Expert Talks Archives - The Awards Magazine

What are the Top Startup Mistakes to Avoid as an Entrepreneur? – Expert Talks

The Awards Magazine — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 16:55:58 +0000

To start a business is easy but to succeed is very tough until you follow some guidelines. Check out what experts said about the startup mistakes to avoid as an Entrepreneur. You can also check experts from Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security and Cloud Computing. Submit your thoughts and opinions about this topic here (if any).

What are the Top Startup Mistakes to Avoid as an Entrepreneur? – Digital Magazine

Thoughts from Industry Experts

James Gingerich

Putting key people in a position where they cannot be successful no matter how many hours they put in. No work life balance means eventual burnout. Churning and burning through staff at a high rate is a sunk cost even the largest of corporations cannot afford. For small businesses perpetual onboarding is a swift and certain death. Avoid at all costs.

Janet Schijns

Most startups begin with a great idea – that great idea may be a technology innovation, pricing model, or go to market strategy that differentiates the startup from what’s available in the market today or disrupts the market with a new category. The talent that was capable of innovating and creating a new market or disruption is generally not the same talent that is needed to run a cost effective growth oriented business. Sure, some firm leaders have both innovation and day to day business skills but those leaders are few and far between. Thinking that your innovator can also be your day to day business leader is an often dangerous mistake that results in higher costs, complicated processes and less growth. Successful startups know this and identify a good business leader to take the firm to market leaving the innovators to keep developing new products and solutions.

Marketing and sales are another mistake common in the startup world. Those first few customers or investors who love the solution often give the startup a false sense of security and make them believe that the innovation will “sell itself” While good solutions will always sell, insufficient marketing and sales efforts will ensure that the startup runs through their investment capital long before those sales happen. Investing in a marketing firm who can craft a hard hitting and actionable demand generation program is a great solution to this problem. Once the plan is built and leads are capable of being generated, successful startups bring in a strong and smart seller who can close deals not a retread from their industry. How do they find those strong sellers? In today’s world focusing on sellers with expert social selling skills since those sellers outsell their peers by 78% (defined by a LinkedIn SSI of 70+, 5000+ connections, 4+ recommendations on social media in past year, and weekly posting of valuable content can help you find experts at social selling)

Finally automation and processes matter. Doing things on a “shoe-string” only works for so long. Successful startups invest in automation and processes from the start often using affordable SaaS technology to bridge the gaps. Defining the right process management and automating key tasks may seem unnecessary when you are first starting up but in the long run scalability is critical to success; investing early in these areas saves money and time as the firm grows.

Tony Moroney

One of the biggest single mistake for most entrepreneurs is presumption. I’m reminded of the line in the aptly named movie Field of Dreams: “build and they will come.”

The real world doesn’t work that way; all firms must first and foremost provide value to their target market. This requires an understanding of customer needs, how these are being met today by incumbents, and critically, expected points of differentiation.

Another mistake, is underestimating what is required to get the business off the ground. It takes time to build a brand and this requires balancing the need to invest in the business, while preserving cash-flow to manage the transition from start-up to going-concern.

Entrepreneurs also need to make sure they have the right team. This should be diverse in its broadest sense, to ensure the team doesn’t start believing its own propaganda. A strong cohesive team, with complementary skill-sets, and a preparedness to challenge is critical to success.

You may also like: How do you Define Great Leadership?

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How do you Define Great Leadership? – Expert Talks

The Awards Magazine — Fri, 14 Aug 2020 12:23:20 +0000

To become a LEADER definitely means one should be multi-talented including research ability. Leadership can be attained by guiding other individuals in a right path and motivating them towards a right goal. To give you more information, we have come up with some extraordinary thoughts from experts in the industry. You can also check experts talking about Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security and Cloud Computing. You can also submit your thoughts and opinions here.

