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In the phygital realm, the customer experience can be enhanced using the best of the physical and digital worlds. Unfortunately, digital transformation projects are often limited to the incorporation of various digital devices at different stages of the purchase experience. As a result, many companies are failing to seize the opportunities presented by this new hybrid world. While the physical-realm experience stems from sensory interactions between individuals and a distinct form of the bricks-and-mortar environment, the digital customer experience tends to relate to the integration of technologies that help consumers control, customize, optimize, and monitor their actions. Although physical experiences generate emotions, and digital ones are mostly functional, the phygital realm engages consumers by being both emotional and functional. When the concept of phygital is recognized as a hybrid realm with both functional and emotional components, companies can break free of existing customer experience constraints. Phygital-world competition is about an enhanced customer experience, not showcasing digital bells and whistles. To ensure a successful digital transformation, companies need a consumer-centric strategy that utilizes technologies to combine valuable experiences from the physical and digital realms to create something new and superior that consumers appreciate and don’t reject because it doesn’t fit with customer needs or expectations.

In order to overcome the challenges introduced by COVID-19 and leverage opportunities, firms need to embark on a born-again journey of self-discovery and healing. This involves accepting the need to engage in a grieving process that shapes a new raison d’être for the firm after rejecting traditional thinking and redefining business practices. Based on the author’s research and work with clients across numerous industries, this article outlines the Business Recovery Strategy framework and explains how it can help managers organize their thinking and plan innovation. To help stakeholders appreciate the reinvented firm, managers should take the following actions to align business practices with the new normal: 1) firms’ strategic review processes should be demystified; 2) firms should set up a committee charged with anticipating possible future disruptions; 3) firms should engage in cost reduction strategies while creatively sourcing the funding necessary to avoid cutting key employees and budgets; 4) when social distancing needs subside and reduce the need for remote working, employers should consider a hybrid approach instead of a return to previous workplace practices; 5) companies should ensure they understand new customer needs and behaviours that the crisis created; 6) companies should implement a more bottom-up marketing strategy; 7) firms should focus more on value and consider empathic communication and branding strategies; and 8) firms should consider strategies that are a combination of the physical and digital, or “phygital.”