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Digital Transformation In a Post COVID World
Hyderabad, 2nd March 2022: Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Hyderabad, hosted the fourth session of the Global Immersion Program on 2nd March 2022. The speaker for the session was Prof. Renato Pereira, Professor - ISCTE Business School, Lisbon, Portugal, who discussed the topic "Digital Transformation in a Post Covid World." Prof. (Dr.) Manoj Das, Assistant Professor & Area Chairperson - Marketing, IMT Hyderabad, presented an official welcome address wherein he welcomed the speaker and the participants, which was followed by a brief introduction of the speaker by Sri Vaishnavi Atreyapurapu, a first-year PGDM student.
The speaker talked about and explained five key trends. The first trend he spoke about included the rise of China and its influence on the whole world; since the country has no traditional salary increase mechanism; hence it can keep cheap labour for disposal. The second trend was the Easy (fake) money policy, where he elaborated the fall of currencies by their nominal value in terms of purchasing power; oil prices have been on the rise for a long time. He mentioned that Bitcoin and Crypto have remained in the news constantly; however, this technology has a long way to go because of the volatility involved in using Bitcoin. He highlighted the two types of blockchain and the users of those blockchains. Prof. Pereira informed about the formation of the first crypto bank in the US and how it facilitated efficient access to crypto trading, financing, and other governance services. He then explained the relationship between China and Crypto. He also narrated the impact of China's renewed crackdown on this currency that cost the total digital market around four hundred billion dollars in value.
Prof. Pereira mentioned that China had released a digital version of its currency Yuan, although it is not an official cryptocurrency. He informed that El Salvador was the first country to accept Bitcoin as the official currency on 7th September 2021. The third trend that the speaker talked about was Climate Change which has been evolving for the past 50 years. The speaker also explained Globalisation's reversion as the fifth trend and the different international conflicts like the US vs. China Trade War, China vs. Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Prof. Pereira explained how Covid-19 had been the most impactful global event ever. He talked about the various changes that took place after Covid came into existence. The speaker said this "new normal" is about increasing digital communication and 'global' being replaced by 'regional.' He explained the importance of AI in developing vaccines. He took names of various Indian Fintechs to explain the role that they are playing in the GIG market. He then explained what Hype Cycles are and how they work in five stages.
The session was followed by an interactive question and answer session between the students, the professors, and the guest speaker. Afterward, the students expressed their sincerest gratitude and thanked the speaker for an insightful session
