I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up.
This time it is Grant Halloran, CEO of Planful (formerly Host Analytics) which describes its Continuous Planning platform as "marrying finance’s need for structured planning with the business’ need for dynamic planning,"
You can feel in his voice the intensity of planning, re-planning and even more re-planning during this wild phase. He calls it "high-frequency decision making". He describes that at customers whether business is going up, down or moving into adjacent and new markets.
Abbott has seen huge demand for its ID Now molecular point-of-care COVID-19 testing technology, and in products like Pedialyte. The Boston Red Sox have, in contrast, had to deal with cancellation of baseball and likely a shortened season. Bose has had to adjust to its stores being closed and more ecommerce activity. Breville, a maker of appliances like coffee makers is adjusting to significantly more work-from-home.
We discuss likely opportunities as companies in every sector revisit their supply chains. We look at how pandemic modeling is likely to evolve. We also discuss how the market for data scientists and other analytical talent is likely to grow.
I particularly liked his empathy for CFOs at his customers. Not only are they furiously revisiting plans, they are having to deal with write-downs, renegotiated leases, workforce adjustments and a long list of other new projects while balancing their own personal stresses.
