Samsung On Preparing For Hybrid Work With The ‘And Era’

It’s been a challenging year for businesses of all sizes, and we’ve seen companies do great things due to the power of the technology they have access to today.  Lopez Research spent months speaking with various business leaders about their return to office and hybrid work strategies. I heard that organizations relied heavily on mobile devices and cloud-resident services and will continue to do so. To understand how mobile technology in business changed in the past year, I interviewed John Curtis, the Vice President and General Manager of Samsung Electronics America’s B2B Mobile division. Curtis recently published an article that piqued my interest in the concept of businesses moving into what Samsung calls the “And Era”. 

During our interview, I  asked him to explain the “And Era” and how it would change business. He described it as a way to think about strategies to help Samsung and its customers with the return to office strategies and adjusting to the new normal. Curtis said we came up with the idea to encapsulate this by describing it as the ‘And Era’ where you aren’t simply working at home, the office, or meeting with customers and partners on the road. A company or an individual will do all of those things. It’s and, not or.  

Curtis mentioned that the idea’s genesis started with leadership training courses he’d taken several years ago, during training on managing conflict in life and the workplace. He said, “We were taught that when you resolve conflict, it’s not an either-or. It should always be both. And you should always explore both scenarios.” Curtis shared that there are three parts where you provide experiences tailored for the office, the home and traveling. 

At Lopez Research, we’ve discussed these as three work styles: full-time remote, full-time in the office, and nomadic. Nomadic used to mean you were a road warrior working in airports, hotels, and coffee shops. Today, it means you are a person who chooses to work in multiple locations. Some days may be in the office and other days it might be at home or in a cafe. It’s a new world of the hybrid workplace. It’s precisely what Curtis was describing as the ‘And Era’.  Increasingly, organizations are enabling this nomadic, flexible work style for many of their employees. 

What should businesses be doing in the And Era? 

Curtis says it’s essential for business leaders to build proactive plans for their IT staff and their company’s IT technology. “Over the last couple of years, since the pandemic, businesses were focused on reacting to changes, and it’s time to make plans to move forward.” 

When asked if the And Era differs if we’re talking about large companies versus small companies, Curtis shared that while the challenges are the same, the implementation may be more complicated depending on the firm’s size. Organizations want technology choice, security, and trust in their work tools, according to Curtis.  He said, “people want choice, whether it’s a small company or a large company, or a consumer.” For Samsung, part of enabling choice is delivering a wide range of smartphone devices that range from rugged devices such as Galaxy XCover Pro to sexy foldables like the Galaxy Z flip and Galaxy Z Fold.  Fortunately, today’s technology doesn’t require a choice between style and durability. Today’s flagship smartphones, like the Samsung S21 series, sport Gorilla Glass Victus and foldable smartphones are more rugged than they appear. Curtis said that Samsung’s tested folding and unfolding the smartphones more than 200,000 times which is five years of regular use. 

He also shared that “It doesn’t matter if the companies are large or small. The threats are equally applicable. It’s always been near the top, but security is at the forefront  at the moment, and everyone wants to trust their work tools, especially in the IT environment.” 

In the last Lopez Research enterprise benchmark survey, business agility and flexibility were the top-ranked priorities for C-level executives. However, securing the business ranked second on the list.  Security is always in the top three list of IT priorities for Lopez Research enterprise surveys. For specific organizations, it’s in the number one position as they struggle to secure an increasingly distributed environment with aging infrastructure. 

Security and trust will only increase in importance as we look to move into a hybrid work environment. In Samsung’s research, Curtis shared that 67% of companies are considering permanent work-from-home policies before the escalation of the Delta variant. Additionally, Curtis said 86% of remote workers were happy with the technology that they have now. 

Taking digital to the next level. 

My guess is that happiness results from some organizations using these changing times as an opportunity to rethink the company’s technology tools and processes. Those that had front-line workers took mobility efforts to the next level. For example, Walmart sought to digitize and improve its associate experience. To do that, it purchased 740,000 Samsung smartphones and deployed a mobile app called Me@Walmart. One of the unique attributes of the program is that the associates can also use these smartphones for personal use at home. 

A blog by Drew Holler and Kellie Romack of Walmart described Me@Walmart  as “a new app built in-house by Walmart Global Tech for U.S. store associates that provides an exclusive destination filled with new features to simplify daily tasks, serve our customers and plan for life outside of work. The idea of this app started as a way to manage associates’ schedules and has grown into our single in-store app for U.S. associates, saving them time and helping them be more efficient… we want to ensure associates have a sleek, new device to use the app, so we’re giving them one. By the end of the year, we plan to offer more than 740,000 associates a new Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro smartphone, case and protection plan to use — free of charge.”

To me, it made perfect sense that Walmart would make this move. The strategy provides a perk for employees but also creates a foundation for future business success. A lesson for all companies is that a next-generation digital transformation strategy requires a substantial investment in terms of cost, process change and training. Participation in what Samsung calls the new “And Era” requires more than simply purchasing new hardware and cloud services. 

The Walmart deal highlights a challenge that many organizations struggle to overcome. If you want to create a best-in-class experience, an organization must design cloud-native, mobile-first applications and provide better devices to run these new applications. As organizations moved to remote work, many found out that aging technology couldn’t keep up with the demands of a modern workplace. Mobile tablets and smartphones supported new ways to work for in-person first-line workers, such as telemedicine, drive up clinics, touchless POS, and curbside pickup. Experience matters in everything from the apps through to the hardware. 

In the article “Welcome to the ‘And Era’: Pandemic lessons transforming the future of business”, he wrote”it’s not that being physically present was inessential. It’s that, now, we need both in-person and virtual solutions to be truly successful.” I couldn’t agree more. The challenge for organizations today is to create a culture that embrace both and delivers the technology foundation to support it.