How do you define Great Leadership? – Digital Magazine

Thoughts from Industry Experts

James Gingerich

Great leadership requires vision first and foremost. Like Wayne Gretzky stated, the ability to determine where the puck is going to be and position yourself accordingly separates you from those who merely chase the puck. In corporate leadership you need the ability to see where your industry is headed and then motivate everyone at your firm to be optimally positioned to take advantage of the opportunity.
Like a good field general, you need to position each and every individual in a situation that both challenges them and provides them a personal opportunity to grow and be successful. Your human assets are your most valuable assets bar none. Your ability to develop this talent pool while executing according to plan will determine your operational success.

Janet Schijns

Leadership is not a trait or a skill – it is a quality. That quality is comprised of both art and science. True leadership empowers a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal and feel good about the work and the achievement. That empowerment takes time, investment in people, and a keen understanding of both the challenges and opportunities ahead and the history behind the team.
Great leaders do the right things and help others do the right things as well, strengthening the team’s morale fiber at every turn. Great leaders make decisions using the information at hand to act swiftly and with purpose. They create a direction, build an exciting vision, provide the tools and resources to get the job done and ultimately produce something motivating for the team to focus on. Great leaders use technology and the innovation it provides to help their teams and is never held back by the phrase “we can’t do that”. These great leaders win because they understand that their job is about creating the map of the winning journey and letting the team take the trip – as a result, they are respected and even beloved by the teams that benefit from their efforts.

Tony Moroney

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader” – John Quincy Adams.
For me, this captures the essence of great leadership: being able to, and prepared to, inspire others to achieve great things.
Great leaders invariably have a clear vision, are courageous, have integrity and are humble. They have a clear sense of purpose and with this, an ability to engage hearts and minds.
They also recognise their limitations and surround themselves with diverse, often more capable people, who collectively challenge the “status quo.”
In summation, great leaders create a sense of why and with this, a unifying cause!

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How Businesses Should Prepare for Next Pandemic? – Expert Talks

The Awards Magazine — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 10:19:36 +0000

2020 is the year defined as “Before COVID19, During COVID19 and After COVID19“. The impact of COVID19 pandemic is everywhere and businesses are changing their ROI models to reach their customers in a best way. Here are thoughts from experts in the Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security and Cloud Computing. Check the data and see how business are supposed to be ready for the next pandemic.

How Business Should Prepare for the Next Pandemic? – Digital Magazine

Thoughts from Industry Experts

Spiros Margaris

You can, and you can’t prepare for the next crisis. I guess the most important thing I tell all startups – that want to listen – save enough money to survive as long as possible. If you survive long enough, you will increase the chance to succeed. A pandemic can be an opportunity instead of a tragedy, as it is for many people as we know. So try to manage your money in good times so you can spend it when you need it in bad times.

Helen Yu

Technology defeats its purpose if it does not serve the greater good of society and solve real problems. Before organizations embrace any technology, they must embrace humanity as an organization. Preparation for the next pandemic begins with a thorough understanding of what happened with the current pandemic, lessons learned, what would we be doing differently. This means creating a culture of collaboration and sharing and upskilling workforce talents. We then need to have practice/process aimed at improving the company’s ability to respond to a new pandemic. This includes crisis management, business continuity plan, and established communication channels with employees and customers.

Giuliano Liguori

Unfortunately, the current COVID-19 pandemic posed not only health-related questions and challenges but also a paradigm shift in our way of living and relating to others. However, most businesses still don’t have a plan to deal with a new crisis.
The Digital Transformation can help us not only as a way for business improvement but above all as a new model of life. Many firms are proposing technologies that empower agile work. Still, technology isn’t the only enabling element. We need to focus our strategy and mindset to stay relevant to the needs of customers, this is the only way to find the right solutions not only to survive during a new possible crisis but to profit from it.

