A lot can be said about 2020 except that it hasn’t taught us invaluable lessons about humanity, society and our ability to adapt.
From digital marketing specialists to tech leaders and social influencers to ecommerce experts to Behaviour Psychologists, these men and women share what most resonates for them both professionally and personally as they consider what learnings they will carry with them into 2021.
Chloe Thomas, Globally recognised eCommerce Marketing Problem Solver
I think everything that the pandemic has thrown at us in the world of eCommerce has made us business owners and marketers, better at our jobs. We've been forced to analyse data to work out what we need to do more of and what to stop doing.
One of the big themes which has come out for me is the need to get to understand the customer better. I'm taking into 2021 a kind of a sense of hope and kind of loving the industry we're in because I think we've really grown this year and I think we're moving. You know the future's looking really bright for eCommerce and I think bright for retail overall. I think this is just an acceleration of a rebalancing that was already happening and the retailers who can create the great customer experiences will survive.
Chloe previously featured on Ep 20, Ep 38 and Ep 43. Connect with Chloe on LinkedIn.
Padraig Walsh, Behavioural Psychologist
Human resilience and human adaptability has been the thing that has struck me most about 2020.
When I was a teenager I knew something had to happen in my lifetime. There's been war, there's been famine and there has been bad stuff and we've had hope. I really really hope that this is the major event of our time. I really, really do that this was the major event - a global pandemic.
On a day to day basis you see people adapting, being resilient, being civil, being friendly with each other, helping each other out. There's always going to be elements of society that don't do that. And but for the most part, what I've been astounded with in 2020, is our ability to adapt, to stay cheerful, to be resilient, and to have flexibility to cope with massive changes in a very, very short space of time.
Padraig Walsh previously featured on Ep 37 and Ep 44. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Ian Moyse, Tech Sales Leader and Social Influencer
Be prepared to be agile and accept change and think about how you can develop yourself. I think it's far too easy for people to sit back and go well, I'll just wait it through or put a little bit of effort in. Put full effort in and look at all the time you have been handed. Look for another role without being despondent that there's no roles out there because no matter what you've been doing, you've got skills and experience that are transposable.
If it feels overwhelming and insurmountable, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Work in small chunks and nudge yourself forward with small steps over time. Because if you want to change whatever it is, and, and it's just a huge job, you never get around to starting it. Take a step. That's one now take another step. Now another is breaking it down into chunks and things you can do because I always find however big the thing is, we all put it off.
Ian Moyse previously featured on Ep 21 and Ep 44. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Nancy Badillo, Digital Marketing Specialist
For many years, I wasn't brave enough to be in front of the camera … What I'm taking for 2021 is to do everything that is going to potentially reach more people. I know that the way to reach the masses is to get out there in front of a lot of people.
Being behind the scene is no longer enough to grow a business.
Nancy Badillo previously featured on Ep 41. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
Meyrick D’Souza, Digital Marketing Expert
There's so much that we won't understand for a while about what we need to learn from 2020. I think it will take a long time for it to reveal itself. We'll have to see how people's work habits change. Will we go back to the previous way of living and working, and expect that we will always travel to work every day? Or will people actually want to spend more time at home and work from home? We've got to understand that. For example, a lot of retail business and restaurant businesses have been hurting, especially the ones in city centres, because people aren't travelling there anymore. So how will that change the high street in big urban areas? I think that's still to reveal itself. Certain industries have benefited but the long term impact is going to be seen in travel and the full ecosystem of businesses that revolve around travel. I think that's going to be huge. Will we see a return to people taking holidays in their own country?
One thing that we do have to understand is the volatility of the market. I think people have to anticipate more volatility, which means you need to be able to respond quickly. This has a direct impact on traditional marketing which takes longer to plan and to change. The advantage of digital marketing is being able to monitor things in real time and change things in real time. As a result of that, I think we will see people thinking more about their data strategy.
I've always been a big fan of data and I'm hoping you'll see more companies realise that they need to have a better data strategy from thinking in terms of how the cache rates, how they store it, and how to make it available and the kind of insights they derive from it. To make it more fit for purpose by thinking less about big data and more about the right data.
Another thing I think we’ll see is people maybe opting out of doing the normal nine to five, and instead, rely on having a number of different side gigs too, to make ends meet.
Meyrick D’Souza previously featured on Ep 26. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Neil Roberts, CPO at Papier
So I think it's a sense of resilience, a sense of, you know, actually, we can deal with this kind of stuff and this kind of change. So I think that's probably probably a renewed attitude towards change, more willing to just get stuck in rather than I think there's, there's always a tendency to sit there and mope around for a bit. So more, it's like, Okay, this one is what it is, let's deal with it. What can we do about it? So I think that's probably the attitude or take, take forward.
You can’t change the past. You have to move forward.
Everybody will go through tough times - whether it’s on a personal level or business level. But you do come out the other side and it gives you confidence to deal with change and a steadiness and calmness when things aren’t looking so great. There is a light at the end of the tunnel that gives people hope.
I've had periods where I've been out of work for quite an extended time and when you're in it, it's utterly miserable. But I look back at it now and I'm not sure I would change it. Which sounds very odd to say, you know, because I've been there on the kitchen table trying to get through to recruiters to get jobs for months on end, and not really getting anywhere and being a kind of a month away from defaulting on the mortgage. It's miserable. But the experience brings a new perspective to the next time I found myself looking for a job again.You take a lot of it less personally and you realise that actually, there's a lot of businesses that are just making decisions to try and survive. Because if they don't, then even more people are going to be impacted. I'm not sure I would necessarily have ended up in the place I am with a career I have, without having gone through all of that.
It’s not fun to be in that place but there's opportunity on the other side. So, staying in business is the first thing and then and then you can grow and you can profit. For a lot of people, it's just seeing this period through.
Neil Roberts previously featured on Ep 31 and Ep 45. Connect with him on LinkedIn.