lamont Hill, is selling physical books online through a service called Bookshop and selling audio books with a company called Libro.fm. It’s hosting Zoom happy hours , wellness talks, and virtual events with authors. And in the past few weeks, it has seen a surge in online business from people wanting to support black-owned bookstores and read more about anti-racism . Still, the bookstore will largely rely on loans and a Go Fund Me campaign to survive until it reopens.

“You can always get the books cheaper on Amazon, faster on Amazon,” general manager Justin Moore said. “Customers are going out of their way to not only purchase books from independent bookstores themselves, but to encourage their friends and colleagues to do it as well. It’s been very much a community-led initiative.”

Despite a widespread shift to online shopping, nearly 90 percent of U.S. commerce takes place in the physical world. Small businesses, including restaurants, bookstores and yoga studios, have long earned their keep through brick-and-mortar operations built on attracting customers to come in, gather, mingle and spend money.

Small business used to define America’s economy. The pandemic could change that forever.

But the pandemic has changed that, forcing businesses to embrace technology to move online. Many major cities have some form of lockdown in place, and the threat of another round of shutdowns looms as covid-19 cases spike in some areas. One in five small businesses reported having to temporarily close down since the pandemic started, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce .

As shoppers in some areas are hesitant to return to their everyday habits, and filling a room for a book reading or exercise class is unthinkable for many, small businesses such as Uncle Bobbie’s are hoping that a transition to online sales might help keep them afloat as they prepare to reopen.

“We would never want to replace that experience of when you walk into our store,” Moore said. “You come, you stay, you talk, you meet some friends, you have some fun conversation.”

In response to the shutdowns, restaurants closed dining areas and scraped by on pickup and delivery ordered via apps. Small shops that sell physical goods such as clothes and books figured out ways to list products online and in some cases created websites for the first time. Stores that still sell from physical locations are changing how they get paid — moving away from riskier cash and even physical credit card payment systems to prepaid invoices and contactless options. Technology adoptions that were expected to take years happened in weeks.

“Overnight, doing business in person was not really an option anymore, so everyone scrambled to get online,” said David Rusenko, head of e-commerce at mobile payments company Square. “We saw a three-year adoption cycle get compressed to three weeks.”

Number of working black business owners falls 40 percent, far more than other groups amid coronavirus

Still, it may not be enough. Many small businesses were already struggling as Walmart and Amazon have become go-to destinations for shoppers. OpenTable predicts one in four restaurants won’t reopen. More than 100,000 small businesses have shut down permanently since March, according to a study from the University of Illinois, Harvard Business School, Harvard University and the University of Chicago.

According to research firm eMarketer , sales at physical stores in the U.S. will drop 14 percent, or $4.2 trillion, this year, and it could take five years for the industry to bounce back completely. Online sales, while up, aren’t enough to make up for that.

Small business owners, in particular, said it’s not enough to make up for their closed physical retail spaces. Online sales are typically less profitable, in part because of costs for fulfillment and delivery, plus returns. Instead, many are relying on loans, donations and an upswell in public support.

“We see Gen Z and the young people put their money where their mouths is,” said Barbara Kahn, professor of marketing at the Wharton School. “Now people think of the entire transaction of what they’re paying for. That there’s value in sustainable transactions, in supporting the local community, that’s over and above the value of the goods.”

Many businesses have had to get creative to take advantage of that sentiment.

In Oakland, Calif., wine bar and store Ordinaire realized listing its extensive inventory of natural wine online wasn’t practical. Instead, it added an option for customers to fill out a form with their desired number of bottles, a budget, and what style wine they are “in the mood for.” The store’s staff picks the best wine for that order and sends an online invoice to the customer.

The next big problem for the economy: Businesses can’t pay their rent

“It’s kind of how we always operate as a wine shop. If someone comes in we have a dialogue and conversation about what they’re looking for,” said Alex Leopold, a manager there. The wine bar has seen a slight bump in retail sales, but not enough to make up for the closure. It plans to keep the online options after the bar and store reopen.

Stepping into the void, tech companies are coming up with new tools for small businesses. Square is best known for its credit card reader that plugs into mobile phones, but it now offers tools for website-building and invoicing. When the pandemic started, the company added new options to its software such as curbside pickup and contactless delivery.

“We saw a lot of people get online in two days, three days,” said Square’s Rusenko. “Now that some areas are reopening, they’re actually able to manage both.”