Vladimer Botsvadze

Many industries have sustained shocking direct hits. Organizations should be prepared for the next global pandemic. The current crisis has clearly shown decreased workforce, operational disruptions and reduced customer demands. Corporations should establish preparedness strategies and review insurance coverage. A partnership with regional, national, and international stakeholders is key to reducing the risks of health emergence. Devise a responsive plan and develop guidelines to estimate severity in your communities. Everyone should do more effective communication and coordinate a response. We need to consider the extent to which it’s critical to regulating the supply chain of certain critical goods. By preparing holistically, we create structure that will allow us to build confidence and rebuild trust.

Linda Grasso

Well, honestly I hope another pandemic won’t happen again! However, what happened during these hard times should be a lesson to prepare us for changing our mindset. Future perspectives of work show businesses need to get ready for an organizational culture shift, where the digital will become a new normal. It means a workforce transformation, together with brand new working models. And, despite this being a big challenge for businesses, it is a change worth making if they really want to thrive in a disruptive and ever evolving world.

Nicolas Babin

Businesses need to accelerate their digital transformation. This is not about using digital tools as a priority but creating a change management project within companies. The way we used to work is not efficient anymore. More than 98% of employees that have worked remotely during the confinement do not want to go back to the way they used to work. Change management is hard but when you are forced to do it, it is easily accepted, and employees will see its benefits for their work/life balance. This is the time to get to it. The confinement has prepared us, now we can implement properly.

Ian Moyse

Business continuity and Disaster recovery have been stalwarts of business strategy for years, but despite this a breadth were found lacking during the recent Pandemic lockdown. What typically had been prepared for was equipment failure, a short period of limited office access or some need for sporadic work from home for those ill or where circumstances demanded. Few had fully prepared for and tested for the totality we saw of everyone all remote overnight. I have heard some stories of systems that already worked for remote access, but the load had not been catered for widespread access; so where previously 200 of 5000 could access remotely concurrently, load even 80% of this 5000 and the system ground to a halt. Businesses need to assume this will happen again and learn from the practise we just encountered. There is now a need to take action on the 3 pillars of people, process and technology and identify and remove the constraints and pains just felt. This will involve big change for many legacy approaches and legacy technology providers had better watch out as their brand loyalty and lock in will be overcome by the greater need to be agile, remote and scalable.

Enrico Molinari

The hope is businesses and human society will no longer had to face such a crisis of biblical proportion. Italy and Milan, the city where I live and work, paid a very high price. In any case, in addition to having to prepare themselves with a new healthcare resiliency, the companies will have to adopt all the technologies useful for making people work with a new ethic spirit and above all connect innovation with people. In one word? #ConnectingPeople.

Mauricio Amaro

I hope we have learned and do not have “to prepare” for the next pandemic.
I want to say that it has already been understood that digitality must be part of the business regardless of the line of business.
If we have a digital strategy that allows us to adapt our tactics in a timely manner, it will give us a strong enough base to be able to sustain ourselves in any other eventuality (even beyond a pandemic, earthquakes or other catastrophes), and agility to adapt our way of doing things quickly and effectively.
What is the strategy, as it depends on the business we are talking about, since it depends a lot on its mission and vision. The important thing is that we have to get to work immediately on building one.
This pandemic is going to leave us full of tactics, but a strategy is more than that, it is a long-term vision that must be our common thread. If our new digital reality is not incorporated into this thread, everything we did today will have been for nothing.

Tony Moroney

First-and-foremost, every board should be asking why their organisation was not as prepared as it could have been for the Covid-19 pandemic. The warnings for such an event have been around for many years. The technologies, which firms have scrambled to use, have equally been available. Arguably, for too long, firms have given lip-service to digital transformation. This in itself should be a key learning for the future.
Secondly, firms should assess how bureaucracy was suddenly relegated in favour of agility and determine how best this bias for action can be harnessed going forward, albeit on a more controlled basis.
Finally, firms need to re-connect with their purpose and re-envision their future business model. To paraphrase Lewis Carroll, If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.

