Skip to main content Skip to footer
Cognizant in the News

Anthill, Australia: Senior Director at Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work Says Winning in the Digital Era Requires Talent Pools That can Thrive in an Increasingly Digitized Economy

“As new technologies cause value chains to evolve rapidly and organizational boundaries to blur, human roles and tasks are also digitizing, as machines alter how knowledge work is performed,” writes Euan Davis. “Everywhere we look, leaders in old and new companies are using technology in a wave of supercharged innovation that is creating incredible opportunities. And it’s a business narrative that extends beyond the usual digital suspects we all know such as Google, Facebook and Twitter.” Excerpts:

“Thriving in this digital era of promise and uncertainty means increasing the velocity of innovation, experimentation and collaboration. The main engine for this is not some magical technology — it is talented people. Leveraging talent with digital capabilities is an antidote to slow innovation cycles and can help instil a culture of speed in today’s dynamic and volatile business world.

Attracting and managing the talent needed to make this shift will be radically different from what worked in the past. But make no mistake, technology will matter a lot because new technologies will impact how knowledge work is organized, distributed and completed. Human talent must adapt to this new reality. The workforce of the future, therefore, must evolve amid a digital revolution that will undoubtedly upend revenue flows, business models and cost structures.

To help understand these changes, Cognizant’s Centre for the Future of Work, tasked the Economist Intelligence Unit to survey over 420 decision-makers globally. The findings, shared in the Cognizant report People – not just Machines – Will Power Digital Innovation, reveal how the right mixture of people, strategy, and tactics is needed to transform companies for the digital age. Cognizant’s analysis reveals a clear imperative for leaders to build a roster of digital skill to accelerate innovation. Key findings from our study include:

Digital investments are catalyzing innovation: There is now a clear imperative for companies to add the digital skills that will counter stodgy innovation cycles that can jeopardize their very survival.

Talent shortfalls will drive the digital “gig” economy: When done right, externalizing digital work creates a more flexible, distributed and transient workforce that can adapt to rapid cycles of business reinvention.

Linking platforms to ‘talent clusters’ drives innovation: Companies are starting to build proprietary platforms and driving third parties to engage in co-innovation initiatives around R&D or customer engagement.

Future performance requires a bold digital reorganization: Rigid approaches to organizational management — remember the 1980s value chain mania — is giving way to more fluid, connected and nuanced organizations. Silos are being broken to improve knowledge flows and redraw organizational power structures.

The workforce of the future needs a new rules engine to work: Analytics, algorithms, big data and automation dramatically enhance innovation, productivity and decision-making, but they will also automate and abolish rote tasks previously performed by humans.

The digital era will rely on machines, but winning will require — perhaps more than ever — talent pools that can thrive in an increasingly digitized economy. Navigating this shift will be one of the defining success criteria for leaders.”

Click here to read more. 

Connect with Cognizant

Careers

Be part of our journey to make a difference.

Contact

Let’s start a conversation.

Investors

View prior earnings releases and more.