This old proverb effectively states that, when the need for something becomes essential, one is forced to find ways of getting or achieving it.  The Retail and Hospitality sector has been under significant pressure to adopt Digital Transformation for many years but now COVID-19 has mandated that establishing new, digital means of working has become a prioritised necessity.

Or has it?

Certainly one would assume so.  As a Retail Digital Evangelist, I had certainly hoped so.  Yet McKinsey's findings in this survey paint a worrying picture for the sector.  I have recently written about the obverse side of the risk coin being opportunity but executives from the industry involved in strategically ranking Digital innovation and reinvention don't currently appear to embrace that.  Across sectors, the share of executives who rank innovation as either first or second in terms of strategic priority has fallen substantially other than in Pharma and Medical Supplies - with Retail fairing worst of all: from a pre-pandemic figure of 40% apparently just 7% (seven..) perceive innovation as necessary today.

The great shame of all of this is lost possibilities.  

Digital offers the potential for insight into changing customer behaviours based on shifting post-pandemic landscapes.  It offers the potential for rapid competitive realignment at a time of greatest need.  It harbours the prospect of reviewing investment costs of staffing, operational model(s) and programme-based resources, offering clarity of focus.  But, dare I suggest, most of all it offers the chance for Retail and Hospitality businesses to survive.  'Necessity is the mother of invention'.

Retail is 'at the crossroads', at 'a decisive point', 'approaching a historical nexus' - however one wishes to term it, now is not the time to abandon technical innovation.  I appreciate that there are myriad agenda items all vying for attention at a time when sales have fallen through the floor and customers are making enforced changes to buying behaviors and trends, but de-focusing Digitally Transformed re-invention is a recipe for disaster.  History shows that organisations which understand this and are prepared to synchronise technology and data innovation with revised operational models are the ones which not only survive but go on to flourish and grow.  I urge all Retail and Hospitality providers to think again about the strategic imperative of Digital Transformation - the coin is spinning, make sure it comes down on the 'opportunity' side...