The 2021 MuMAC Conference was commenced by manager, advisor, and supervisory board member Janina Kugel, who delivered a comprehensive keynote speech on the change that is and will keep happening in the corporate digital world after Covid-19. Focusing on ESG – environmental, social, and corporate governance – she highlighted how organizations will change post-pandemic and how management will have to adapt to the new normal.
The pandemic has been a steppingstone for a large portion of the general population – not just smaller countries, not only the younger generations. Everyone can feel the change in the air, and “the world is changing so quickly, that whatever we are capable of doing today is not going to be sufficient for tomorrow.” Especially the awareness for ESG is rising fast, not only on a corporate level. Employees demand clear positioning of their companies on environmental and social topics. And businesses should not shy away from ESG as paying attention to it does not compromise equity returns but rather contributes to business success. According to Kugel there are 63 % of positive findings and only 8 % of negative findings in companies that have ESG in their focus.
Although there are many opportunities in focusing on ESG, people are inherently afraid of change. There need to be leaders that unite empathy and adaptability: they must be able to envision the future and the priorities required to succeed, inspire and empower their employees and ensure innovative and agile-execution abilities.
Those are just some of the skills that will be needed in the future, in a post-pandemic digital era. Tech and IT skills, software development and robotics will be just as relevant as high cognitive skills, social and emotional skills, and creativity by 2030. And those have nothing to do with education but rather with personal growth. As Kugel says, this will be another change: the linear career paths and fixed mindsets will be a thing of the past.
With the pandemic we learned that we have the technology for remote work, but this will require new models of collaboration and managing on a corporate level. Managers have to take a different angle in terms of their employees in the post-pandemic era. What life situations are they in? What level of freedom can be given? What expectations are there from employer to employee and the other way around and how can security and social interactions be provided?
As we move forward into the post-pandemic era, change is inevitable. That does not only mean, we have to learn new things, it also means, we need to break with traditions. Existing structures must be transformed, flexibility and innovation have to be incorporated and we need to drive cultural change. Stepping out of our comfort zone will be the first step towards change and it needs to be taken now.