These two months living in a global pandemic has birthed a new reality, and nothing will ever go back to what the world once thought normal. Despite the solemnity of what has occurred, this historical moment is pivotal for enterprises racing to adapt and becoming smarter businesses in the process, according to Mani Dasgupta (pictured), chief marketing officer of IBM’s Global Business Services.

“It gives [people] a renewed hope in what technology could really provide,” Dasgupta said. “How we are still being able to work while we are stuck in our homes, how we are still able to buy things online and not jeopardize the safety of our loved ones. … That is what the beauty of this is — the renewed understanding of what technology can do for you and the ability to interact with the technology to make that happen.”

Dasgupta spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the IBM Think Digital Event Experience. They discussed the ways companies must adapt to this historic moment in time. (* Disclosure below.)

Resilience, adaptability and empathy

Businesses emerging from the current global pandemic must be adaptive, resilient and empathetic — empathy that isn’t just for clients, but for a company’s own employees, according to Dasgupta.

“Ninety-five percent of our workforce across IBM is now working from home in a safe and secure environment,” Dasgupta said. “We’ve been able to work with our clients and move those teams that work with our clients also in a more safe and secure environment.”

Smarter business must also be able to have business platforms that utilize data to give them a competitive advantage, and they must be able to bring intelligent workflows with end-to-end processes that think through a resilient supply chain. They must engage their customers with online experience like never before seen, Dasgupta explained.

“Being able to … connect with your customers in new and engaging ways … is of utmost importance,” she added.

For example, IBM Garage‘s co-creation innovation workshops are now virtual experiences. And IBM is  now offering free trials of a lot of products and solutions to clients for the next 90 days so they can get their most pressing business problems solved in this unprecedented time.

“This is absolutely going to change the way we work, the way we engage with our clients … and new routes to market,” Dasgupta concluded. “That is the most exciting to me.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the IBM Think Digital Event Experience. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the IBM Think Digital Event Experience. Neither IBM Corp., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE