The Future of Workand the Distributed
Organization

CEO Position Paper

Mark J. Barrenechea
OpenText CEO and CTO

The Future of Work and the Distributed Organization

Contents
Executive Summary			

2

Introduction: The Great Rethink and Modern Work			

3

The Death of the Office? A Short History			

6

Industry 4.0, the Post-Pandemic Myth, and the Distributed Work Imperative

7

The Future of Work: New Competencies and Dynamic Cultures			

9

Ensuring Talent Thrives at the Edge			

11

Office Design for the Distributed Organization			13

New Tech for a Distributed World			

14

Conclusion			

18

1

Executive Summary
The pandemic has triggered a “great rethink” in all aspects of life, especially in the way
work happens. COVID-19 forced millions of people to work remotely, depend on virtualconnections and re-evaluate their relationships to organizations.
Amidst waves of layoffs followed by unprecedented shifts in the labor force,companies are scrambling for talent and trying to figure out how to retain workers inan economy in which many organizations will move permanently to hybrid form, withsome employees working remotely on a permanent basis.
New research from McKinsey indicates that:•

20 to 25% of the workforces in advanced economies could work from homebetween three and five days a week, a significant increase compared to
pre-pandemic rates of remote work, and one that will alter “the geographyof work.”•

30% of executives surveyed (in 2020) expected to reduce the footprint of theirfirms’ offices.

•

About a fifth of business travel will be eliminated permanently.

Firms that succeed and excel in this new world will have established a distributedmodel of work—not just shifting to hybrid but building networks of virtual teams withthe skills to adapt rapidly to the realities of a distributed world.
Distributed workplaces will be exciting and transformative, built on a foundation of
seamless connectivity, cloud storage and AI, and security that extends to the edges
of far-flung organizations. They will demand agility, diversity and openness, but suchorganizations will also reward their employees with meaningful forms of engagement
and purpose.
The idea of the distributed workplace is not new. It traces its roots to ideas about
networks and resilience that circulated during the Cold War. Much more recently,
telework and then fully virtual workplaces created a demand for enabling technology
while debunking the idea of the nine-to-five, cubicle-filled office with managers in thecorner offices.
The distributed workplace, which is neither fully centralized nor entirely decentralized,
optimizes the tasks that can be done remotely while bringing people together
physically for critical or strategic tasks, such as high-level planning, problem-solving,and onboarding. Such organizations are flatter, more networked, and understand thatmanagers need to be strong yet empathic communicators who can leverage the talentadvantages of a far-flung workforce.
Enabled by cloud-based applications and APIs, these organizations will enable a
new kind of corporate culture characterized by grit, purpose and virtual communities
of interest.

2

The Future of Work and the Distributed Organization

Introduction: The Great Rethink and Modern Work
The COVID-19 pandemic is an historic pivot point—an event that produced massive
shifts in all aspects of life. Many of these changes have permanently altered the way
society and the global economy function. A once-in-a-generation public health crisis
forced us to rethink relationships, business, technology’s role in society, the climate
crisis and geopolitics.
In summary, the “Great Rethink” touches everything.

The Great Rethink

Economic
RethinkSocietal
Rethink• Growth &employment• Economy vs.
safety• Social protests• Inequalities

Technology
Rethink

Individual
Rethink

Environmental
Rethink

Figure 1:
Geopolitical
Rethink

Industry
Rethink

The Great Rethink• Accelerated• Ethical choices • Nature &• Globalization & • Disruption &digitalnationalism
reorganization• Mental health & zoonosis
transformations well-being• Climate change • Need for• Innovations• Virtual work
coordination & • ESG
leadership

We need to rethink the future. We can deploy technology to overcome our toughest
obstacles. Supporting research to develop vaccines. Creating ethical AI to eliminate
racial bias. Building sustainability into supply chains.
We must also learn to live more balanced lives.
The pandemic has made us rethink our roles in our communities, workplaces,
institutions, and nature. Despite a long run of pre-pandemic growth and technologicaldisruption, we have had to adapt to completely unfamiliar circumstances since March
2020. All of this change forces us to ask basic questions:•

How do we make moral, ethical and sustainable choices in this new environment?

•

How do we ensure our own mental health and well-being, as well as thosearound us?

•

How do we express our creativity and find meaning, in both our personal andprofessional lives?

•

What does priority-setting and time mean in this new environment?

•

And how do we think about the future of work in a post-pandemic world?

The Great Rethink is also about re-alignment. For millions of people, work became
either extremely risky or a constant juggling act for those working at home and looking
after family. Many sectors, from banking to hospitality, have experienced “a great
attrition,” according to McKinsey. Over 15 million U.S. workers have quit their jobs sinceApril 2021, and the disruption is widespread. People are tired and want purpose in theirwork lives. “Employees crave investment in the human aspects of work.”1
McKinsey senior partner Bill Schaninger says the exodus is about individuals looking
for meaningful work, being able to contribute. It’s not just the money. “People aresaying, `If I’m going to go back to work, it needs to be something that really mattersto me.’”

