Thought Leadership

Companies are reorganising themselves in the wake of digital upheaval

Interviews with more than 100 chief human resources officers and people leaders reveal how the HR operating model is changing to drive value in a volatile business environment.

The individual charged with leading change must have multiple capabilities..

The past two and a half years have been extraordinary. What we are seeing is surely more than the progression of just another business cycle. The unnerving combination of a global pandemic compounded by energy scarcity, rapid inflation, and geopolitical tensions boiling over has people wondering what certainties are left. Today’s events might even feel like a cluster of earthquakes that is reshaping our world.

We have been here before. Similar “earthquakes” have struck the past: in the immediate aftermath of World War II (1944–46), during the period around the oil crisis (1971–73), and at the time of the breakup of the Soviet Union (1989–92). Like a real earthquake, each of them changed the global landscape with the sudden release of powerful underlying forces that had been building up around a fault line over time—but in these cases, unfolding over a few years rather than in a big bang. Each of them ushered in a new era: the Postwar Boom (1944–71), the Era of Contention (1971–89), and the Era of Markets (1989–2019). Are we now on the cusp of a new era presaged by today’s earthquakes?

“To effectively confront climate change, we must harness the full power of nature – including marine systems,” said Emily Landis, Climate and Oceans Lead for The Nature Conservancy.