The recent COVID-19 pandemic has proved to be a game-changer for the majority of us. It has changed the way we behave and perceive things. Many of our habits have changed. We are experiencing a new world altogether. This unexpected and adverse shift in habits and mindset has impacted the economies heavily. Many have taken a bad hit as per market research. But in some cases, the results are exponentially positive. So the adaptability and creative decision making will play a key role in the sustainability of the enterprises. In this article, we will discuss 5 industries which will observe new trends shaping up for the businesses.

1.WorkSpace Industry:

It is not an old story when we were going to our offices and work for 9-12 hours. We got to interact with the fellow teammates face-to-face and the discussions were impromptu. The environment was energetic and indulging in office gossip was frequent. But suddenly things changed. Majority of the employees are now working from home. Discussions are happening over a video conference and low internet speed is a regular cause for the delay in task completions.

Prior to this situation, many companies were already providing work from home facilities, but the majority of the businesses were not ready for this sudden shift. Therefore, productivity has reduced and projects are getting delayed. Enterprises are trying to adopt different digital tools to manage their operations. This spike in the demand for these tools has worked as a catalyst for some firms to develop work from home solutions.

Though a winner is yet to come, the adoption of these tools will definitely open up new opportunities. Tools for communication, team collaboration, data security will definitely experience a boost.

Another major hit has been experienced by the coworking spaces. Social distancing is a new norm to follow, which has resulted in lower revenue per unit area. During the lockdown, many companies have either left the spaces or reduced their office size. A new mindset within the startup companies is to give employees work from facilities and utilising a physical space just to conduct meetings and discussions.

The work from home trend will continue further and adoption for tools helping in it will experience exponential growth.

2.Education Industry:

Children are missing their school environment, as they have been caged at home for a long period of time. Digital education has experienced new growth in these periods. Many schools have tried different online teaching platforms to suit their requirements. The assessment of assignments and taking online exams are the newest challenges these schools are facing.

Besides these, teachers are struggling to make their students understand the concepts. Therefore, pre-recorded videos are frequently being used, which contain more options and animations to represent the concepts. This has given rise to LMS platforms as well.

Home tutors and coaching centres are having a severe backlash as they have fewer resources and facilities to avail these tools. Though they are trying to manage the situation an adequate solution for them is yet to come. Ed-Tech platforms like Byju’s, Extra marks, Vedantu etc. are eating up their market.

3.Entertainment Industry:

Do you miss the cinema halls? A hall with cheers from the crowd and we enjoying the ridiculously priced popcorn looking at the big screen. We are unsure when we can experience this again, as people are preferring to maintain social distances and cinema halls seats can be an easy prop to transmit the virus. Therefore, some yet to be released movies are releasing online, through the partnerships with media streaming applications.

Meanwhile, we realised that authentic and valuable contents can win hearts even after a quarter of the century. Mythological series like Ramayan, Mahabharat etc. were adored hugely by everyone, which showed us, true contents can hold the attention of any age group. The nostalgic feeling and throwback to old days kept the TV channels alive.

In this digital era, platforms like Netflix, Amazon prime etc. have capitalised hugely and have become a necessity for many entertainment seekers than a luxury.

4.Hospitality Industry:

Hotels and restaurants have been shut down since many days which is hugely impacting the pockets of owners. Many owners had to fire workers to sustain the period, though the future revenue figures are uncertain.

A top executive of a food delivery startup has claimed that 30-50% of the restaurants may permanently shut down in India. Leaving behind a huge vacuum. The only ones surviving, are the branded ones. This has shown us the value of branding and good service in the hospitality industry. Hygiene has become a must to maintain in order to attract customers.

5.Self-Care Industry:

We all had lost ourselves in our busy schedules. We forgot to treat our body and mind well. This pandemic has shown us the importance of self-care during negative times. We got to know, to lead a stable and efficient life, keeping our mind stable is essential. This has resulted in a boost of self-care content consumption online.

Consumptions for motivational contents, exercises, healthy diets, mind management etc. has increased exponentially. Subscriptions for the online webinars of established trainers has increased hugely.

Minimalist mindset adoption has seen higher growth numbers, which suggests, people now care to stick with essential items than luxuries. We have realised we require a fairly minimal number of items daily and the rest of the items are actually blocking our cupboard spaces.

 6.Conclusion:

We have been forced to adopt digitalization in our everyday life. These new habits have created new business opportunities but at the cost of huge economic losses. Enterprises had to adopt new normal and smartly diverse their operations. Other industries like tourism, travel, real estate have also been impacted. In these adverse times, the role of decision-makers to implement smart and sustainable business models is very important.

Workers also need to be aware of changing scenarios and adopt new skills or upskill themselves. Change is the only constant, adopting it wisely is in our hands.