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What are the 3 Technologies that will Play a Major Role in 2025? – Expert Talks

The Awards Magazine — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 10:00:36 +0000

Technology is everywhere. 2020 is clearly the year of technology as most of the stats proved that there is spike in the number people using internet services increased over the past 6 months due to COVID19 impact. As a result, our experts are here to share their thoughts on the top 3 technologies that will play a major role in 2025. Here are thoughts from experts in the Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security and Cloud Computing. Check the data and know more about the future of technology and humans.

What are the 3 Technologies that will Play a Major Role in 2025? – Digital Magazine

Thoughts from Industry Experts

Linda Grasso

I believe technology will be a fundamental pillar in our near future, as it allows us to bring innovation and benefits in almost every area of our lives. Assuming the adoption trend of emerging technologies in the companies will be increasingly growing in the coming years, there are some of them that will have a predominant role over others. If I had to choose three major technologies, I would opt for the following ones:
– Artificial Intelligence, given its versatility to be applied in many fields providing multiple advantages;
– Internet of Things, since we are moving towards a world where people, objects and everything around us are interconnected;
– 5G, a catalyst to enhance broadband connectivity and to facilitate data exchange.

Ian Moyse

2025 is a long way out and for many their plans for digital transformation stretched out to 2025 with phases of change between now and t hen. COVID has already changed the landscape for timelines and receptiveness to change. The pain experienced recently has removed previously perceived barriers as the impact on businesses and customers has been felt. We have seen a first phase of tactical change to get to business as unusual. The longer term now is a more dramatic acceptance of new technologies that support remote working and agility, these will include an increase in automation, self serve and tools to enable staff and agents to serve customers without being tied to physically binding old technologies and processes. We shall see telephony move mainstream into the cloud, cloud video conference technologies become mainstream and enhance their functionality greatly and a breadth of legacy on premise applications move to more elastic cloud based platforms.

	Nicolas Babin
Already we can see that big data infrastructure has to be in place and promoted to allow any type of new technology to take place. As everything is based on data, the strategy needs to be around storing, organizing, analyzing and creating value for all data. Once this is in place, we can think about many new technologies to implement. Obviously, AI and AI as a service will play a major role. Extended Reality (XR) will also be present everywhere to train employees, to engage customers and to prepare new products. Finally, IoT (Internet of things) will then be largely used to allow robots and connected objects to be traced and delivered. Customer experience will be enhanced. I also see 3d printing and computer vision to be present and play a major role.
	Helen Yu
There are 10 technology trends I see influenced by COVID: Online shopping with robot deliveries; Digital and contactless payment, Hybrid working environment; Distance learning with immersive education; Growing demand of telehealth; More on-line entertainment; Supply chain reform with big data, cloud computing and IoT; 3D printing breakthrough; Robotics and drones; and 5G. By 2025, I believe that AI, IoT and AR/VR will play a major role in multiplying our capacity to work better, smarter and helping us adapt to the new normal.

Vladimer Botsvadze

I believe 3 major technologies that will play a major role in 2025 are: AI, AR/VR, and 5G Network.

1. AI

AI is the battleground on which the long-term business success will be decided. AI-powered organizations are getting ahead. AI can develop your business models, relationships with customers, and marketing. 84% of brands say AI will enable them to reach a competitive advantage. AI will not only improve productivity, but also transform how we create growth.

2. AR/VR

Augmented reality allows customers to preview products or experience services in their normal lives before buying. 61% of online shoppers prefer to make purchases on sites that offer augmented reality technology, 30% say they would make them shop online more often. Worldwide spending on AR/VR will reach $18.8 billion in 2020, AR/VR will have 216 million users by 2025. Retailers expect to add AR/VR to enhanced product experience in the next 5 years. If you’re among top retailers integrating AR/VR to your business, you’re about to experience a growth in your sales. 70% of Snapchat’s users activate AR lenses daily. Instagram is bringing AR to its audience of 1 billion users. 9/10 of brands are expected to use AR in their campaigns.

3. 5G Network

5G is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices. 5G will be ”100X faster than 4G”. 7% of CSPs worldwide have deployed 5G infrastructure in the networks. Worldwide 5G infrastructure revenue will reach $4.2 trillion in 2020 – an increase from 2019.

