What Does the Future of Business Look Like?
“Change is the only constant in life.” – Heraclitus.
This saying by a Greek philosopher has never felt truer than over the past two years. Change has seemed constant, at times sudden, or even jarring. The truth is, the business landscape and the workplace itself would have changed even without a pandemic. The changes almost certainly would have been more gradual, but the changes would have come nonetheless.
The challenge today’s companies and leaders face now is preparing for the future of business. As we all adjust to how life as leaders, employees, and consumers has changed, it’s time to look toward the future, especially in the key areas of technology, diversity, and leadership.
The future of technology
A global pandemic forced companies to reimagine what the workplace looks like. The days of everyone going “into the office” are largely gone. In many companies, numerous team members have adopted a hybrid work model and a large number are in fully remote positions. Teams are very likely to contain people who are located in different states, regions, or even countries.
Customers’ demands and expectations have grown as well. They have become used to increased digital contact with companies and have come to expect and even demand greater convenience and customization of products and solutions. As with changes to the workplace, changes to consumer expectations are not likely to return to what they were before 2020.
Future technology will provide for increased tech-enabled working models, encouraging team members to continue to learn and develop their careers regardless of their physical locations. Technology will also continue to deliver more sophisticated consumer solutions with an even greater ability to personalize those solutions.
The future of diversity
Studies have repeatedly shown that diverse and inclusive organizations outperform their less-diverse competitors. That holds true not just when talking about company culture, but also performance and profit.
The future workplace will demand leaders who intentionally create cultures of inclusion, broadening the understanding of equity and inclusion to truly understand individual needs, and tailoring solutions to meet those needs.
Technology will help shape future advances in diversity and inclusion. Talent Analytics tools can be leveraged to counteract human biases. HR technology tools allow companies to source candidates and identify the best talent based solely on whether they meet the key requirements of the job. This removes opportunities for prejudice to affect a candidate’s advancement in the recruitment process. HR tech tools can also be used to identify hiring biases that do occur in a company’s hiring process, allowing them to resolve these issues.
Our speaker Anton Gunn has spent his life helping leaders build diverse, high-performing teams, and world-class workplace cultures. A former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, Anton is a leading expert on Socially Conscious Leadership.
Companies of every size and in every industry benefit from Anton’s programs and expertise. He shares that industry-leading organizations have two things in common: they have inclusive leaders and they are intentional about corporate diversity.
Prepare your organization for a future where you are known as leaders in diversity and inclusion. Failing to do so will result in far-reaching costs at all levels of the business.
The future of leadership
The business landscape has changed dramatically over the past two years and will no doubt continue to do so. Leaders will continue to set visions and execute strategies, but will also need to develop new sets of skills to lead their teams and organizations into the future.
Leaders are increasingly tasked with balancing technology and humanity. They must embrace technology and use it to increase efficiency inside their organizations, while ensuring employees are valued and feel a sense of purpose. Future leadership will demand greater levels of humility than ever before as leaders seek to truly serve their employees as well as their customers.
We’re proud to represent Mark Sanborn, hailed as one of the top leadership experts in the world. Mark shares, “Leaders face changes today that were inevitable. The pandemic simply accelerated the timeline and presented them all at once.”
If your organization’s leaders are thinking and acting like they did before the pandemic, you will be limited in what you can achieve going forward.
Support your teams now to prepare them for the future.
Leaders and employees inside your organization have dealt with seemingly unending change for the past two years. Those changes aren’t over yet. Companies will continue to face advances and challenges, and your leaders need to be prepared to lead their teams with confidence and compassion.
Provide leaders within your organization with the knowledge and skills they’ll need to prepare for the future workplace, and its challenges and opportunities in technology, diversity, and leadership.