Bob van Dijk of Prosus on the Potential of Know-how
The pandemic lockdowns adjusted customer behavior, forcing Prosus to adapt in ways that Mr. van Dijk thinks will be everlasting. “We really don’t have any motive to feel they will go away,” he explained, introducing that the pandemic basically “brought the potential ahead by a couple decades.”
In short, that usually means better automation and much less human get hold of.
“In our e-commerce enterprise, we previously had fall-off lockers,” Mr. van Dijk explained. “That’s turn out to be quite, pretty common. We figured that individuals like it. It’s no-get in touch with supply.”
Spurred by necessity, Prosus’ portfolio organizations found other methods to wring efficiencies. “We identified that extra of our business enterprise can be automated than we imagined,” he reported. “That was pushing us further down the curve of generating a very sleek customer working experience that has as couple of contact points as doable.”
For case in point, its classifieds company, OLX, commenced asking clients to examine the automobiles for sale on their own, minimizing social speak to.
“When forced, you can think creatively,” Mr. van Dijk explained.
Food items shipping and delivery, unsurprisingly, has been as robust a business enterprise for Prosus throughout lockdowns as it has been for Uber, DoorDash and other people. But Prosus providers like Shipping Hero and iFood took ways to help preserve extensive-term great will with its companions at the price of brief-phrase earnings. In Brazil, for instance, “we paid out eating places significantly faster than we commonly did,” Mr. van Dijk said. “From a dollars-flow position of watch, that was actually very important” in maintaining restaurants in their good graces, lowering prospective tensions between dining places battling all through the pandemic and online delivery applications viewing desire soar.
Currently in Company
It was a identical story in India for classifieds. “We lessened costs substantially, or we waived charges,” he explained. “That permitted folks to preserve cash. When factors started to occur back again again, there was a whole lot of appreciation about that.”