Digital Transformation Induced by the Covid-19 Pandemic

The covid-19 pandemic has posed massive challenges to every actor of our social system. In Southeast Asia, businesses are no exception; well-established corporations moved toward digital transformation faster than others. With a prescriptive objective in mind, this study explores the acceleration of the digital transformation in the retail industry in Sri Lanka upon the Covid-19 pandemic. Taking a qualitative research approach, the paper describes different approaches for DT. Business leaders from banking, telecommunication, and fast moving consumer goods were interviewed. Some business leaders had a strategic vision towards digitalization, not because they anticipated the pandemic coming, but rather because of its advantages. Managers saw that digital transformation would bring two main advantages. One is through disintermediation, by reaching out to clients directly, and that customers can reach out to businesses anytime anywhere. Second, in terms of the cost factor, digital implementations were conceived comparatively cheaper in the long run. The ‘new normal’ of businesses keep changing its ways every day as the virus variants evolve, warning us, this could be a situation that we have to deal with for longer than anticipated. This makes investing in digitalization and further keep the impetus of agile implementation worth the effort.