There will be 340 million 5G connections in 2021 and 2.7 billion in 2025. 5G could change the customer’s data price point. 5G means richer content for brands and customers. Users 5G will benefit from unprecedented speeds and virtually unlimited connectivity to support an ever-growing IoT. 5G will drive economic growth – $12.3 trillion output of industry goods and services enabled by 5G and 22 million jobs will be created.

Giuliano Liguori

With the spread of 5G networks, many disruptive technologies will be unlocked and become affordable for everyone both at the company and consumer level.
Definitely we will see considerable growth in the adoption of Artificial Intelligence. This technology will be very different from how we know it today, it will be like an effective coworker that can deal with many tasks for you.
The second technology that will play a major role in 2025 will be the augmented reality. This technology is mainly for fun now, but thanks to the development of wearable devices, it will have a serious future.
Adoption of AR by 2015:
* Gaming
* Healthcare
* Engineering
* Live Events
* Video Entertainment
* Real Estate
* Retail
* Military
* Education
Last but not least, I think drones have the potential to improve urban air mobility by moving people and cargo faster, at a lower cost and in a sustainable way. In term of technology, a reliable network based on the blockchain could prevent that blocks of information, exchanged by unmanned aircraft in the global airspace, could be intercepted and altered by somebody else.

Spiros Margaris

In a nutshell: AI, AR and IoT

Enrico Molinari

The COVID‐19 pandemic has provided an in‐depth lesson in just how susceptible our human ecosystem is fragile today. This scenario has had predict the first global collaboration driven by technology.

5G, Robotic and Machine Learning (ML) & Artificial Intelligence (AI) joined to most important FinTech tools will contribute to better manage data protection and corporations’ operational transparency, speed and computing power e.g. for improving access to and quality in Healthcare, but on top for giving more efficiency in every highest levels of government of public and private sectors.

Mauricio Amaro

From now on, contactless is the word.

Any technology that allows us to carry out a task remotely or independently of the physical place where we are, is going to have a boom.

In this way, the IoT (which although more than a technology per se, is a concept that includes several) will allow us to have in control of our work and personal spaces on a permanent basis. Within this scheme robots and artificial intelligence will be extremely useful in what I would call augmented human presence. For the same reason, augmented reality will become part of our lives permanently.

Finally, we can intuit that the technology of autonomous cars (and auto-disinfectants) will extend to all activity that requires mobility, and in that sense we will have forklifts, tractors, cranes, airplanes, buses, and cruise ships. Although I see that these last three, and the decrease in costs that will have, will tend to evolve from mass transport to reduced and even individual to have greater control of contact between people.

Tony Moroney

The challenge for individual businesses is to determine which technologies will profoundly impact their market and business model. On a general level, rather than specific technologies, I believe clusters of technologies will come to the fore:
1. IoT, 5G and Edge-computing: we will see an acceleration in connectivity which will change customer experiences, underpin Industry 4.0. and lead to new products and services.
2. Big Data, AI, and Machine Learning: the ability to make informed decisions based on real-time information will become mainstream. The challenge for leaders is to address bias, really understand the basis for algorithmic-driven outcomes and minimise the potential for conduct risk at scale.
3. Virtual & Contactless Technologies: we have seen a huge shift in both organisational and consumer behaviours in recent months. We are likely to see many of these new behaviours become permanent features of then market with further innovation over the coming years.

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What is the Impact of COVID19 on the Workforce at Companies? – Expert Talks

The Awards Magazine — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 07:42:09 +0000

2020 is clearly defined as “Before COVID19, During COVID19 and After COVID19“. The impact of COVID19 pandemic is everywhere and businesses are changing their ROI models to reach their customers in a best way. Here are thoughts from experts in the Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security and Cloud Computing. Check the data and know more about the impact of COVID19 on the workforce at companies around the world.