Bookshop , the site Uncle Bobbie’s and more than 700 independent bookstores use for sales and fulfillment, launched in February. It sold $50,000 worth of books that first month. Now it averages about $250,000 in a day and has gone as high as $500,000 in a day, according to founder Andy Hunter. That includes a significant boost from the increased interest in books about systemic racism.

The site also handles the physical work of selling and shipping books. Independent bookstores set up a page on Bookshop.org with the titles they usually sell, and Bookshop works with a large national wholesaler to package and ship them directly. The bookstore itself doesn’t have to touch the books or worry about inventory, but it pockets about 30 percent of the cover price. Bookshop also has options for stores that want to handle their own inventory. Hunter says the company doesn’t take a cut of the profit from those sales, instead making its money on affiliate sales or people buying directly from its main site.

Like many small businesses, Uncle Bobbie’s was concerned about its employees when it shut down. Moore, the manager, set up a GoFundMe to help the store’s 18 workers get by, and he applied for various grants and loans. The GoFundMe has surpassed its $50,000 goal and the loans including the paycheck protection program are available. The online sales have been set up for only a few weeks are helping tide the business over. The store is planning to reopen soon.

“We all want to kind of return to the normalcy of human interaction; we’re just not going to rush back into that,” Moore said.

View this post on Instagram It's a rough road but one day we'll all be able to hang out. ☕ x 📚 // 📷: @alysonnailah • • • #UncleBobbies #WeStillHere A post shared by Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books (@unclebobbies) on May 26, 2020 at 11:17am PDT

Others are creating entirely new websites. Shopify, which offers prebuilt websites to sell products online, said it had a 53 percent increase in people creating new online stores in April compared to March.

Asian-Veggies.com is one of them. Joseph Boo created the site in April to help his dad’s wholesale vegetable business, selling produce that’s difficult to find, such as snow-pea shoots, yu choi, and watercress.

His father, Kian Tai Boo, has sold vegetables in New York City for more than 28 years, most recently as a wholesaler, using pen and paper to track changing prices. When the pandemic hit, 90 percent of his revenue was gone. His company, Fresh Goods, was left with a warehouse in Queens filled with more than 70 types of fruit, vegetables and dry goods popular in Asian cooking.

Joseph Boo used Shopify to make the website, software called Onfleet for the delivery logistics, his iPhone for product shots, UpWork to hire help, and Instagram and Facebook for marketing. In the past two months, Asian Veggies has had roughly 1,200 orders and brought in more than $100,000, enough to help the business but not replace its income entirely. They see it as a profitable addition they will keep running after the pandemic and are already looking for more warehouses to expand.

Businesses Transformed by Covid-19 Plan to Keep the Changes

One challenge with selling vegetables virtually is gaining the trust of customers who are used to carefully picking out their own. While it might have been impossible to build that customer base before the pandemic, the limitations of closed stores and new rules about touching vegetables while shopping has left them with fewer options, and Joseph Boo says many are pleasantly surprised.

“For the older generation, they want to feel the veggies before they buy it. They need it to talk to them and say ‘I’m the one,’ ” Boo said. “This 100 percent would not have happened if the pandemic hadn’t happened.”

Not all closed stores have physical goods they can sell. Many businesses and professions have moved to offering paid versions of their usual services online. On Zoom and FaceTime, physical trainers are running clients through drills, hairstylists are talking people through cutting and dying their own hair, and therapists are fulfilling the increased need for their services on video.

Gerrae Simons Miller has owned Philadelphia’s Mellow Massage & Yoga for 12 years and has 22 employees. The business was primarily focused on the massages, but a few weeks into the pandemic she offered online yoga classes over Zoom. She’s considering adding paid telehealth-like appointments to guide people through practicing massage therapy on themselves and releasing pressure points.

Video classes don’t bring in enough money to make up for what the company is losing.

Miller has worked hard to secure loans to keep her business afloat. City regulations will require her to pay for more extensive cleaning while operating at half her usual capacity for a period of time.

“For me, the online classes are not going to get me to the other side, they’re a way to keep me connected to community,” Simons Miller said.

Coronavirus: What you need to know

Covid isolation guidelines: Americans who test positive for the coronavirus no longer need to routinely stay home from work and school for five days under new guidance planned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The change has raised concerns among medically vulnerable people .

New coronavirus variant: The United States is in the throes of another covid-19 uptick and coronavirus samples detected in wastewater suggests infections could be as rampant as they were last winter. JN.1, the new dominant variant , appears to be especially adept at infecting those who have been vaccinated or previously infected. Here’s how this covid surge compares with earlier spikes .

