Open, transparent and frequent communication not only helped to calm anxiety among employees but also motivated unparalleled participation by all pockets of employees to sail through the challenges together with the leadership team.
Mental Health & Wellness
The effects of the lockdown and transition to work from home have resulted in new triggers such as stress and depression. More CEOs placed focus on mental health and employee wellness than ever before. Fortunately, most multinational companies had policies and employee assistance practices in place to help distressed employees to get back on track.
CEOs also agreed that the pandemic had hit women the hardest, as they carried the heavier load of household responsibilities and keeping the family together amid the burden of the lockdown. This has demanded lot more empathy and support from managers and colleagues.
ESG, Sustainability & Impact Investing
More boards and CEOs expressed intent to increase activities centering ESG, sustainability and impact investing. The future is all about good business. In the word of Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of World Economic Forum, the pandemic has called for a great reset of capitalism, one that will result in on how companies will look at the impact on all aspects of societies and economies, including social contract, education and working conditions. The letter sent by Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock to CEOs of portfolio companies, epitomises the appetite of global asset managers on impact investing to promote long-term value. to increase activities centering ESG, sustainability and impact investing.
An MIT Sloan Management Review report titled ‘The Digital Capabilities Your Company Needs’, points to ‘skills gap’ as the greatest hindrance to developing digital capabilities among enterprises. In today’s explosive digital universe, the need to train talents is amplified by the pressures of AI and Big Data. Increased adoption of technology also drives the demand for integrating and unifying digital capabilities so that data is centrally available for process optimisation.
Innovation & Automation
The past eight months also saw an increase in patent and trademark applications as well as investments in digital technologies and automation. From contact-free devices for hotel check-in to robotics and startups, technology companies and businesses are spearheading new innovation and business ideas that would address problems and challenges faced by enterprises and societies.
Tightening of labour laws that restrict hiring of foreign labour and introduction of minimum wage system will force businesses to reimagine future of work to increase efficiencies and productivity while protecting profit margins.
Beyond 2020 - Embracing Continued Economic Turbulence
The CEOs did not envision a full recovery at least until end of 2021. The perpetual trade war between US and China is bound to disrupt global supply chain and operations. It is necessary for CEOs not to take their eyes of the ball while juggling with the newer challenges.
A reset in their thinking is therefore necessary to manage the “nows” while planning for the future.