What is the impact of COVID19 on the Workforce at Companies? – Digital Magazine

Thoughts from Industry Experts

Spiros Margaris

The impact of COVID19 on the workforce and their future opportunities is severe since many companies need to scale back their ambitions. Due to the pandemic business models will need to adapt to a new situation where money will flow in different buckets, and customers needs and priorities change.

Linda Grasso

The COVID-19 has put a strain on everyone. All companies, regardless of their size, faced and are still facing serious difficulties to survive in a global scenario brought to knees by the pandemic. Focusing on its impact, workforce management plays an important role. Social distancing has imposed a reorganization of human resources and their business processes through the adoption of so-called smart working. This change highlighted the importance of the paradigm shift of digital transformation inside the companies – thanks to the use of technology, we’ve seen that carrying out remote activities is possible and it can even make the workforce more efficient.

Nicolas Babin

The impact of the pandemic of Covid-19 has forced companies to think about a new way of working. Employees were or still are in confinement and remote working needs to be implemented throughout the company. In the case where remote working is not possible, social distancing, wearing masks and hydroalcoholic gel need to be provided. Some companies have seen their revenue drop drastically and most of them had to transform using digital tools. Even small businesses such as restaurants have started to use social media to promote their businesses. Workforce had to change the way they interact with colleagues and bosses. Bosses also must ensure company values are still followed at a distance and trust has to be reinforced because people are not together all day anymore. Transformation has been forced on all for the good of companies.

Ian Moyse

Most discussions around COVID have centred around technology. There was a rapid rush to the likes of Zoom, MS Teams and Google Hangouts to get workers online and able to group communicate visually. The tactical fix was pretty quick, resulting in an influx of demand for laptops and tools to meet the Work from home demands. We then moved into the reflection and appraisal stage where businesses started talking about what systems need changing, updating etc. Having been on many panels’ discussions around this, interestingly the conversation whilst headlined to be around such matters inevitably shifted to the people matter. We have quickly gone from a time when the norm was to deflect conversation to email, SMS, Whatsapp, social post, etc to wanting to speak.
Verizons CEO just cited that they are seeing more phone calls per day, every day, than they normally see on their 2 peak days of the year (Mothers Day and New Years Day). We are seeing a time when employees want to engage with their colleagues and other people. The challenge we face is that we need to consider the mental strain on the employee; working in an isolated day and evening the same environment with distractions such as pets, kids, deliveries etc. Take also that the video group calls we are all too familiar with now are more draining on the individual than an in person meeting.
Our brain is working harder to interpret a 2D face of the caller than when in person in the office or on a voice only call, add to this 6,10 or 20 other faces on a single call and unconsciously your brain is working far harder, hence we come away worn at the end of the call and day. Normally you are sat in a meeting and do not sit looking at flat faces, you look around, vary who you focus on and have 3D context. We are in a time when PCSD (Post Covid Stress Disorder) may become the next challenge businesses have to face.

Helen Yu

COVID 19 has reminded us about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Health and safety are among our most basic needs. We have to address these before we can address ones like career advancement or personal growth. COVID forces companies to change the way we work almost overnight. Despite initial fears and pressure, we discover that this new way of working could be a blueprint for the longer term. That’s what leaders of many companies around the globe are finding as they respond to COVID. McKinsey’s recent survey shows 87% of executives said they were experiencing skill gaps in the workforce. Upskilling the workforce becomes more urgent at companies. Companies’ ability to reskill and upskill the workforce to deliver new business models in the post-pandemic era will set them apart and allow them to better adapt to future disruptions.

Giuliano Liguori

The impact of COVID19 is sweeping all across the world, as a result, companies must reorganize to quickly face this tough challenge. It is a calling both to maintain business continuity during the crisis than to take the right actions to become more resilient, not only in order to respond to this crisis but mainly to recover and thrive during these uncertain times.
There are many aspects that companies should consider for workforces.
– Improvement of social-cyber security by default
– Flexible work arrangements to maintain the productivity
– Business travel could be replaced by short remote meetings
– There may be an acceleration in the adoption of digital technologies to bridge the digital divide
– More automation and collaboration to simplify processes and reduce unnecessary costs.
– Companies could provide extra wages to remote workers to allow them to organize their space in a way they feel is sufficient.
It is impossible to mention in a few lines all the actions that companies could take, however, this flexibility will allow companies to remain productive and save money.

