This podcast asks the question, where should one invest in a crumbled economy? It was scripted by Rick Okinda and first published in the iGrand Business Review Magazine in July 2020.

While economic depression is real, many businesses have shut down and industries are recording losses. The growth rate of economies the world over is decelerating and those with savings are hoarding money from investment. This review identifies with the common cliché that says, “Industries close for new ones to rise.” Safaricom began by selling air talk time then it diversified to short message service and later to M-PESA and internet data bundles. This has kept the company up float for over a decade now. Today Safaricom is positioning itself as an internet data seller and as a gateway payment platform provider because the world has changed. This is just but an example, not mentioning the new market opportunities in healthcare service delivery, media content creation, online learning, online working, online shopping, flood control, railway construction, property management and waste management. Our review points the investor to industries that will not collapse any time soon. These industries include food production, taxi services, healthcare and construction. We conducted a recovery journey survey of companies from effects of COVID-19 pandemic and noted the following.

• Re-opening of companies will happen in phases.
• The first step for most companies will be to change the business model, which requires new considerations into already existing business plans and drafting of fresh business plans.
• Re-calling of employees is not definite and there is a likelihood that many laid-off workers will seek new jobs elsewhere.
• Workers who will be fortunate enough to be called back to work are likely to be given new job descriptions that fit in the framework of post COVID-19 business plans.
• Just like traditionally a company could not survive without a messenger, new business models demand that a company must higher or subcontract a social-media manager, digital marketer, IT experts and establish a call center to manage customer relationships.
• It will be very important for companies to create Lipa Na M-PESA accounts as their payment platforms as many payments will be done online.
• This review indicates that a time is coming when the definition for factors of production (FOPs) will change to include internet as the fifth factor thanks to COVID-19 for catapulting the digital migration.

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