Work Will Never Be the Same—Savvy Business Leaders Are Adapting to Change That’s Already Here
By | Deborah Lovich, Frank Breitling, , Bharat Khandelwal, Chris Mattey, Prateek Roongta, Nick South, and
The pandemic has caused unprecedented organizational disruption. But it also has offered valuable lessons about the way we work—and created significant opportunities.
This article was first released in November 2020 and has been updated.
The best leadership teams have spent the past two years leaning into the changes COVID-19 has brought to their organizations. As a result, their companies will have a definitive customer, innovation, employee, and productivity advantage for years to come. Other companies—those that are not rapidly locking in and extending how they serve customers and communities and support their people—will lose.
Amid this evolving competitive landscape, BCG has developed an integrated approach that enables organizations to quickly and systematically create advantage. When it comes to the future of work, there is no one-size-fits-all model. Instead, leaders and their teams need to design their own modus operandi intentionally, holistically, and thoughtfully. We recommend examining four critical areas: how we work, how we lead, how we organize, and what we need. (See the exhibit.)
How We Work
Embracing, rather than trying to recover from, the organizational disruption caused by the pandemic will provide a rich source of new and improved work practices. This means reassessing customer needs, adopting innovative work models, and finding new ways of unlocking productivity.
Reimagined Customer Relationships. Companies exist because of their customers, and any discussion of the future of work must begin there—especially as customers’ needs have dramatically evolved. Leaders should ask themselves three questions up front:
