From debt forgiveness to quantum
Empathy is the word that most marks 2020, a year in which companies worried about their employees’ mental health; the #MeToo movement forged ahead; #BlackLivesMatter took off, and Covid-19 lead to the rediscovery of community.
Empathy will continue to have an impact in 2021 by being present in two upcoming trends: debt forgiveness and supply chain responsibility. As for the third fundamental trend, quantum cybersecurity, its eruption onto the corporate scene as an applicable and commercial technology will ignite a bonfire of innovation.
Boards would do well to anticipate how these key factors will impact their companies in 2021 and ensuing years, even as the pandemic continues to upend business and politics.
The New Paradigm
The summer of 1982 was a fine one in Venezuela, as I was chauffeured from party to party in Caracas and spent weekends lying in the sun on private islands or riding around estates the size of small countries. Not a word was said about my internship working in the office of a pulp and paper company, which was the reason for my visit.
President Hugo Chavez did not come to power until 1998. He destroyed the economy, a task ably carried on by his successor. But the seeds had been sown in the earlier decades amid the elite’s corruption, and failure to share the oil bonanza more widely.
Sustainable Survival
Future-proofing your firm
Academics and far-sighted business leaders can go blue in the face calling for modifications to the capitalist model that has prevailed over the last 30 years and left too many behind. It takes riots in Chile, votes for populist authoritarians like Donald Trump and the emergence of a proto-fascist party in Spain for reality to hit home.
The decimation of the middle class through stagnant wages and job insecurity and the increasingly visible inequality of wealth were missed amidst the congratulatory backslapping of Davos Man, more focused on the huge growth in spending power in large emerging markets.
Those companies that want to survive and thrive within a world of constant upheaval must concentrate on transforming themselves. Sitting back comfortably and assuming politicians will bear the brunt of the anger is not an option.