Operating Systems, Revisited (Permanent Equity)

Permanent Equity’s The Weekly on how COVID compressed technology adoption across industries and business functions.

Why it was kept

A newsletter Kyle kept in full: retail, restaurants, healthcare, commercial real estate and education each forced online, and finance, project management, communication, marketing and logistics each changing with them — with Permanent Equity’s conclusion that the adoption timeline for new technologies will shrink post-COVID, and a question to SMB owners about what they are seeing.

As Kyle captured it

• Email from Permanent Equity on Operating Systems revisited
  • Email from Permanent Equity on business Operating Systems
  • Operating Systems, Revisited
  • In __The Weekly __issue #31 we explored the idea that businesses are merely operating systems that repeat functions. This week, we are revisiting the idea of operating systems given how virtually __all companies are refreshing their operating systems in the face of rapid change. __There are technology stack and non-technological improvements that can be made to business operations, but this week, we’ll focus on technological changes in a few industries as well as by business function.
  • COVID-19 is forcing many businesses to transition rapidly to cloud-based solutions to fulfill customer demand and adapt to accelerating industry trends. It is also highlighting the risks for businesses who tend to adapt slower to new technologies.
  • Here are a few examples by industry and business function that we’ve noticed over the last few weeks:
  • Industries
  • Retail - scrambling to adopt to online fulfillment and on-demand delivery, moving from offline to online
  • Restaurants - adapting to ghost kitchen operations, Doordash and delivery, and emphasizing value of offering vs. experience and location
  • Healthcare - adapting to telehealth: remote triage, diagnosis, and prescriptions
  • Commercial real estate - office redesigns for touchless entry and exit, potential increase in flex needs, potential decrease in overall square footage needs
  • Education - asking existential questions around in-person vs. online education models, pricing of the ‘4 year experience’, and questioning student-debt problems
  • Business Functions
  • Finance - digital payments are heavily preferred over checks and cash due to COVID-19 transmission issues
  • Project management - a robust cloud project management platform is a must during mandatory work-from-home conditions
  • Communication - absolute emphasis Zoom, Google Meet, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Workday
  • Marketing - increased emphasis on online ad spend vs. offline physical marketing
  • Logistics - touchless delivery, omnichannel approach for retail shifting heavily to online channel
  • All of these observations reinforce our thought that the adoption timeline for new technologies will shrink post-COVID.
  • After all, technology’s purpose is to provide leverage for a given task to be done in a faster, cheaper, easier manner. Businesses that fail to adopt new technologies risk falling behind relative to competitors.
  • We would love to hear from employees and owners of SMB’s on what new trends they are observing by industry and function. **What functions of your business have improved as you have been forced to move them to the cloud? What industries have you seen adapting well to the new technological needs? **