OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS, WE HAVE WATCHED business models be scrapped and reinvented and work locations be reimagined. In the process of tackling global challenges that even the most forward-thinking leaders could never have fathomed, organizations once resistant to change have had no choice but to transform.
At press time, the world is reckoning with war in the Ukraine, signaling that organizations are poised for even more uncertainty ahead as unimaginable global events continue to set new conditions for doing business. On the bright side, productivity, we now know, can thrive virtually; and promises of new scientific breakthroughs — from synthetic biology to machine learning to vaccines — are suddenly being realized. How can we capitalize on this new momentum and accelerate the innovative spirit we have tapped into?
Based on our research and work with clients, six signals stand out as being essential to the future success of organizations. All six present opportunities — and incentives — to embrace change and find new ways to grow and evolve.
SIGNAL 1: LEARNING FROM THE FUTURE
Rapid shifts in the operating environment and people’s behaviour mean that the historical correlations some analytical models rely on have been challenged. Some organizations are capturing new data sets, including real-time data from inside and outside their organization and from across their value chain. These data are then processed by new analytic approaches based on artificial intelligence (AI), enabling leaders to find new patterns and better anticipate future decisions.
China’s is thriving by using AI to scrutinize real-time data. The online lender makes collateral-free loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To guide its lending decisions, it uses an algorithm with more than 3,000 variables — with data drawn from the ecosystem of Ant Group (its parent company), such as the value of an SME’s receivables and its customer feedback on the e-commerce platform — that predicts an applicant’s credit worthiness. The algorithm also allows MYbank to