3

The individual rethink is about finding a future where there’s a better fit between
personal, work and social life. As companies think about the return to the office, they’ll
have to retool to allow employees to find the right balance. Technology is enabling
many aspects of this change. But the future of work is also about the future of theorganizational structure, relationships and accountabilities.
As the pandemic slows, some employers want all their people back in the office. They
want to bring back spontaneity and creativity, and connecting with co-workers. Yetothers want to stay fully remote for good or are giving employees the choice.2 Most
organizations are looking at hybrid arrangements, with employees splitting theirtime between home and the office. Many seem undecided. Silicon Valley giants like
Facebook, Microsoft and Apple have been all over the map, repeatedly setting andthen deferring return-to-office target dates.
We are presented with an immediate decision.

We Are Presented With An Immediate Decision
Centralized
Organizational
Design• Stick with a Centralized model, and“wait it out”
• Drive good & incremental changes• Power through the challenges

Distributed
Organizational
Design• Change the design point
Distributed Organizations• Radically lean into new work cultures& technologies• Turn the challenges into Opportunity

When organizations finally figure it out, hybrid work isn’t just going to be about desks,
meeting spaces, and flexible schedules.
Rather, the firms that succeed in the era of the Great Rethink will be deeply
distributed organizations. They’ll organize themselves as dispersed, flexible, crossfunctional communities. They’ll extend across divisions and locations. And they’ll be
constantly changing.
For many, the home office or studio will be the default, with office time reserved
for tasks that demand in-person interactions, such as high-level problem solving,onboarding and ideation. In the distributed organization, employers co-create workin ways that allow employees to find meaning and balance, to be fearless in pursuingtheir goals, and to be empowered to fully leverage technology.
While remote work focuses on the individual, distributed work affects theentire organization.3
Distributed workplaces will be exciting and transformative.

4

Figure 2:

Centralized or Distributed? Organizations
Must Choose

The Future of Work and the Distributed Organization

Technological barriers to virtual collaboration are disappearing due to innovation insecurity and document sharing. Organizations are no longer limited by location in their
recruitment efforts, so they can look for talent anywhere on earth. That means moreagile teams and diversity of experience, which are the hallmarks of genuinely globalorganizations. At OpenText’s Canadian head office, we like to say we can now recruitfrom coast to coast to coast, because the aperture is so wide.
Finally, the task is to create compelling organizations capable of attracting andretaining talent in a world where talent no longer needs to anchor in places like Silicon
Valley or the Toronto-Waterloo tech corridor. Given the incredible pace of change
since March 2020, the path to this future will not be incremental and cautious.
The organizations that succeed will be the ones who go all in.

5The Death of the Office? A Short History
The office is a modern invention, enabled by corporations with large numbers ofclerical staff, and then refined by information technology. The concept of distributed
work, on the other hand, is not new, although earlier versions were limited by tech andworkplace culture.
Long before “telework” became a buzzword, the U.S. military had scoped out
an approach to distributing data through decentralized networks designed towithstand attack. During the Cold War, RAND consultants described digital networks
that could endure assaults on individual or multiple nodes using switching technology,
satellite communications, television signals and microwave transmission. Such
networks could be programmed to respond to disruptions and transmission failures.4
While RAND’s vision led to the development of ARPANET, the precursor to theInternet, it also influenced the way organizations could use networks to create
flatter workplaces that didn’t depend on a given location. The limiting factor wascommunications technology.
In the 1980s and 1990s, multi-national firms, particularly in manufacturing, began toadopt Japanese quality assurance and just-in-time management methods that gave
rise to global supply chains and outsourcing. Eventually, supply chains became highly
networked, integrated and nimble, with IT platforms enabling distributed decisionmaking within and among companies.5
Firms at the time began promoting telework to allow employees to work from home
as a means of avoiding lengthy commutes or accommodating the 24/7 schedulesof tech support workers. Yet uptake was slow because of low-speed internet, clunky
video links and paper-based systems—as well as old school thinking about whatmanagers do. ‘How am I going to manage somebody I don’t see?’ was a common
refrain. But there’s a big difference between sitting at your workstation looking busy
and producing results.6 Some jurisdictions created telework incentives, but many
companies resisted because of health and safety issues, IP, security and privacy, officeequipment and the effect of isolation.
Consequently, telecommuting didn’t become mainstream. A 2015 Gallup survey
showed that the proportion of U.S. employees who had worked remotely rose from
9% to 37% between 1995 and 2015. Most were college educated, higher-income andwhite collar.7 But telecommuting remained the exception, with people working fromhome a couple of days a month, typically. Though Gallup’s survey found teleworkers
were highly productive, the study also noted that tech firms like Yahoo were moving in
the opposite direction, requiring all employees to be on site.
The pandemic completely changed this story as the vast majority of people who could
work remotely made the transition overnight. Since March 2020, corporate and media
interest in teleworking, remote management and enabling technology has exploded.
Some start-ups abandoned the office altogether, operating virtually from day one,often thanks to collaborative platforms like Slack, WordPress, and GitHub. Thoughwell-publicized, these stories were the exception. Because telecommuting and virtual
workplaces had not gone mainstream prior to the pandemic, few organizations
had mastered the management of remote or distributed workforces. After somany companies went remote, managers had to bootstrap and innovate, and theirexperiences are radically transforming work and workplaces.
6