Latest coronavirus booster: The CDC recommends that anyone 6 months or older gets an updated coronavirus shot , but the vaccine rollout has seen some hiccups , especially for children . Here’s what you need to know about the latest coronavirus vaccines , including when you should get it.

How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay

Students can share how they navigated life during the coronavirus pandemic in a full-length essay or an optional supplement.

Writing About COVID-19 in College Essays

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Experts say students should be honest and not limit themselves to merely their experiences with the pandemic.

The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no other. Both face unprecedented challenges and questions as they grapple with their respective futures amid the ongoing fallout of the pandemic.

Colleges must examine applicants without the aid of standardized test scores for many – a factor that prompted many schools to go test-optional for now . Even grades, a significant component of a college application, may be hard to interpret with some high schools adopting pass-fail classes last spring due to the pandemic. Major college admissions factors are suddenly skewed.

"I can't help but think other (admissions) factors are going to matter more," says Ethan Sawyer, founder of the College Essay Guy, a website that offers free and paid essay-writing resources.

College essays and letters of recommendation , Sawyer says, are likely to carry more weight than ever in this admissions cycle. And many essays will likely focus on how the pandemic shaped students' lives throughout an often tumultuous 2020.

But before writing a college essay focused on the coronavirus, students should explore whether it's the best topic for them.

Writing About COVID-19 for a College Application

Much of daily life has been colored by the coronavirus. Virtual learning is the norm at many colleges and high schools, many extracurriculars have vanished and social lives have stalled for students complying with measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"For some young people, the pandemic took away what they envisioned as their senior year," says Robert Alexander, dean of admissions, financial aid and enrollment management at the University of Rochester in New York. "Maybe that's a spot on a varsity athletic team or the lead role in the fall play. And it's OK for them to mourn what should have been and what they feel like they lost, but more important is how are they making the most of the opportunities they do have?"

That question, Alexander says, is what colleges want answered if students choose to address COVID-19 in their college essay.

But the question of whether a student should write about the coronavirus is tricky. The answer depends largely on the student.

"In general, I don't think students should write about COVID-19 in their main personal statement for their application," Robin Miller, master college admissions counselor at IvyWise, a college counseling company, wrote in an email.

"Certainly, there may be exceptions to this based on a student's individual experience, but since the personal essay is the main place in the application where the student can really allow their voice to be heard and share insight into who they are as an individual, there are likely many other topics they can choose to write about that are more distinctive and unique than COVID-19," Miller says.

Opinions among admissions experts vary on whether to write about the likely popular topic of the pandemic.

"If your essay communicates something positive, unique, and compelling about you in an interesting and eloquent way, go for it," Carolyn Pippen, principal college admissions counselor at IvyWise, wrote in an email. She adds that students shouldn't be dissuaded from writing about a topic merely because it's common, noting that "topics are bound to repeat, no matter how hard we try to avoid it."

Above all, she urges honesty.

"If your experience within the context of the pandemic has been truly unique, then write about that experience, and the standing out will take care of itself," Pippen says. "If your experience has been generally the same as most other students in your context, then trying to find a unique angle can easily cross the line into exploiting a tragedy, or at least appearing as though you have."

But focusing entirely on the pandemic can limit a student to a single story and narrow who they are in an application, Sawyer says. "There are so many wonderful possibilities for what you can say about yourself outside of your experience within the pandemic."

He notes that passions, strengths, career interests and personal identity are among the multitude of essay topic options available to applicants and encourages them to probe their values to help determine the topic that matters most to them – and write about it.

That doesn't mean the pandemic experience has to be ignored if applicants feel the need to write about it.

Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays

Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form.

To help students explain how the pandemic affected them, The Common App has added an optional section to address this topic. Applicants have 250 words to describe their pandemic experience and the personal and academic impact of COVID-19.

"That's not a trick question, and there's no right or wrong answer," Alexander says. Colleges want to know, he adds, how students navigated the pandemic, how they prioritized their time, what responsibilities they took on and what they learned along the way.

If students can distill all of the above information into 250 words, there's likely no need to write about it in a full-length college essay, experts say. And applicants whose lives were not heavily altered by the pandemic may even choose to skip the optional COVID-19 question.

"This space is best used to discuss hardship and/or significant challenges that the student and/or the student's family experienced as a result of COVID-19 and how they have responded to those difficulties," Miller notes. Using the section to acknowledge a lack of impact, she adds, "could be perceived as trite and lacking insight, despite the good intentions of the applicant."

