Tech Chat – June 2020
The Beer Necessities
This week, we remind ourselves that adaption is the real key to success to long term survival, whether that be socially, with an online beer festival, learning Zoom etiquette and learning how to use an electric hair clipper, or in a business context as nimble tech businesses adjust to new conditions.
The Taste of London food festival was due to be held in Regent’s Park today – not quite the beans on toast I’m having for lunch, as there are certain things that can’t adapt to lockdown. However, for most the show has gone on and as Plato noted, “necessity is the mother of invention”. A colleague told me of an online wine tasting she recently held, participants receiving a case of wine and matching cheeses, to enjoy ‘together’ on Zoom guided by an online sommelier. Equally inventive was the friend of Andy who organised an online beer festival with a selection crate delivered to participants’ houses to drink ‘together’ – scampi fries, pork scratchings, dry roasted peanuts and even a game of darts included.
We have all adapted, and evolved over the last few months. I don’t just mean the new beards and the DIY-haircuts (I must mention the finnCapper whose new electric hair clipper packed up after a first bold stroke leaving him with an impressive reverse Mohican ahead of a Zoom meeting). A whole new chapter of Debrett’s is needed for new Zoom etiquette – when to have video on or off; allow a pause for the lag when people speak; the best angle to avoid exposing nose hair; beach and Star Wars backgrounds are a no-no in business meetings and; stay seated if you’re not wearing trousers. We are seeing new faux-pas for Zoom with video and muting fails. There should be a term for it (Zoom-pas?). And we have all had to learn other skills in lockdown. Since March I’ve adapted from financial services to a hairdresser, plumber, carpenter and teacher, learning my trades through YouTube and trial and error (mainly error).
Business evolves to survive new conditions. We’ve been entertained by online concerts, quizzes, magicians, murder mysteries and even an online escape-room (actually very good) as the entertainment industry undertakes a digital transformation. Online retailers and grocers have had a field day but they had a head start, forced by the death of the high street. As Darwin identified when conditions change it’s not necessarily the biggest or best-resourced who survive and thrive, but the fastest to adapt and evolve.
Tech businesses can adapt quickly. This week we heard from Amino (renamed to Aferian in 2021) in its CMD how it has adapted not just to CV19 but to a long-term shift from set-top boxes to wider OTT consumption. Initiating a series of Friday research pieces which we will continue through to September, in our “3 reasons to look at Amino” this morning we show how it presents a perfect case study in evolution from an intelligent hardware supplier to delivering software and services enabling content to be viewed in whatever way, and wherever, the customer wants to consume. There are many other examples; the nimble digital ad tech business, Tremor, has tap-danced from desktop to mobile, to video and connected TV, always keeping up with consumer eyeballs and anticipating the next change in its environment. Plato would be nodding sagely – and COVID-19 has only accelerated change so that in FY22 we’ll look back and note it as a catalyst for wide-scale digital transformation. If 2009 is a guide for 2020, opportunities are aplenty.
So as we emerge from lockdown with our interesting new looks, new skills, and new outlooks, the best lesson to take from all of this is not to keep cats out of the room for Zoom meetings (one successfully infiltrated a House of Lords select committee Zoom and future peruses of Hansard will be baffled by Lord Cavendish’s “Welcome, Cat” interjection). Rather, lockdown reminds us that adaption is the real key to long term success and survival, and in many cases the result will be agile, leaner businesses with stronger paths to growth.
Happy Friday and Happy Birthday AIM