A recent study published by Accenture mirrors the emerging of a new post-pandemic world, where Europe has the unexpected chance to choose a path of both innovation and traditional values. At a deeper and closer look, Europe needs to acknowledge the gap of profitability and productivity and find its pace. But where did the gap come from?
The answer becomes evident when looking at the concluding numbers in a comparison between Europe and rest of the world (North America, especially): technology. Europe falls behind when it comes to tech opportunities and investment in technology:
And still the premises are looking good, provided that business leaders act on their optimism.
When asked about this gap, more European companies’ leaders think that it can be closed, now more than ever. The post pandemic world has brought about a sense of emergency on competitiveness:
But the status quo is that only 16% of the companies have launched post-pandemic initiatives and 53% of them have no intention of investing in innovation in the next 6 months. We are still on <recovery and stabilization> mode, while the North America and Asia Pacific are taking important steps into renewed growth.
For the past couple of decades, Europe as a whole has registered growth in both productivity and investing in the future. But it has still fallen behind and, once the Covid-19 pandemic has taken its toll, it is imperative that companies must amend their strategies and approach the situation with a sense of well-balanced risk management haste.
We couldn`t agree more with Accenture proposal of the path for reinvention:
During the pandemic, we have seen our partners that have invested in technology and have digitalized their customer interactions thrive. After the shock wave was gone, their teams were ready to take on every single challenge, since they had the information and technology to do it. And, although for a long time they expected things to go back to <normal>, they are now redesigning their workflows and adapting to the <new> normal that it seems is here to stay.
Stability, tradition and purpose are Europe`s strengths. Mixing them together with bold business decisions and a window of opportunity that arose during the crisis could be the answer for all the companies that are now on the lookout for reshaping. The path isn`t unknown: BMW, Schneider Electric, Phillips- are just some of the great examples of how innovation drive shaped them before and after the Covid-19 outbreak. But the path is unbeaten, since European business leaders are now just beaming a light along the way (planning to <plan>):
All things considered, the possibility of success lies unhindered ahead. As we make our statement to level up and stand by our partners, we hope businesses across all domains will do the same.