An Introduction
"These are scary times, to be sure, and we still have so much to sort out and work through. Yet, it is also an incredibly optimistic moment for the future of work for humans."
Heather E. McGowan, Forbes,"How The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Accelerating The Future Of Work"
In 2020 an unprecedented disruption to “business as usual” hit the globe with a pandemic of a disease called COVID-19. From accelerated digitization of the workplace with millions suddenly working from home, to manufacturers pivoting and actually changing their products to help the world cope with new and sudden needs, never before seen or experienced phenomena are happening in businesses around the globe, and analogies have been made to both the Great Recession of 2008 and World War II.
We at Informa Connect have a mission to provide access to extraordinary people and exceptional insight. Our parent company, Informa plc, is a global business with a network of trusted brands in specialist markets across more than 30 countries, and a member of the FTSE 100. We are well known for our conferences, however we are also at our core a digital content creator. From videos to white papers, our content taps into a network of millions of professional and commercial customers.
With the spirit of our mission in mind we decided to do a deep dive into how COVID-19 is impacting our global customers in the Life Sciences sector so we could share this crucial data with them and with you, the reader. Why are people in the life sciences innovating? Where are they doing it? How successful are their efforts? We surveyed our Life Sciences customers to ask them how their organizations are responding to the crisis. Our initial research told us that the most important changes happening right now in organizations fell into these categories: how Life Science organizations manage crises, both before and after COVID-19; the shift to online and working from home or other changes in the workplace; how Life Science companies are trying to be relevant to their customers; and lastly, how they have applied innovations with new business initiatives or products and creating efficiencies. We’re offering our exclusive findings here, in this report on The Future of Healthcare Post COVID-19.
An April 30 Savanta survey of US consumers gives the mind-blowing figure: “just 24% of respondents plan to go about life the same as before once we emerge from lockdown”, so business innovation is crucial right now. McKinsey recently stated that “It’s possible that entirely new businesses and business models will emerge from the crisis” and that has indeed been proven in our survey. Organizations have been poised to digitally transform their workforces for some time; right now is a turning point, with “trials by fire” bringing in both interesting and unforeseen data.
Our survey results show that COVID-19 has indeed been a disruptor, with 57% of respondents reporting negative financial impact to their businesses, but in many cases companies have been able to turn this disruption into a positive force, by innovating and accelerating the creation of new products as well as cultivating deeper relationships with their customers.
The list of new products and services that survey respondees shared with us were astounding in their diversity.
One organization, a telehealth provider, introduced mental health and wellness services, a second explained that they were in the process of "certifying the first 3D printing mask in the world", a third "designed and developed Study Protocols for the COVID-19 response in Africa" and a fourth was developing peptides related to a COVID-19 treatment.
