![]() Also, the sustainability bandwagon has just began to start moving seriously. Businesses are still heavily engaged in Industry 4.0, or even earlier versions. So far, the Industry 5.0 concept has not gained a lot of traction yet. In other words, strategy in Industry 5.0 means that companies are becoming part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. In their book carrying the same title, Polman and Winston call such way of doing business “Net Positive.” Along the same lines, Elkington talks about “ Green Swans,” to refer to company-generated positive disruptions aimed at making our world a better place. Rather than merely reducing a company’s negative impact, truly sustainable companies focus on increasing their positive impact. Business as usual thus, but more responsible.įully embracing sustainability in a company’s strategy, though, implies much more than what’s currently been done. So far, corporate sustainability efforts have largely focused on reducing or minimizing damage-or on greenwashing, but let’s leave that out of the discussion. Like the first two pillars, also this is a radical change. Following the European Commission, a sustainable strategy “leads action on sustainability and respects planetary boundaries.” This implies, for example, that organizations should pay attention to all three Ps of the Triple Bottom Line and to all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. With the current widely-shared concerns about climate change, the notion of sustainability barely needs an introduction. If we are to realize that resilience will truly become one of the three pillars of Industry 5.0, it means that strategy’s primary focus will no longer be on growth, profit, and efficiency, but on creating organizations that are “anti-fragile,” meaning that they are able to anticipate, react and learn timely and systematically from any crisis and thereby ensure stable and sustainable performance. If anything, this can make them less resilient rather than more. And it is also this focus on efficiency that drives many initiatives to make companies more agile and flexible, especially in its “lean” version. As discussed earlier in this article, business today is largely driven by efficiency and optimizing profits, not resilience. While agility and flexibility are already longer on the corporate agenda, these in themselves do not necessarily lead to more resilience. Yet, also this is a more radical change than initially meets the eye. Resilient StrategyĪs the European Commission argues, a resilient strategy is “agile and resilient with flexible and adaptable technologies.” After Covid-19, global shortages of supplies, and the war in Ukraine, there’s few who would disagree that resilience is key-today and in the future. If organizations become truly human-centric, though, the first implication for strategy is that it needs to be about gaining a competitive advantage and using it to create unique added value for employees. This mentality is a core part of the work of Michael Porter, the most influential strategy professor to date. Strategy today is mostly about gaining a competitive advantage and using it to create unique added value for customers. If this development continues, business strategy needs to give it a proper place, and that’s what Industry 5.0 takes a shot at. In many industries and countries, finding, serving, and keeping talent has become a much greater challenge than finding, serving, and keeping customers. And it aligns well with current developments in the job market. This is more radical than it may seem at first sight. Or, in other words, a shift in perspective from people serving organizations, to organizations serving people. The Three Pillars of Industry 5.0 Based on the EU publication "Industry 5.0 Human-centric, sustainable and resilient" Human-Centric StrategyĪ human-centric strategy is one that, according to the infographic, “promotes talents, diversity and empowerment.” The most important shift this suggests is one from seeing people as means (e.g., as in human resources) to seeing people as ends.
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