Adaptations and Upheavals: Learning from the Reset Moment

October 27, 2021 Victoria Bushnell

OneLeap’s CEO, Hamish Forsyth met with Robin Bew, Managing Director of The Economist Intelligence Unit to discuss adaptations, upheavals and key opportunities for companies to take advantage of this reset moment as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

As an expert on global economy, emerging markets and risk, few people are as well-placed to bring a compelling perspective to The Reset Moment than Robin Bew, Managing Director of The Economist Intelligence Unit.

OneLeap’s CEO, Hamish Forsyth, caught up with Robin during the lockdown to reflect on how the world is shifting, and to discuss what small and large companies alike can do to take advantage of this reset moment.

The following is the summary of that discussion. You can also watch the highlight vide o he re.

Reset moment opportunities can be divided into two broad categories:

1. adaptations that stick, such as the acceleration of e-commerce adoption

2. fundamental upheavals, whereby assumptions and deeply held rules that shape our personal and working lives have permanently shifted.

ADAPTATIONS THAT WILL STICK

Acceleration of e-Everything

E-everything has been accelerated, particularly e-Learning and e-Health. The education sector leaned into new technologies pre-pandemic; however, COVID-19 forced a very significant shift to online learning, from primary through to tertiary education.

Face-to-face learning is not predicted to diminish in response to this trend, but e-Learning will be an enabler for more people to be educated remotely worldwide, with fee-paying institutions well-situated to adopt these technologies faster.

Similarly, the lethargy to adopt e-technology previously witnessed in the healthcare sector has been tackled head-on. The adoption lag both by professionals in the medical community and by patients has been greatly reduced – accelerating the implementation of new medical practices for the long-term.

One of the most significant changes this acceleration pressed was the need for medical professionals to use advanced equipment such as MRI scanners and CT scanners 24/7, reducing patient wait times and allowing healthcare institutions to further optimize the use of their MedTech assets. Furthermore, we are likely to see more extra-industry networks and partnerships forming to tackle MedTech problems, such as Dyson producing hospital ventilators.

“You can imagine that in healthcare and indeed in education, that there is an opportunity for firms that have very good expertise at engaging with the public in other forums who might be able to move into that area too.”

Hybrid and Asynchronous Working

The pandemic and evolution of technology has facilitated hybrid working in new ways, including and a dramatic shift to homeworking models for large, established firms.

Asynchronous working was formally prevalent in the technology sphere but is now required in a new sharp way to facilitate productivity in a globally dispersed workforce. In response, work processes have adapted, and new technologies adopted to facilitate efficiency, even when colleagues aren’t online at the same time.

As a result, we predict greater blurring between people’s personal and working lives, but not necessarily in a bad way. Working days may not get longer, but employees will benefit from a more malleable and bespoke working pattern, suited to each individual’s needs.

The recognition that this flexible approach works for some team members will be important for employers and HR teams going forwards. In short, companies that adapt their business processes to take advantage of that, will have an advantage over those that don’t.

“There's an opportunity to stand back and ask, ‘How could work be redesigned, given the way that it's now operating?’”

FUNDAMENTAL UPHEAVALS

At OneLeap, we seek to help companies create the internal conditions that encourage experimentation. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we discovered that our clients were experiencing the external imposition of a set of conditions that broke the framework in which they tended to evaluate what was possible.

Ultimately, due to fundamental upheavals, their conception of risk and risk equations had changed.

Big government is back

Generations living in the United Kingdom since World War 2 have experienced relatively light touch governmental regulation, with private sector industry domination, and government acting more as a safety net. This manifested in a perspective that big societal problems were beyond the scope (or remit) of government. The COVID-19 pandemic over-turned this assumption. Within a matter of months, the UK government had effectively nationalised half of the workforce – a trend also seen in other countries around the world.

Aggressive governmental intervention took place in order to quickly solve nationwide problems, including subsidising a vast proportion of the private sector economy, and injecting huge cash investments into the health sector. This stands as a significant inflection point in society’s expectations of what government can and cannot fix. There is now a recognition that with enough money, and enough will power, things can be done effectively by government.

However, this also creates an environment in which governments have a huge opportunity to be more demanding of the private sector. Companies have received significant financial support, and quid pro quo suggests that these companies are going to need to get onboard when governments say they want things done.

“I think government is going to be more involved and demand more of the private sector and do more to shape economic outcomes.”

Geopolitical bifurcation between the USA and China

In 2020, China was one of the few economies that didn’t decline, and this year it’s predicted to be one of the fastest growing in the world.

Those watching from the Middle East, Latin America and Africa will be assessing the USA and China’s response to the pandemic and deciding who they want to align with. Whose policies work best? Who has the more effective form of government?

China’s story is strengthening – both in terms of economic growth, but also efficiency dealing with adversity. This is likely to result in the bifurcation of geopolitical and economic relationships, creating two global camps – one that aligns with Europe, America, Japan; and another that aligns with China.

Disintermediation

As businesses have been disrupted and more people work from home, clients of both OneLeap and The Economist Intelligence Unit are witnessing a new shift in organisational patterns.

Hierarchical structures are being broken down, making ‘command and control’ methods more difficult. Equally, for B2B companies seeking to build relationships with new clients, the practice of finding the right contact within an organisation is going to need to change as decision-making becomes more diffuse and gatekeeper roles are downplayed.

This perhaps sets a new disruptive window for smaller businesses who are capable of being more guerrilla in their approach to take advantage where bigger players might be slow to react.

Top Lessons from Past Disruptions for Current Leaders

The Reset presents a moment to reflect on past disruptions, and how can we learn from these to adapt in the present.

1. Larger corporates have an advantage in accessing assets and internal capabilities now in response to new commercial opportunities, if they are willing to act. Amazon’s AWS is a prime example of where this has worked in the past.

2. ‘Sticking to the knitting’ can help companies focus on building successful innovations around things that they already understand.

3. Instead of focussing too narrowly on user needs, companies should open broad-based conversations with clients about how COVID-19 has disrupted their lives, their work, their habits – and think about how they can solve any new problems.

4. Leaders must be brave and be prepared to stop doing things. The world has changed dramatically in the past two years and will certainly continue to change. Stasis is a choice, and doing the same thing is one of their most high-risk options.

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