The Future of Work and the Distributed Organization

Industry 4.0, the Post-Pandemic Myth and Distributed Work
During the pandemic, technologies like streaming, 5G, cloud computing and electronicbanking made a huge difference for social and economic resilience.
COVID-19 struck decades into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a term coined byKlaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum.i Industry 4.0 blurs the lines
between the physical, digital and biological spheres, says Schwab, encompassing
innovations such as artificial intelligence, seamless mobile connectivity, blockchain
and virtually unlimited data storage. “The speed of current breakthroughs has no
historical precedent,” Schwab said in 2016. “When compared with previous industrial
th Industrial
revolutions,
Fourthat an exponential
rather thana linear pace.”8Industrythe
4.0(theis4evolving
Revolution)
Accelerates
Figure 3:

The Key Extremes
Extreme Connectivity

Extreme Automation

Extreme Computing PowerA new extreme emerges due to Covid-19: Massively Distributed Workforces

Industry 4.0 & the Fallacies Impeding the
Future of Work

90% of professional work is happening remotely

Businesses are struggling with the “future of work.” Why?
Fallacy 1

Fallacy 2

Fallacy 3

Fallacy 4

There is a post
pandemicCentralized or
decentralizedorganizations are
the design point

I am more productivein the office

Managers manage
better in person

Even prior to the pandemic, Industry 4.0 yielded extreme connectivity, extreme
automation and extreme computing power. Automation will drive cars, cure cancer,
replace entire labor pools, reduce underwriting risk, fight wars and entertain us.
Ultimately, it could create a new class of sentient beings with artificial consciousness.
This is extreme automation.
The pace of automation has accelerated dramatically. Two million American
manufacturing jobs may be replaced by robots by 2025, according to Time Magazine,
because machines don’t fall ill, need to self-isolate or take time off work.9
The pandemic massively amplified digital and social divides, and the reach of highspeed internet is critical. An estimated 90% of all professional work is taking placeremotely, and many organizations saw dramatic increases in productivity, despite
disruptions. Yet businesses are struggling to figure out the future of work. They were
either highly centralized or substantially decentralized, and don’t understand thebenefits of distributed work.
Organizations shouldn’t be waiting for a `post-pandemic’ period. While COVID-19 mayrecede, modern work will not snap back to pre-pandemic patterns. The technologyfueled advances we’ve seen in human resources, security, business travel andcollaborative virtual teams have become permanent fixtures of work life.

i he first, second and third are: mechanization (18 th and 19 th centuries), electrification (early 20 th),Tand production automation through information technology (latter 20 th).

7

Let’s dispel three fallacies about what’s next. The future of work will not come down
to an either/or choice between centralized or decentralized. The most nimble andeffective team will be neither. The second is that productivity occurs in a specificplace and during scheduled times of day. Appointment work is gone and not coming
back. Finally, the distributed organization will not rely on the physical presence ofmanagers. We know it is possible for managers to oversee teams remotely. We also
know the vast majority of employees are far more capable of self-direction than many
managers assumed. There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that virtual/
hybrid work relationships can be more inclusive, less confrontational, and better suited
to purposeful collaboration.
We face stark choices.

Distributed is Future Forward !
Centralized

Distributed

Office as the default

Home as the default (and as a studio)

Company controlled Time & Space

Empowered Employees

Delegating Tasks

Delegating Authority

A Valued Contributor

Valued Communities

Traditional Competencies

New Literacies: Grit, No Fear,
Embrace the Unknown, Social

The Office: 9 to 5, 5 days a week

The Office: Used for Complex Problem Solving,
Ideation, Key Team Projects

Recruiting: Location-based

Recruiting: Wide Aperture, Coast to Coast, recruitfrom all communities & backgrounds

Digital: Process Advantage

Digital: Information Advantage

In pre-pandemic times, centralized organizations were focused on a strong centre.
Corporate decision-making pooled in a limited number of places, and most people
worked in the office. In the distributed world, the home office, or studio, becomes
the default instead.
In the centralized world, organizations control time and communications networks.
But in the distributed world, individuals demand broader access to data, more input indecision-making, and higher levels of autonomy.
In the centralized world, companies delegate tasks and provide benefits. In the
distributed world, managers delegate authority and provide scope for meaningful
work. However, employees will need to develop new core competencies in order totruly thrive in these dynamic new work cultures.

