After COVID, firms will face transformative change

As societies and economies recover from the COVID pandemic, environmental, social and technological trends are converging, leading to rapid, disruptive and transformative change, the likes of which we have not experienced for more than a generation, according to consultancy Studio 44.

Business leaders need to ensure they and their organisation are ready to innovate and transform.

According to Simon Sear, the company’s CEO: “The COVID crisis will lead to a new period of rapid, transformative growth and prosperity just like the First World War led to the roaring twenties, the Second World War to the golden age of capitalism and the recession of the late 1970s to the expansive growth of the 1980s. Spring always follows winter.”

ESG meets Industry 4.0

Combining with this natural economic cycle are major tailwinds, such as society’s demand for more progress on racial and gender equality, social mobility and mental wellbeing.

Governments and wider society have reached a tipping point on progress with environmental sustainability, while technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), hyper-automation and the Internet of Things (IoT) are supercharging change.

“Economists are predicting record growth and leaders need to ensure that their organisations are bold, more agile and quicker to change than at any time in history in order to deliver competitive performance in terms of cost efficiency, revenues and return on capital,” Sear added.

“The crisis has highlighted many insights into how leaders can prepare for this next phase of growth and the journey ahead. They are at a once-in-a-generation inflection point, opportunity is coming, and they need to ensure that they and their organisation are ready to innovate and transform.”