To guard against this lack of awareness, Sawyer encourages students to tap someone they trust to review their writing , whether it's the 250-word Common App response or the full-length essay.

Experts tend to agree that the short-form approach to this as an essay topic works better, but there are exceptions. And if a student does have a coronavirus story that he or she feels must be told, Alexander encourages the writer to be authentic in the essay.

"My advice for an essay about COVID-19 is the same as my advice about an essay for any topic – and that is, don't write what you think we want to read or hear," Alexander says. "Write what really changed you and that story that now is yours and yours alone to tell."

Sawyer urges students to ask themselves, "What's the sentence that only I can write?" He also encourages students to remember that the pandemic is only a chapter of their lives and not the whole book.

Miller, who cautions against writing a full-length essay on the coronavirus, says that if students choose to do so they should have a conversation with their high school counselor about whether that's the right move. And if students choose to proceed with COVID-19 as a topic, she says they need to be clear, detailed and insightful about what they learned and how they adapted along the way.

"Approaching the essay in this manner will provide important balance while demonstrating personal growth and vulnerability," Miller says.

Pippen encourages students to remember that they are in an unprecedented time for college admissions.

"It is important to keep in mind with all of these (admission) factors that no colleges have ever had to consider them this way in the selection process, if at all," Pippen says. "They have had very little time to calibrate their evaluations of different application components within their offices, let alone across institutions. This means that colleges will all be handling the admissions process a little bit differently, and their approaches may even evolve over the course of the admissions cycle."

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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever. This is how 

With schools shut across the world, millions of children have had to adapt to new types of learning. Image:  REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

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Farah lalani.

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Stay up to date:, education, gender and work.

• The COVID-19 has resulted in schools shut all across the world. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom.
• As a result, education has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms.
• Research suggests that online learning has been shown to increase retention of information, and take less time, meaning the changes coronavirus have caused might be here to stay.

While countries are at different points in their COVID-19 infection rates, worldwide there are currently more than 1.2 billion children in 186 countries affected by school closures due to the pandemic. In Denmark, children up to the age of 11 are returning to nurseries and schools after initially closing on 12 March , but in South Korea students are responding to roll calls from their teachers online .

With this sudden shift away from the classroom in many parts of the globe, some are wondering whether the adoption of online learning will continue to persist post-pandemic, and how such a shift would impact the worldwide education market.

Even before COVID-19, there was already high growth and adoption in education technology, with global edtech investments reaching US$18.66 billion in 2019 and the overall market for online education projected to reach $350 Billion by 2025 . Whether it is language apps , virtual tutoring , video conferencing tools, or online learning software , there has been a significant surge in usage since COVID-19.

How is the education sector responding to COVID-19?

In response to significant demand, many online learning platforms are offering free access to their services, including platforms like BYJU’S , a Bangalore-based educational technology and online tutoring firm founded in 2011, which is now the world’s most highly valued edtech company . Since announcing free live classes on its Think and Learn app, BYJU’s has seen a 200% increase in the number of new students using its product, according to Mrinal Mohit, the company's Chief Operating Officer.

Tencent classroom, meanwhile, has been used extensively since mid-February after the Chinese government instructed a quarter of a billion full-time students to resume their studies through online platforms. This resulted in the largest “online movement” in the history of education with approximately 730,000 , or 81% of K-12 students, attending classes via the Tencent K-12 Online School in Wuhan.

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Other companies are bolstering capabilities to provide a one-stop shop for teachers and students. For example, Lark, a Singapore-based collaboration suite initially developed by ByteDance as an internal tool to meet its own exponential growth, began offering teachers and students unlimited video conferencing time, auto-translation capabilities, real-time co-editing of project work, and smart calendar scheduling, amongst other features. To do so quickly and in a time of crisis, Lark ramped up its global server infrastructure and engineering capabilities to ensure reliable connectivity.

Alibaba’s distance learning solution, DingTalk, had to prepare for a similar influx: “To support large-scale remote work, the platform tapped Alibaba Cloud to deploy more than 100,000 new cloud servers in just two hours last month – setting a new record for rapid capacity expansion,” according to DingTalk CEO, Chen Hang.