8

Figure 4:

Centralized vs. Distributed Organizations

The Future of Work and the Distributed Organization

The Future of Work: New Competencies and Dynamic Cultures
Early in the pandemic, the Boston Consulting Group surveyed 12,000 people inseveral countries to see how work had changed.10 The results were surprising. Many
reported increased productivity and said flexibility, in both the time and location ofwork, were important in the future. Collaboration, however, suffered. Both physical andmental health were strongly associated with productivity when working from home.
The survey also offered an important insight about the role of technology in the new
pandemic work arrangements: employees who were satisfied with their tools weretwice as likely to have maintained or improved their productivity on collaborative tasks
as those were not satisfied.
Since then, organizations changed rapidly in response to the crisis, labor force
conditions, supply chain disruptions and other factors. In February 2021, McKinsey
examined 2,000 job tasks in 800 occupations across eight countries.11 Amongthe findings:•

20 to 25% of the workforces in advanced economies could work from homebetween three and five days a week, a significant increase compared to
pre-pandemic rates of remote work, and one that will alter “the geographyof work.”•

30% of executives surveyed (in 2020) expected to reduce the footprint of theirfirms’ offices.

•

About a fifth of business travel will be eliminated permanently.

•

Ecommerce volumes through the pandemic jumped between two and five-fold,depending on locations, with other forms of virtual interactions, such as doctor’svisits, skyrocketing.

•Two-thirds of executive respondents to a global survey expected to somewhat orsignificantly boost investment in automation and AI.

McKinsey indicates that some sectors have seen accelerating workforce transitionas people leave jobs, move away from cities or change careers. Companies andgovernments have been responding with flexibility and innovation, laying the course
for powerful, positive and permanent changes for the future of work.
As the pandemic wanes, organizations will have to embrace the model of distributed
work. They must be highly strategic about what can and cannot be accomplishedvirtually, make tech investments that enable distributed work and leverage its
advantages, and, most crucially, seize the opportunities presented by distributed work
to attract and retain talent.
Recruiting techniques evolved significantly during the pandemic, with more relianceon AI-driven screening, new channels for promoting opportunities, and emerging
techniques for evaluating internal candidates for new positions. Firms specializing in
hybrid HR tasks have seen a surge in interest from corporate customers and investors.
Since February 2021, for example, Oyster—a start-up that manages hiring, onboarding
and a range of HR services—has raised US$70 million in two funding rounds, with theLondon-based firm seeing “exponential” growth.12

9

Distributed firms must also understand how to empower individuals; delegate not justwork but also work culture; and disperse authority instead of merely assigning tasks.
Employeehave also
shifted.
Work-life balance, flex time and increased
Workerexpectations
Expectations
Have
Changedaccess to financial wellness and mental health benefits are more sought-after featuresof modern work.13
Figure 5:
Clear purpose

Corporate
citizenship andcommunity

Control oftime andphysical space

Health andwell-being

Education andadvancement

Going forward, governments must extend the reach of high-speed internet to enable
more wide-spread recruitment of remote workers, says McKinsey. “Policymakers
could support businesses by expanding and enhancing the digital infrastructure. Evenin advanced economies, almost 20% of workers in rural households lack access tothe internet.”14
In “Redesigning Work for a Hybrid Future,”15 Gartner outlines what employers should
be considering as their organizations become more distributed. Among them:more contingent/contract positions, expanded data collection, and HR policies
that encourage employees to develop multiple skills that will be critical to theorganization’s future, as opposed to simply preparing for another role.
But Gartner also stresses the importance of promoting corporate resilience rather
than just efficiency and productivity, and predicts the emergence of new top tierorganizations that have genuinely internalized pandemic lessons, beginning with theneed to communicate constantly, clearly and openly.
But while distributed work focuses on how organizations will change, it’s also about
how managers and employees change the way they work. The competencies for
success are massively different. Team members need to be present even when they
are not physically present. And they must thrive when it comes to virtual teamwork,
which means having the confidence and fearlessness to venture through unfamiliar
doors and into unknown spaces.
People working in distributed organizations must take the initiative to connect withremote peers and transform virtual task-oriented teams into socially cohesive groups.
And they’ll need grit and fortitude to succeed in the highly fluid virtual environmentsthat have replaced the structured and linear world of the office.