Vladimer Botsvadze

The COVID-19 has dramatically altered our experiences and our behaviors are changing as a result. Working from home has become the new normal. Nowadays the relationship is digitized between employer and employee. Brands that don’t innovate fast will be driven out of business. Companies should help employees build a learning mindset. Acceleration of new technologies will lead to the creation of new opportunities and jobs. According to the research of the World Economic Forum, 49% of senior risk experts believe unemployment is the consequence of the pandemic. It’s of paramount importance to focus on empathy and employee wellbeing. The world should build adaptive teams that can work remotely together.

With more than 43 million people filing for unemployment in the past seven months, many found themselves in unexpected situations and the majority have been working from their home. People have shown more interest in learning technologies and they are doing their best to work virtually. Wearing a mask around the office will become the new normal in top companies. My clients have successfully been working from home and doing their work remotely. Twitter and Shopify issued work-from-home orders for employees in Spring. Twitter employees received reimbursement for home office equipment including desks and chairs.

The COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of automation. Robots can streamline manufacturing and drones deliver goods. I predict this kind of automation adoption will increase on the horizon. Around 7.6 million jobs of the UK workforce are at risk because of lockdowns. Workers and small businesses are impacted by the pandemic. Brands are still working on strategies on how they will work in the short- and long-term. Organizations need fit-for-purpose plans today that solve global economic issues. We should play a decisive role in establishing a human-centered approach that promotes shared workforce resilience.

Enrico Molinari

Nothing will be like before. We know the companies’ business models in every sector and size will reborn profoundly rethought from the pandemic crisis. Smart Working has undoubtedly given a strong signal in this sense. Today the real challenge is to combine tech, innovation and business goals using Human Intelligence in synergy with Emerging Technologies. An example today is Twitter which, following the COVID‐19 pandemic, has allowed all employees to work for goals from home or from anywhere. We must collaborate today all together for preparing the “Next New”.

Mauricio Amaro

The new organization and the way to collaborate have changed. Definitely moving so abruptly from a physical and centralized paradigm to a virtual and distributed one, it is an abrupt change, but one to which we must adapt since everything indicates that, perhaps with some nuance, it is here to stay.Evidently the necessary logistics is the first challenge to be faced. It is necessary to say which non portable equipment is better to move and to which to give them remote access, it is necessary to maintain a new balance between information security, physical security, adequate bandwidths, having active and sufficient VPNs, in addition to adding to this, the collaborative tools necessary for the coordination of business teams and secure and efficient videoconferencing.

And for me this is the most important paradigm shift. Productive collaboration is not done by generating a bunch of whatsapp that everyone writes about. Because those types of groups are eminently anarchic and what is needed now is an organization that allows us to achieve specific objectives. That is why the fundamental challenge is to understand how we work remotely, and not just try to emulate physical interaction in a virtual environment, because everything changes with respect to the form of relationship we are used to. There are new ways to understand the “etiquette” of conferences, to discern when video is necessary in them and when it is not (I particularly with my team do not use it frequently), for example.

The biggest challenge is to adapt to the new cultures of the teams.

Tony Moroney

I think the biggest impact will be a re-calibration of the employer-employee value exchange. Many employees now realise the ineffectiveness of commuting and most likely, have a new perspective on what they value. For employers, the challenge is to shift their emphasis from inputs to outcomes. This is predicated on trust and underscores the necessity of firms to build strong cohesive cultures based on clarity of purpose and a shared vision. The future workforce will evolve on a blended basis with an emphasis on safety and employee experience. In essence, satisfied employees should lead to satisfied customers and long-term sustainable profitability.

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