Some school districts are forming unique partnerships, like the one between The Los Angeles Unified School District and PBS SoCal/KCET to offer local educational broadcasts, with separate channels focused on different ages, and a range of digital options. Media organizations such as the BBC are also powering virtual learning; Bitesize Daily , launched on 20 April, is offering 14 weeks of curriculum-based learning for kids across the UK with celebrities like Manchester City footballer Sergio Aguero teaching some of the content.

What does this mean for the future of learning?

While some believe that the unplanned and rapid move to online learning – with no training, insufficient bandwidth, and little preparation – will result in a poor user experience that is unconducive to sustained growth, others believe that a new hybrid model of education will emerge, with significant benefits. “I believe that the integration of information technology in education will be further accelerated and that online education will eventually become an integral component of school education,“ says Wang Tao, Vice President of Tencent Cloud and Vice President of Tencent Education.

There have already been successful transitions amongst many universities. For example, Zhejiang University managed to get more than 5,000 courses online just two weeks into the transition using “DingTalk ZJU”. The Imperial College London started offering a course on the science of coronavirus, which is now the most enrolled class launched in 2020 on Coursera .

Many are already touting the benefits: Dr Amjad, a Professor at The University of Jordan who has been using Lark to teach his students says, “It has changed the way of teaching. It enables me to reach out to my students more efficiently and effectively through chat groups, video meetings, voting and also document sharing, especially during this pandemic. My students also find it is easier to communicate on Lark. I will stick to Lark even after coronavirus, I believe traditional offline learning and e-learning can go hand by hand."

These 3 charts show the global growth in online learning

The challenges of online learning.

There are, however, challenges to overcome. Some students without reliable internet access and/or technology struggle to participate in digital learning; this gap is seen across countries and between income brackets within countries. For example, whilst 95% of students in Switzerland, Norway, and Austria have a computer to use for their schoolwork, only 34% in Indonesia do, according to OECD data .

In the US, there is a significant gap between those from privileged and disadvantaged backgrounds: whilst virtually all 15-year-olds from a privileged background said they had a computer to work on, nearly 25% of those from disadvantaged backgrounds did not. While some schools and governments have been providing digital equipment to students in need, such as in New South Wales , Australia, many are still concerned that the pandemic will widenthe digital divide .

Is learning online as effective?

For those who do have access to the right technology, there is evidence that learning online can be more effective in a number of ways. Some research shows that on average, students retain 25-60% more material when learning online compared to only 8-10% in a classroom. This is mostly due to the students being able to learn faster online; e-learning requires 40-60% less time to learn than in a traditional classroom setting because students can learn at their own pace, going back and re-reading, skipping, or accelerating through concepts as they choose.

Nevertheless, the effectiveness of online learning varies amongst age groups. The general consensus on children, especially younger ones, is that a structured environment is required , because kids are more easily distracted. To get the full benefit of online learning, there needs to be a concerted effort to provide this structure and go beyond replicating a physical class/lecture through video capabilities, instead, using a range of collaboration tools and engagement methods that promote “inclusion, personalization and intelligence”, according to Dowson Tong, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent and President of its Cloud and Smart Industries Group.

Since studies have shown that children extensively use their senses to learn, making learning fun and effective through use of technology is crucial, according to BYJU's Mrinal Mohit. “Over a period, we have observed that clever integration of games has demonstrated higher engagement and increased motivation towards learning especially among younger students, making them truly fall in love with learning”, he says.

A changing education imperative

It is clear that this pandemic has utterly disrupted an education system that many assert was already losing its relevance . In his book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century , scholar Yuval Noah Harari outlines how schools continue to focus on traditional academic skills and rote learning , rather than on skills such as critical thinking and adaptability, which will be more important for success in the future. Could the move to online learning be the catalyst to create a new, more effective method of educating students? While some worry that the hasty nature of the transition online may have hindered this goal, others plan to make e-learning part of their ‘new normal’ after experiencing the benefits first-hand.

The importance of disseminating knowledge is highlighted through COVID-19

Major world events are often an inflection point for rapid innovation – a clear example is the rise of e-commerce post-SARS . While we have yet to see whether this will apply to e-learning post-COVID-19, it is one of the few sectors where investment has not dried up . What has been made clear through this pandemic is the importance of disseminating knowledge across borders, companies, and all parts of society. If online learning technology can play a role here, it is incumbent upon all of us to explore its full potential.

Our education system is losing relevance. Here's how to unleash its potential

3 ways the coronavirus pandemic could reshape education, celebrities are helping the uk's schoolchildren learn during lockdown, don't miss any update on this topic.

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