The COVID-19 crisis has impacted every company in some way, and many will continue to be affected years from now. Business leaders are struggling to predict what the “next normal” will look like. One thing is certain: Companies will need to rely on digital infrastructure and technologies to create customer-centric, agile, and differentiated businesses.

At Wipro, we believe that several fundamental consumer and business trends will converge to shape businesses in the post-pandemic world. For example, companies will face pressure to become more resilient and respond to crises more quickly, which will cause them to adopt automated digital approaches to their processes. Supply chains will be put under the microscope. Employees will have much different expectations of their employers, including assuming that employers can offer flexibility and remote work options. These pressures will function both independently and conjunctionally to influence the next normal.

Of course, these pressures are not necessarily new, especially when it comes to digital transformation. But the COVID-19 pandemic will undoubtedly accelerate the outcomes, so C-suite leaders should embrace the development. The following five consumer and business trends will become key aspects of the next normal:

1. The rise of ‘Resilient’ and ‘Safe’ enterprises: The business impacts of COVID-19 have been varied, with companies in certain industries more disrupted than others. However, the crisis demonstrated the importance of employee health and safety, as well as building business resilience and supply chain resilience. In fact, Bain found that investments in supply chain can increase plant output by as much as 25% and customer satisfaction by up to 30%. Many executives will rethink their priorities when evaluating long-term strategies and partnerships. In particular, they’ll focus on creating processes and protocols that can absorb the shock of large swings in demand and work practices that decrease risks to employee health. These include reconfiguring supply chains away from the previously held principles of efficiency and cost reduction to focus instead on resiliency through smart manufacturing and agile supply chains. 
2. Redefining work models of the future: The coronavirus pandemic has tested the concept of distributed global work like never before, and most executives are pleased with the results. Even services businesses, manufacturing companies, and other organizations built around close, in-person collaboration are finding ways to embrace a more distributed workforce. There are still challenges to working remotely — effective engagement in a virtual model, data security, and privacy are especially salient issues when more employees work from home — but the cost and productivity benefits of a remote workforce will incentivize many companies to find viable solutions. 
3. The urgency of automation and autonomous systems: For many executives, building business resilience will mean shifting away from a reliance on human workers and toward an automated future. Leading companies used automated technologies to become more agile and efficient even before the pandemic, but now the laggards have a new sense of urgency to adopt them as well. Before the pandemic, McKinsey projected that up to 30% of jobs in the U.S. would be automated by 2030. That number will likely rise in response to the crisis, as companies will find ways to adopt automatic and robotic processes rather than relying on in-person human interaction. We’re already seeing this play out: During the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan, China, for example, smart devices helped healthcare workers monitor patients’ temperatures and vitals. On the retail side of things, FedEx developed an autonomous robot with the aim to complete final-mile deliveries to customers’ doorsteps. 
4. 'Digital’ @ the speed of X: The mandatory social distancing and work-from-home orders issued in response to the COVID-19 outbreak have had a lasting impact on the way we live, work, and interact. In short, we’ve seen the opportunities and necessities of a more digital world. Now, companies within every industry — from financial services to healthcare to education — must focus on quickly adopting technologies that facilitate frictionless, digitally driven interactions. Restaurants are rapidly testing and deploying online delivery and takeout platforms. Some experts predict healthcare will be forever transformed by telemedicine efforts. It’s no wonder Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says COVID-19 is responsible for accelerating two years of digital transformation in only two months.
5. The ESG (environmental, social, and governance) mandate: The pressures of a global health and economic crisis — in addition to conversations on equality and inclusivity — are forcing businesses to examine and demonstrate values. People around the world became ill, worried for their loved ones, lost their jobs, taught their children from home, and isolated themselves in their homes in what became known as The Great Pause. This changed the way people engage with and think about brands, with many consumers expecting more empathy and humanized values from companies. Many businesses rose to the occasion: Starbucks offered catastrophe pay and extended mental health coverage to employees, and Unilever provided early payment to smaller suppliers to help them protect against uncertainty, as well as donating millions of dollars’ worth of cleaning supplies. At Wipro, over the past 3½ months, our efforts have supported about 8 million people with about 2800 million meals. We have also helped about 3 million people regenerate their livelihoods. for example, we have helped small and marginal farmers by providing them with seed, bio-fertilizer, and other relevant tools. During the crisis we supplied about 200,000 PPE kits to where they were needed the most. We have helped scale up testing capacity and critical care capacity across many regions, by supplying equipment and supporting frontline healthcare workers. Another example is the conversion an unused campus in Pune to a 450-bed COVID isolation hospital.

Beyond corporate-led initiatives, market factors are proving that ESG priorities could be fruitful moving forward. In the U.S., almost 60% of ESG-centered mutual funds have outperformed the S&P 500 throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

When this crisis passes, the world will certainly look different, and we will likely feel the business impacts of COVID-19 for a long time. There are multiple ways to embrace these trends,  but agility and digital transformation will be key above all. Companies that embrace these emerging trends and integrate digital, flexible practices into their ongoing processes to increase business agility will come out winners in the long term.