Industrial innovation, a key factor in the new normality
The need to bet and invest in R&D&I has become even more evident as a key factor for future development
The world as we knew it until now no longer exists. No company was prepared to face the scenarios caused by COVID-19. The domino effect has proved to be unstoppable: thousands of deaths and millions of people infected, health collapse, social alienation, economic paralysis and a long etcetera that makes us foresee a crisis similar to the one experienced in 2008.
The 18.5% fall in GDP between April and June and the loss of more than a million jobs in just three months are unequivocal proof of the dramatic situation we are experiencing, which has become a whole exercise in survival, not only in health but also in the economy and business.
Businesses are adapting to a greater or lesser extent to the new normality, learning day by day from their mistakes and successes as current events dictate. They have become responsible for activating measures in their way of working that help to avoid the spread of the virus, protecting their employees based on the recommendations of the health authorities and trying to maintain the continuity of their business, often adapting their production to current needs and trying to minimise, in this way, the social and economic consequences that can be derived from this health crisis.
An example of this was experienced during the confinement with the response of the maker movement to manufacture, in record time, protective elements and emergency artificial respirators, with 3D printers, which could cope with the containment of the virus.
Commitment to innovation as opposed to Covid-19
In view of this situation, the experts point out the commitment to innovation and digitalisation as a key element in tackling the crisis and rebuilding the Spanish economy. To be aware of how the innovations that arise can affect us as a company and, above all, to be willing to investigate in order to always offer the best service to customers.
From all this, one important lesson is that this pandemic has caused such rapid progress in digitalisation and a change in mentality that, in other conditions, it would have taken years.
The need to bet and invest in R+D+i has become even more evident as a key factor for future development. Therefore, the main objective is to learn from past mistakes, explore new opportunities that arise from this exceptional situation and be prepared so that, in the future, what are considered essential products or services do not depend so much on third countries.