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Worker Expectations Have Changed

The Future of Work and the Distributed Organization

Ensuring Talent Thrives at the Edge
The experience of mass remote work presents organizations and executives withdifficult decisions. On one hand, people working remotely are more productive, enjoy
the increased autonomy, and take the opportunity to relocate away from big cities.
On the other hand, some workers experience isolation, burn-out, conflicts between
work and family responsibilities, and lack of adequate home office space.16 People
who started new jobs during the pandemic may never have met their co-workers
or managers. The distance, for some, loosened their feeling of connection to theorganization and contributed to attrition. According to McKinsey, more people now willquit jobs without having a new one lined up.17
In September 2021, Nature published the findings of a large-scale Microsoft study on
remote work, which analyzed millions of emails, instant messages, video conferencelogs and digital calendar entries for 61,000 Microsoft employees before and after
March 2020.
Microsoft found that remote work decreased the size of workers’ collaboration
networks, leading to more organizational siloes. It also decreased synchronous
communication, while increasing text/SMS contact. The company indicated thatthese effects of remote work may make it harder for employees to receive and share
information across the organization.18
On its blog, Microsoft said the shift to remote work had also led to fewer longvirtual meetings, and more shorter ones.19 These shorter meetings helped replace
serendipitous, in-person encounters in the office.
Microsoft’s research concluded that productivity and innovation could be jeopardizedin the long-term, which is worrisome for a technology giant. “Hybrid and mixed-mode
work arrangements may not work as firms expect.”
To be successful, distributed work must be about transforming the entire organization,
not just adapting to the moment. It must be undertaken with care, foresight andflexibility, to ensure that innovation thrives and employees have a clear sense ofconnection and purpose.
This approach will also drive retention. As McKinsey stresses, leaders must
understand the risk of brain drain. The first step is for senior managers to take stock
before making far-reaching organizational changes or ordering employees back to theoffice. They urge executives to listen closely to their employees, and also ask seven
key questions:•

Do we shelter toxic leaders?

•

Do we have the right people in the right places (especially managers)?

•

How strong was our culture before the pandemic?

•

Is our work environment transactional?

•

Are our benefits aligned with employee priorities?

•

Employees want career paths and development opportunities. Can we provide it?

•And, how are we building a sense of community?
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A great place to work
The basics are still true:

Figure 6:
Having a
great boss

Being valued

Doing workthat ismeaningful

Transparency
about thefutureBeing paid
equitably

While organizations are asking themselves when and if employees are coming back to
the office, the truth is that the best ones don’t have to. To keep their employees, leadersneed to act with empathy and flexibility, and listen to what their workforce actually wants.
According to McKinsey, if you can understand why employees are leaving and what
they need to help them stay, “you may just be able to turn the Great Attrition into theGreat Attraction.”

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Building a Great Place to Work: The Basics

The Future of Work and the Distributed Organization

Office Design for the Distributed Organization
Distributed work is changing workspaces. Any decisions about how organizational
life evolves must include choices about how offices are designed and what they’reused for.
Workplace design has evolved in lockstep with broader trends in organizational
structure, corporate mission, technology, architecture and accessibility. Cubicles
and corner offices gave way to hot desks, bookable meeting rooms, co-working
spaces and flex-work arrangements that included home office use. Large tech firms
built highly integrated campus-style office complexes—e.g., Apple Park20—that
include amenities like food courts, recreational zones, on-site childcare and cuttingedge architecture.
As many organizations look to downsize their physical footprints and employees opt
for permanent work-from-home arrangements, both office and home office design
must adapt.
The transition to the slimmed down post-pandemic office is a work-in-progress.
But form follows function. The question is, what functions are most critical for inperson space?
For example, HubbleHQ, a U.K.-based real estate firm that specializes in finding
workspaces for hybrid organizations, expects the office of 2030 to be a tech-oriented“wellness-centred” environment with sustainable design. Such spaces will serve flatter,
decentralized organizations designed to accommodate the needs of teams focusedon specific projects.21
Downsized workspaces must also accommodate the need for impromptu social
interactions. Scholars from NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering22 and IMD23 argue
that the social functions of offices will continue to be important for organizational wellbeing and creative work. “It’s where people build trust through personal interaction,
learn the nuances of their job, and build and maintain organizational culture.”24
Collaboration hubs will play a central role. These spaces should be designed toenable high-impact encounters. They’ll feature generous open spaces equippedwith common tables, screens, electronic white boards and other technologies thatspark problem solving and discussions about mission-critical corporate challenges
or projects.
Home offices should evolve into studios—permanent and individualized spaces thatencourage focused work and are fitted out with the technology and security required
for seamless digital connectivity.

