A positive attitude to change, being open to new technology, adaptability – these are three of the six traits that help “future ready” businesses succeed, even as businesses around the world have faced disruptions brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the new Future Ready report by Vodafone Business, ‘future ready’ businesses (FRBs) can be identified by six unifying characteristics, including a positive attitude to change; are open to new technology; have clear steps towards business transformation and a detailed strategy; they are up to date with trends and uncertainties; and are adaptable.
These are the attributes of the most resilient organisations and their responses to common business challenges before, during and beyond the Covid-19 crisis, according to William Mzimba, chief officer of Vodacom Business.
“A main differentiator is that FRB’s see the crisis as a natural time to experiment with new ways of working and have made broader, smarter investments in new technology,” he says. “In South Africa, there are three key areas that bear scrutiny and have yielded valuable insights: digital transformation, resilience, and returning to work after lockdown.”
Societal attitudes and consumer expectations have changed, forcing businesses to focus on ethical behaviours or to find a purpose beyond their core offering. Insights from the report indicate that:
* Customers are more informed and influential than ever. Seventy percent of businesses identified customers as the most powerful and influential group ahead of ‘people on social media’ in second place, and ‘businesses’ in third.
* Brands needing to have a purpose alongside their core business’ is also disproportionately recognised by 74% of FRBs.
* Ninety-three percent of South African FRBs rated social responsibility highly versus 85% of businesses overall.
Social responsibility is a key differentiating behaviour among the most ‘future ready’ businesses. Behaving in a responsible way helps control brand perception in the eyes of customers.
To keep up with these changes, the majority of businesses are actively investing in new technology to leverage deep consumer insights and help address the rising consumer expectations.
Fifty-one percent of FRBs versus 37% of overall businesses are more likely to seek data-driven insights to enhance their customer experiences and gain a greater understanding on consumers’ opinions of the brand.
Research showed that many businesses are already adapting, planning for new business practices and even entirely new business models for a post-Covid world. FRBs have taken significant steps in new technology investment in direct response to Covid-19.
These organisations are investing heavily in new solutions like cloud storage to improve their cybersecurity systems, new software or hardware designed to support employees to work flexibly and remotely, and to provide employees with new smartphones and tablets.
“In 2020, we’ve seen a paradigm shift. Timeframes for innovation which used to take years and months changed to weeks and sometimes days. Investment in the African tech space continues to grow and at the current rate of development it won’t be too long before we are talking about it breaching the $1 billion (R15 billion) mark,” says Mzimba.
Throughout the pandemic, businesses that offered support to their employees saw the most benefit throughout 2020. Accommodating flexible working hours was the most widely adopted action.
* Seventy-one percent of FRBs are moving towards a ‘connected working environment’ with flexible working hours, and they are taking advantage of the latest collaboration software available to get work done.
* FRBs have also been likely to consider employee wellbeing throughout the pandemic.
A noticeable trend within the report examines how businesses are rethinking how they combat skills shortages and expand their talent pool. Sixty-three percent of FRBs intend to invest in re-training or re-skilling personnel and are generally expected to embrace a number of measures even more broadly than businesses overall.
In addition, FRBs are increasing consideration of neuro-diverse candidates – recognising that many are gifted in various skills suited for the digital age.
Meanwhile, 63% are planning to invest in more “connected” working environments to attract prospective employees aged 24 or under. Offering greater flexible working hours flexibility is also seen as a useful to allure juniors.
FRBs are using technology to create digital workplaces that appeal to younger workers, and that make it easier for all kinds of employees to work more flexibly, with a focus on their wellbeing at all times.