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Vodafone CEO Jason Paris says Covid-19-induced changes offer opportunity for Kiwis and businesses.
By Liam Dann
The world has seen two years' of digital adoption crunched into just a few weeks, says Vodafone chief executive Jason Paris.
"It doesn't matter how comfortable you are with digital technology," Paris says. "Covid-19 has forced you to work or learn or keep in touch in different ways you probably weren't used to."
Grandparents now using the online video hangout app, House Party, was a pretty good example, he says.
"What Covid-19 has done is to force people to change their behaviour. They are now using technology in ways they never imagined, in just a few short weeks that [previously] would probably have taken a few years to get to."
While there are many things Kiwis will look forward to in returning to familiar ground in the post-Covid-19 world, when it comes to technology there are some areas where we will choose not to go back.
The rapid transition will, for better or worse, change the way Kiwis live and work, Paris says, bringing massive economic challenges but also opportunities for business growth, higher productivity and better work-life balance.
"Here's a crisis-driven opportunity to reset people's minds about what technology really does enable," he says.
New Zealand is lucky to have good infrastructure enabling an enormous increase in data use – the lockdown has seen an increase of between 20-70 per cent across the Vodafone network (depending on timing), across both broadband and mobile networks.
"New Zealanders need to imagine this is a highway where 50 per cent more cars suddenly go on to it," he said. "It's an uncertain time for people. Working from home and kids learning at home…if you run out of data, it's like running out of oxygen sometimes."
Paris says one of the things he's most proud of is how Vodafone helped the small percentage of New Zealanders who were on capped plans, moving them to unlimited plans at no cost.
On the business front, he is optimistic that New Zealand's bold lockdown strategy will create opportunities, despite the economic slowdown.
"I think it's the right thing to do," he says of the lockdown and efforts to not just control but eliminate Covid-19. "New Zealand being able to say we're open for business, even within a very tight border control, would be a wonderful thing."
There were a lot of great New Zealand tech companies which now have a bigger platform for growth; internationally, one of the big advantages for local tech companies is our time zone.
"We can work while others are sleeping," Paris says. "Again, the digital adoption windfall has proved it doesn't really matter where you are in the world; you can work and be productive."
Broadly, all businesses will need to be more tech-focused: "I think organisations that are more advanced digitally will have a competitive advantage. So those that have found ways of digitising their value chain in some way, like supermarkets with online delivery, and any organisation that has a click and collect functionality, will win."
The economic crunch will put pressure on businesses and households from a cash-flow perspective, meaning businesses best able to deliver value and make it easy will thrive: "Digital affordability and reliability and ease of use – the organisations that can stand for those components will end up coming through this disproportionately better than others," Paris says.
It would mean digitising and automating for many businesses.
"Customers don't want to call you, they don't want to go into a retail store. Things just work," Paris says, citing examples like Netflix and Spotify. "The surge in digital adoption means you've companies now with a customer base "leaning in, looking for opportunities to adopt, embrace and invest in".
Vodafone will need to make some big calls, he says: "In four or five years, we'll be a fundamentally different organisation in terms of our customer offerings. There will be fewer of them, they will be less complex, they'll be more digital end-to-end," he says. "So you'll have ubiquitous connectivity and you won't have to worry about it."
From that point, the business would operate as a curator and enabler for those best digital services around the world.
Low productivity relative to many countries has been an ongoing issue in New Zealand for decades but the shift to a more digitally connected world will create opportunities to improve that productivity.
One key area will be working from home: "We are already pretty advanced in terms of flexible working but I think really embracing the working from home approach and remote working…that will be another thing," Paris says.
"Why do you have to be in a corporate head office to do your job? What would that mean for regions, where historically the mindset is that you have to be in Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch to get a good corporate job?"
"Why can't you be in Timaru? Why can't you be in Napier, Whangarei, Invercargill or Nelson and still perform a role within a big corporation. I think that will happen."
Taking lengthy commutes out of people's lives would offer an extra one or two hours of productivity, as some have already found during the lockdown.
"That extra two hours isn't just about business productivity it's also about personal productivity," Paris says.
"The key thing will be: don't use that extra two hours to just do more of what you were doing. Use it to reset how you were working; get more out of your life.
"One of the things we talk about at Vodafone is, if you're not good at home you can't be good at work."
Meanwhile the immediate challenge for Vodafone was going to be a tight focus on getting the basics right, Paris says.
"We have to get our own back yard in order because if you want to play a greater role in New Zealand's future, to benefit from the opportunities that will come in New Zealand post-Covid-19, you've got to earn the right – and you do that by doing basics well, being easy to use, reliable, affordable."
Vodafone's new ownership structure was helping with the New Zealand focus, he says.
"We have the best of both worlds now. We're a globally connected player but the Brookfield Infratil ownership change means a 100 per cent New Zealand-centric strategy now. Our owners are long-term investors, passionate about success for New Zealand."
