Onbe: 2021 Was the Year of Adaptability

Last year saw workers around the world move out of survival mode and dedicate themselves to finding solutions to meet the needs of our new reality. Onbe CEO Bala Janakiraman expects that innovation to continue as more organizations embrace the digital transformation that working remotely requires. Read his thoughts in the PYMNTS eBook, “In a Word: 50 Thought Leaders Sum Up 2021.”

 

“Adapt” comes from the Latin adaptare, meaning “to fit.” As the pandemic continued to impact the way we live and work throughout 2021, I saw many courageous people, including my team at Onbe, move out of survival mode and shift to actively finding — and fine-tuning — solutions that fit the needs of our new reality. 

Yes, we all hoped 2021 would turn out to be easier than it was. But the upside is that many of us began to view our current situation as changeable rather than frightening and fixed. Adjusting our processes, beliefs and ourselves didn’t happen overnight — but as 2021 unfolded, so did the many ways individuals and organizations have adapted to meet the moment.

As the CEO of a corporate disbursements FinTech, I’m particularly inspired by the ways businesses have transformed their payment processes. Organizations have been quick to embrace digital transformation so they can better enable their customers and workforces to conduct life’s activities remotely when necessary. They’ve adopted automation and other measures that boost efficiency and cost savings while delivering a better user experience. And at Onbe, we’ve helped many of our customers move away from legacy disbursement methods that were no longer serving them and their recipients, toward payment capabilities that empower organizations to pay quickly, reliably, conveniently, securely, across borders and at scale — in short, everything a modern business needs to meet the future. 

The past year has revealed that adaptation is not always a choice, but a prerogative. And despite the undeniable challenges the business community (and society) has faced in 2021, many benefits have come out of needing to change the ways we’ve always done things — including the ways that we pay. 

Speaking just to Onbe’s corner of the payments world, some of these benefits include achieving faster and more flexible ways to deliver funds, freeing up overburdened employees by automating disbursements, saving time and resources by switching from physical to virtual payments, and arriving at payment strategies that better fit the way we live and work today. 

Often, adaptation is invisible; each of us adjusts in many small yet cumulative ways to our changing world. But the past year has both accelerated change and moved it to the forefront of our collective consciousness. As a result, we’ve been able to more intentionally shape the present — and plan for the future we want to see. 

In short, we should all be proud of the many people, businesses and community institutions who worked together to respond to our world’s immediate yet ongoing needs for greater flexibility, efficiency and accessibility. I’m confident that in 2022, we’ll continue to adapt in resourceful and innovative ways to whatever comes next.