The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted working practices around the world, making it critical for businesses to adapt quickly or risk closure. Businesses have turned to digital transformation and technology — which was becoming an increasingly important part of the workforce even prior to the pandemic — as a helpful means to increase engagement, efficiency, and workplace flexibility.

A new book — “Digital Transformation in a Post-Covid World” — explores the innovations, disruptions and changes that are required to adapt in a fast-evolving landscape due to the extraordinary circumstances triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Associate Professor of Business at James Cook University (JCU) in Singapore, Adrian Kuah, co-edited the book with Associate Professor Roberto Dillon, Academic Head of Science and Technology at JCU in Singapore. The book includes substantive contributions from industry leaders from KPMG, Accenture, Deloitte, Gensler, Vigamus Foundation, and the Singapore International Chambers of Commerce, amongst others.

Across 16 chapters, the book encompasses trends and challenges arising from the crisis, particularly in the United States, Australia, Europe and Singapore; an exploration of how different companies have pivoted their businesses in the post-pandemic economy by way of a technology roadmap; and a holistic view of the dramatic shift towards home offices that companies face.

In addition, Associate Professor Dillon joined a team of experts from KPMG to assess the increased exposure of companies to a variety of cyber security threats as a result of the pandemic. Meanwhile, Associate Professor Adrian Kuah co-authored with his PhD student Mr Kim Chang Hee, a JCU scholarship holder, to propose incorporating digital technologies using a reverse logistics system, and then create new values through digitised service strategies such as smart remanufacturing.

Leading contributions from James Cook University include an examination of the importance of telehealth mobilised by the COVID-19, and how the pandemic has the potential to negatively impact mental health and wellbeing, by Professor Caryn West; a discussion on how disruption can lead to innovation in the ways learners engage with digital content, led by Professor Abhishek Bhati; and a provoking think-piece by Distinguished Professor Stewart Lockie to develop physical, regulatory and institutional infrastructures that support socially and environmentally responsible innovation in agriculture and the future of food.

Overall, the book consists of diverse contributions across sectors such as public health, technology strategies, urban planning, sociology, and sustainable management, to effectively capture how global industry leaders faced this time of crisis, and how they analysed the rapidly-evolving scenarios around them and found the right inspiration to move forward.

Check out the book “Digital Transformation in a Post-Covid World”  To obtain discount on the book, please contact Associate Professor Adrian Kuah.

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Media: Pinky Sibal [email protected]