When we are done with this nightmare, after more than a year of masks, social distancing, thousands of hours on video conferences, life will return to something that we recognize from the beginning of 2020. There will be some indelible changes, but the staples of life like travel, restaurants, games as Chavez Ravine, and traffic on the 5 and 405 will come back. And our businesses will come back. I am looking forward to seeing you all in person without the 16:9 frames around you. However, there are some things that changed during our struggle that I hope don't go back to normal.
In the summer of 2020, tech stocks started to lose their mind. Companies that we thought were overvalued at 30+ times earnings had a "hold my beer" moment and shot up to 300 times earnings. Tech CEOs and Wall Street were all a-flutter talking about "companies are doing 5 years of digital transformation in 5 months". Memes like the image below were cute and kind of funny the first 30 times they were emailed to me. But for those of us that were in the trenches, we are the ones that know the struggle.
Starting in March 2020, we had to connect every member of our organization together from their house or apartment. We had to figure out how every department would continue to function using on-premise systems that management dragged their feet on upgrades. We had implement security to support home computers and 100s if not thousands of new BYOD devices on the network. We had to support continued sites operations, our warehouses, our field support teams, all while complying with Covid protocols. Configuring a Zoom account or walking users through moving files to GDrive wasn't Digital Transformation. Before Covid, 70% of Digital Transformation projects fail. We didn't have the option to fail. Our struggle was to ensure that our organizations survive.
And we did it. You did it. As I talk to clients and peers, I encourage everyone to take the victory lap. We moved mountains last year. No, we moved Mount Vesuvius while it was erupting last year. You should not in any way, shape, or form understate what you and your team accomplished last year.
Now, as all good teams should, we need to look back at our last year for lessons learned. Why were we this effective? Why were we able to meet so many critical goals in such a short time? How can we continue to affect our strategic business after Covid?
In this blog series I want to cover a few core tenets that we at Pandoblox believe are critical for continuing the success that you have seen in the face of the most horrific business climate imaginable. We break down IT organizations and processes into 5 specific areas (Swarming, Component ERP implementations, Agile ROI, Digital Workforce, "Digital COO"), and for organizations that follow these that will ensure your success all your post-Covid on "Digital Transformation" endeavors. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be diving down on each of these areas, on how your teams knowing or unknowing used them, and how you can implement them for your ongoing success.
In the meantime, please join me in this virtual (and soon, IRL) toast to you and your team. It's been a hell of a year and I am really, really looking forward to seeing you all, in person, very soon.