Author:
11 January 2021
Today I spoke with a CIO of one of the larger companies in the Netherlands. Of course we talked about Corona and its impact on him, his family and his work.
His story was as simple as it made sense. He had become much more efficient, his carbon footprint had shrunk, he had more contact with his children and he also got more opportunities from the board. In addition, the operating result was also sufficient to exist and continue.
What he experienced in practice was the promise of marketing departments of Software Vendors to work from home. In the biggest test ever performed live, with all target groups, personas and countries you can think of, the marketing promise came true. Working from home using your digital habitat is better, finer, more sustainable for the environment and cheaper! It was also the positive conclusion of our dialogue, working from home is the new norm and the office is there for work that can't be done anywhere else.
Having said that, the other side of the medal came up. The combination of primary school children with home schooling and even working from home requires quite a bit of planning from parent/employee, colleagues and from school. If you go from Zoom meeting to Zoom meeting, you have little time for teaching and if you have to teach three of them serially, things go wrong with your colleagues. Getting to know new colleagues and saying goodbye to departing colleagues, how do you do that in a human way. An organisation is based on shared goals, resources and people. The first two don't need personal attention, the third does to be successful.
It may be an open door, but everything we do digitally starts with humans and has an impact on them. That brings me to an insight for 2021. Let's continue Transforming: Durable Transformation. Digital is now the norm, sustainable implementation in people's lives and our environment is the next challenge.
On behalf of all Strategy Alliance colleagues, we would therefore like to wish you a Sustainable Transformation, health and the opening of all companies that are currently closed by 2021.
