COVID-19 Digital October 28, 2020We asked executives how long they expected it would have taken their companies prepandemic to digitize 12 different activities and how long it actually took them once the coronavirus hit. When it came to remote working, companies moved 43 times more quickly than executives thought possible. Chart: Executives say their companies responded to a range of COVID-19–related changes much more quickly than they thought possible before the crisis. Time required to respond to or implement changes,1 expected vs actual, number of days Change Expected Actual Acceleration factor, multiple Type of change Increase in remote working and/or collaboration 454 10.5 43 Organizational Increasing customer demand for online purchasing/services 585 21.9 27 Industry-wide Increasing use of advanced technologies in operations 672 26.5 25 Organizational Increasing use of advanced technologies in business decision making 635 25.4 25 Organizational Changing customer needs/expectations2 511 21.3 24 Industry-wide Increasing migration of assets to the cloud 547 23.2 24 Organizational Changing ownership of last-mile delivery 573 24.4 23 Industry-wide Increase in nearshoring and/or insourcing practices 547 26.6 21 Organizational Increased spending on data security 449 23.6 19 Organizational Build redundancies into supply chain 537 29.6 18 Organizational Notes 1Respondents who answered "Entry of new competitors in company's market/value chain" or "exit of major competitors from company's market/value chain" are not shown; compared with the other 10 changes, respondents are much more likely to say their companies have not been able to respond. 2For instance, increased focus on health/hygiene. McKinsey & Company To read the article, see “How COVID-19 has pushed companies over the technology tipping point—and transformed business forever,” October 5, 2020.