Business transformation in an age of turbulence – Lessons learned from COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused global economic turmoil. Although many companies have suffered huge losses, some have flourished by changing their old ways of doing business. We investigate the business transformation process under drastic market changes and time pressure, with a focus on decision speed and structure in the decision & planning phase, the implementation structure and monitoring in the implementation phase, and reinforcement after the implementation. Through case studies in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, e-commerce, and finance, we explore how companies in specific contexts have dealt with the above-mentioned critical factors when transforming their business during the pandemic, whether the experienced transformation processes differ from theory, and if so, how. The examples of business transformations cover eight categories, including work from home, the use of augmented reality, internet of things, and business model redesign. Our findings reveal how these transformations are perceived and evaluated by companies one year into the pandemic. In addition, we show how decision speed, structure of the decision-making process, structure of the implementation process, and scale of the implementation impact the completion time of the transformations. Based on our results, we provide suggestions to companies for an effective business transformation in times of crisis.