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New Tech for a Distributed World
Yesterday’s solutions will not solve today’s problems. Traditionally, centralizedcompanies invested in software to help them gain a process advantage. Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) was king. But then companies began investing in cloud,automation and analytics. Emerging economies started improving their connectivity.
Today’s world is an age of extremes. Extreme connectivity. Extreme volumes of data
generated and transmitted in real time. Planetary scale. Businesses are facing strong
headwinds—new workforce models and worker expectations, information overload,
multiplying cybersecurity threats, changing customer demands, supply chain
disruptions and global regulatory shifts. Process advantage is not enough.
In a distributed world, you need to invest in platforms to secure theInformation Advantage.
The Information Advantage requires transforming the way an organization manages
information. It means leveraging digital technologies to use information to its fullpotential. To generate insights. To create new offerings and business models. To drive
predictive analysis, so businesses can prepare for and respond to disruption.
The global pandemic has spurred many businesses to begin this journey. Digitaltransformation is no longer a stretch goal. In fact, the battle cry of today’sorganizations is ‘Be Digital’.
OpenText Cloud Editions
In a distributed world, the destination for innovation is the cloud. It is the platform
for new technologies and disruptions, and delivers unparalleled, secure access to
information for remote workers. This is why 90% of companies are already using someform of cloud, whether public, private, hybrid, managed services or Software-as-aService (SaaS).25 Whatever the size of the business, what remains constant is theimperative to modernize technology infrastructure and leverage existing investments.
The cloud opens the door to growth and potential.
OpenText is helping digital businesses of all sizes to reach this potential and adapt to
distributed work by delivering Information Management in the cloud at scale. OpenText
Cloud Editions includes five specialized clouds, each focused on addressing a key
business need: Content Cloud helps companies master modern work, BusinessNetwork Cloud enables digital supply chains, Experience Cloud powers modern
customer experiences, Security & Protection Cloud helps build cyber resilience andDeveloper Cloud drives the API economy.

14

The Future of Work and the Distributed Organization

Figure 7:
OpenText Cloud Editions:Five Unique Clouds

OpenText
Cloud Editions
Run Anywhere | APIs | Managed Services

With innovations every 90 days, Cloud Editions makes it easy to attain new capabilities.
And it is optimized to run anywhere, so every business can secure all the benefits ofthe cloud, regardless of where it deploys software. Organizations are pursuing digitaltransformation at an astounding pace, and securing the Information Advantage to drive
phenomenal growth. Advanced technologies in the cloud are helping them reach theirgoals and get ready for the future of business.
Master Modern Work
Employees’ expectations have dramatically changed. Workers want more control
over their time and space, more autonomy and greater capacity to make decisions.
While in a centralized world you might delegate tasks, in a distributed world you mustdelegate authority.
For employees to be truly empowered, though, they must have simple access toaccurate, timely information… wherever they are, whenever they want it, from whateverdevice they are using.
OpenText Content Cloud powers modern work and enables distributed workforces
with the information that employees need. It improves collaboration and decisionmaking, while reducing risk, by enriching business processes with content, insights andautomation. Content Cloud delivers end-to-end content management—from capture
to full lifecycle management to archiving. It seamlessly integrates content into criticalbusiness applications and automates complex tasks to allow users to work fasterand smarter.
Using digital tools for content management, businesses can grow and thrive, and truly
own their digital capabilities. Instead of merely adapting, they can lead the new mindset
of distributed work.
Digitize Supply Chains
The issues threatening supply chains have never been more complex. Ransomware
attacks. The Suez Canal blockage. Natural disasters. And of course, COVID-19. They
have all had a profound impact on supply chain operations.

15

At the same time, well-run supply chains are positioning companies for success.
In fact, it is not about supply chains at all, but supply networks. The new businessecosystems are built on a digital-first model, with end-to-end visibility, collaboration
and responsiveness across all partners. They enable digital capabilities that allow for
extreme agility when disruption happens, and even allow organizations to see disruption
before it strikes.
OpenText Business Network Cloud enables digitized supply ecosystems, bringing
together experts, proven processes and advanced technologies with streamlined
connectivity, secure collaboration and real-time business intelligence. Organizations
can build global and sustainable supply networks, rapidly onboard new trading partners,
comply with regional mandates, provide electronic invoicing and eradicate information
silos. And industrial IoT and advanced data reporting provide end-to-end visibility.
With a trusted and secure digital ecosystem, businesses can adapt—at lightning
speed—to unthinkable change, while creating a foundation for lasting growth.
Power Modern Customer Experiences
Customer expectations are radically different than they were two years ago. Today, it’s
about me, and it’s about now. Customers are demanding a more personalized, tailoredexperience. You should know what they want—before they even ask for it! Consumers
are also “now-ists.” Those companies who can deliver in a timely way today will be
rewarded with customer loyalty tomorrow.
OpenText Experience Cloud unites digital capabilities under one platform to helporganizations create customer experiences that deliver the unexpected wow. Withan unmatched breadth of capabilities for servicing the entire customer journey,organizations can build memorable, unique experiences. They can put superior
customer insights to work at scale with AI-powered analytics and assisted authoring.
Protect customer data and privacy with intelligent, automated governance. And adapt tocustomer expectations as they change with new ways to sell, engage and assist.
The next phase of digital experience is not about what technologies can do for yourbusiness, but what they can do for your customers. It is time to discover and reimagine
the digital universe for each of them.
Become Cyber Resilient
We are living in a machine versus machine world. It is beyond human capacity to control,
predict and respond to every single cybersecurity threat. Organizations require security
and investigative solutions that will amplify the impact of their human experts. As
workforces become distributed, this is more important than it has ever been. We mustensure that our customers’ and our employees’ data is the most secured, the mostprotected it can possibly be, even in a remote environment.
OpenText Security & Protection Cloud provides best-in-class cybersecurity, dataprotection, digital forensic and endpoint security solutions for businesses of all
sizes. It enables organizations to find and collect complex evidence faster, reducerisk, and detect and respond to cyberthreats remotely. It provides remote collectionof data and the ability to identify sensitive data. And it delivers actionable, superior
threat intelligence.

