The food chain and COVID-19: Perspectives on the “new normality”

Yesterday at GAP we have been lucky enough to be able to have access the chat by professor José Antonio Boccherini, The food chain and COVID-19: Perspectives on the “new normality”, thanks to Espacio Sothis, to also witness the subsequent round table starring Rubén Raso (Idilia Foods), José David López (Grupo Alacant), Mª José Llopis (Almendras Llopis), Carlos Herrero (Prosol), Julio Insa (SAP Spain) and José Luis Ivars (Shotis).

The reflections have been very interesting and instructive, with a common denominator: Betting on the cloud. Making customer have access to products faster and more agile must be the cornerstone of companies. Teleworking has taught us that you can work from anywhere, and at the same time, that the general public can also have access our products from anywhere. In this sense, it is necessary to push towards a change in the mentality of companies, with a common vision towards the efficiency and effectiveness of technology. Which is not an expense, it is an investment.

Another of the reflections of the day is that you must have respect for technology, but not fear, always counting on Cybersecurity support.

This crisis reflects that on-line commerce has risen, but it has not done so more because logistics has not given more of itself. But E-commerce has become very important, gaining market share even with the problems that have occurred; it has come to stay, producing an adaptation of buying behavior, where consumers have learned to deal with the new tools that have been offered. In many cases, distributions have been created from scratch, transforming from a conjunctural change to a structural change.

This clearly upward trend makes companies follow their upward curve, acquiring maturity in their transformation.

On the other hand, although it is true that Spain enjoys one of the best communication networks in Europe, the public sector has process deficiencies and in SMEs these processes are not reaching their vast majority.

Spain is taking steps forward towards digitization, with a sense of transformation and business strategies, with objectives in technology and e-commerce, tending towards B2B. Maintaining that mentality and betting on autonomy as a country, are the objectives that have to be consolidated, capitalizing on the fact that there have been great changes and we have to adapt and learn from past circumstances.

In this sense, at GAP we have adopted videoconferencing tools to make meetings more effective, in addition to training our teams in digital capabilities.