When a crisis becomes an opportunity
A culture of innovation fuels business resilience and economic recovery
Innovation becomes a necessity in a time of crisis. And history tells us that by adapting, humankind can progress to a much better place. “Innovation is no longer an option, but a necessity. We have seen how the recent crisis has spurred the need for transformation; for organizations to adapt and innovate in order to emerge stronger,” said Rajiv Sodhi, COO, Microsoft India.
Many in the business world agree. A new Microsoft-IDC study, Culture of Innovation, Foundation for business resilience and economic recovery in India, shows that 77% of businesses in India consider that innovation is now a ‘must’ for them to respond quickly to market challenges and opportunities. The same enterprises also expect to bounce back with similar or better revenues than before the current economic crisis.
A culture of innovation is key to exploring new frontiers of economic recovery and resilience
From recovering from the impact of the pandemic to leveraging digital capabilities to respond to new market challenges, businesses in India and across the globe are now reimagining ways to remain resilient in the new normal. For example, organizations everywhere have embraced digital tools to empower their people to continue collaborating and connecting. As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during our FY21 Q1 earnings call in October, the next decade of economic performance for every business will be defined by the speed of their digital transformation.
“I have always been fascinated by astronomy. It is a challenging activity in which you are trying to capture stars, galaxies, planets which are very far away, which requires innovative approaches from present day digital cameras and telescopes. Similarly, the COVID-19 pandemic has driven many businesses to reinvent themselves and try new ways of doing things to cope with the crisis.”
– Rajiv Sodhi, Chief Operating Officer for Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd.
A culture of innovation fuels business resilience and economic recovery in India
- 77% of Indian organizations have found innovation to be critical or important to their performance and resilience
- 78% of organizations in India are accelerating the pace of digitalization in response to the crisis
- 64% of respondents say innovation in products and services has become easier in the post-COVID-19 era, as compared to 32.5% prior to the pandemic
What our customers say…
Making credit flow again during the pandemic
“We wanted to create paperless digital programs, but things were not moving because the industry was not ready. But when it (the lockdown) happened, we were the first to launch this digital stack.” – Mukesh Sharma, CTO, Paisabazaar.com
A new way to hire tech talent
“Today there’s a COVID-19 challenge, tomorrow there will be something else. If not for Azure, whatever innovations we have done today would have taken us another three years to do. Today we are three years ahead of time.” – Sujit Karpe, CTO, iMocha
Disrupting fashion retail with data
“The amount of data from which we learn today is six to seven times more than the pre-COVID world … We’re now selling what consumers want and not what we want to sell. The credit also goes to the brands that responded to these insights in a matter of days and not weeks.” – Amar Nagaram, Myntra, India
Providing healthcare virtually
“In this new world order, where we don’t want our patients to unnecessarily be exposed to infections, our online video consults with the help of Microsoft Teams are a blessing.” – Dr Meenakshi Ahuja, Director – Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Fortis La Femme