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The Future of Work and the Distributed Organization

Multilayered security solutions from a trusted partner ensures that data, users, devices
and networks are protected. Today’s workforce relies on cloud plus edge—and all of it
must be secure.
Build the API Economy
Development teams everywhere are struggling to support new use-cases with fewer
resources. Too much of their time is eaten up working on legacy code, retrofitting
languages and dealing with technical debt. Empowering developers with the tools theyneed to build, extend and customize Information Management applications is a central
capability that drives business transformation.
OpenText Developer Cloud provides Information Management-as-a-Service (IMaaS),
making it faster and easier to build, extend and customize applications. Built on APIs in
the cloud, it minimizes the time and effort of adding new capabilities to any solution, so
developers can focus resources on other priorities, like improving product differentiationor accelerating business transformation.
Information Management services allow organizations to unleash the power andcreativity of their developer teams, so that developers have more time to create thesoftware that powers the world.
Be Digital
Today, the best run organizations are defined by their ability to drive technology-led
transformations. Businesses that have truly embraced digital are not only mastering
distributed work, but powering modern customer experiences, digitizing their supply
chains, protecting themselves from cybersecurity threats and building the API economy.
These organizations are able to grow faster, be more efficient, embrace creativity—andthrive in a world of accelerating change.

17Conclusion
The shift to hybrid work arrangements has become the new normal.
It will outlast the pandemic.
But to ensure that companies can continue to hire and retain talent, provide
meaningful work experiences, and encourage innovation, managers must foster agenuinely distributed culture. They have to separate tasks that can be done remotelyfrom those that require in-person interaction, such as onboarding, high-level planning,
key team projects and other moments that matter. This change will also requireorganizations to push responsibility right out to the edges.
Distributed work isn’t going to work for every company. Industrial operations,manufacturing, warehousing/distribution—these operations will still need to take placein buildings. But for divisions that rely on digital communications or knowledge work,
distributed could be more cost efficient and open up new channels for collaboration,
recruitment and innovation. Yesterday’s centralized organizations are like whales,
whereas tomorrow’s distributed organizations are dolphins—swift, agile, unleashed.
In fact, the old organizational models—centralized or decentralized—are dead. The
emerging distributed organization empowers workers, delegating not just tasks but
authority, and allows its people to find greater control, balance and engagement.
With distributed work cultures, firms can dramatically widen their talent searches, andbuild in diversity and inclusion. But they’ll have to invest the time and effort to build
new competencies that are aligned to distributed work. Their employees will have toshow they can run into the unknown, live on the edge and embrace purpose.
Grit. Empathy. Engagement. Communities of interest.
Sir Winston Churchill made a famous observation about the British House of Commonsin 1943. He said, “We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.”26
In this post-pandemic age, we will no longer be shaped only by our buildings. Rather,
it will be the edges of our organizations that will shape the distributed companies ofthe future.

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The Future of Work and the Distributed Organization

Endnotes“ ’Great Attrition’ or ‘Great Attraction’? The choice is yours,” McKinsey
Quarterly, September 8, 2021, https://www.mckinsey.com/businessfunctions/organization/our-insights/great-attrition-or-greatattraction-the-choice-is-yours (accessed October 2021).

1

2

3

4

5

 mily Courtney, “30 Companies Switching to Long-Term Remote
E
Work,” FlexJobs, https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/companiesswitching-remote-work-long-term/ (accessed October 2021).

13

 arryl Wright, “Leveraging a distributed workforce model toDaccelerate your business transformation,” EY Canada, July 27, 2020,
https://www.ey.com/en_ca/workforce/leveraging-a-distributedworkforce-model-to-accelerate-your-busi#distributed-work(accessed October 2021).

14

 aul Baran, “On Distributed Communications: Introduction toP
Distributed Communications Networks,” Rand Corporation, August
1964, https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_memoranda/2006/RM3420.pdf (accessed October 2021).
 atariina Kemppainen, “Trends in industrial supply chains andK
networks,” International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics
Management, October 2003, https://www.researchgate.net/
publication/242350255_Trends_in_industrial_supply_chains_and_networks (accessed October 2021).

“ A Growing Number of Workers ‘Telecommute’ To Their Jobs,”
American Banker, December 18, 1985.

6

 effrey M. Jones, “In US, Telecommuting for Work Climbs to 37%,”J
Gallup, August 19, 2015, https://news.gallup.com/poll/184649/
telecommuting-work-climbs.aspx (accessed October 2021).

7

8

9

I ngrid Lunden, “Oyster, an HR platform for distributed workforces,
snaps up $50M on a $475M valuation,” TechCrunch, June 22, 2021,
https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/22/oyster-an-hr-platform-fordistributed-workforces-snaps-up-50m-on-a-475m-valuation/(accessed October 2021).

12

 laus Schwab, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means, howKto respond,” World Economic Forum, January 14, 2016, https://www.
weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-whatit-means-and-how-to-respond/ (accessed October 2021).
 lana Semuels, “Millions of Americans Have Lost Jobs in theA
Pandemic—And Robots and AI Are Replacing Them Faster Than Ever,”
TIME, August 6, 2020, https://time.com/5876604/machines-jobscoronavirus/ (accessed October 2021).

10

 driana Dahik et al., “What 12,000 Employees Have to Say About theA
Future of Remote Work,” BCG, August 11, 2020, https://www.bcg.com/
publications/2020/valuable-productivity-gains-covid-19 (accessed
October 2021).

“ The future of work after COVID-19,” McKinsey Global Institute,
February 18, 2021, https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/
future-of-work/the-future-of-work-after-covid-19 (accessed
October 2021).

11

 tephanie Vozza, “These are the skills you need to be successful in aS
hybrid environment,” Fast Company, February 12, 2021, https://www.
fastcompany.com/90603031/these-are-the-skills-you-need-to-besuccessful-in-a-hybrid-environment (accessed October 2021).

“ The future of work after COVID-19,” McKinsey Global Institute,
February 18, 2021, https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/
future-of-work/the-future-of-work-after-covid-19 (accessed
October 2021).

15

 ary Baker, “9 Future of Work Trends Post-COVID-10,” Gartner, April
M29, 2021, https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/9-future-ofwork-trends-post-covid-19 (accessed October 21).

“ ’Burnout’ Crisis at Work Threatens Post-Pandemic Workplaces,”
Catalyst, May 26, 2021, https://www.catalyst.org/media-release/burnout-remote-work/ (accessed October 2021)

16“ ’Great Attrition’ or ‘Great Attraction’? The choice is yours,” McKinsey
Quarterly, September 8, 2021, https://www.mckinsey.com/businessfunctions/organization/our-insights/great-attrition-or-greatattraction-the-choice-is-yours (accessed October 2021).

17

18

 ongqi Yang et al., “The effects of remote work on collaboration
Lamong information workers,” Nature Human Behaviour, September
9, 2021, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01196-4(accessed October 2021).

19

 ared Spataro, “How remote work impacts collaboration: findingsJfrom our team,” Microsoft, April 22, 2020, https://www.microsoft.com/
en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/04/22/how-remote-work-impactscollaboration-findings-team/ (accessed October 2021).
“ Apple Park,” Foster and Partners, 2018, https://www.
fosterandpartners.com/projects/apple-park/ (accessed
October 2021).

20

 race Chen, “Office Space Timeline: Past, Present, and Future,”G
Hubble, July 22, 2021, https://hubblehq.com/blog/office-spacetimeline-past-present-future-infographic (accessed October 2021).

21

22

 nne-Laure Fayard et al., “Designing the Hybrid Office,” Harvard
A
Business Review, March-April 2021, https://hbr.org/2021/03/
designing-the-hybrid-office?registration=success (accessed
October 2021).

19

23

24

 ohn R. Weeks and Mahwesh Khan, “Dynamically designed aroundJhuman connection, the hybrid office is the workplace your teamneeds,” IMD, February 2021, https://www.imd.org/researchknowledge/articles/dynamically-designed-around-humanconnection-the-hybrid-office-is-the-workplace-your-team-needs/(accessed October 2021).

 nne-Laure Fayard et al., “Designing the Hybrid Office,” Harvard
A
Business Review, March-April 2021, https://hbr.org/2021/03/
designing-the-hybrid-office?registration=success (accessed
October 2021).

25

 ick Galov, “25 Must-Know Cloud Computing Statistics in 2020,”
N
Hosting Tribunal, December 4, 2020, https://hostingtribunal.com/
blog/cloud-computing-statistics/ (accessed October 2021).

“ Churchill and the Commons Chamber,” UK Parliament, https://www.
parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/architecture/palacestructure/churchill/ (accessed October 2021).

26

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The Future of Work and the Distributed Organization

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this presentation, including statements about the focus of Open Text Corporation (“OpenText” or “the Company”)
on growth, initiatives, the impact of COVID-19, anticipated benefits of our partnerships and next generation product lines, thestrength of our operating framework and balance sheet flexibility, continued investments in innovation, go-to-market and strategicacquisitions, our capital allocation strategy, creating value through investments in broader Information Management (IM) capabilities,
the Company’s presence in the cloud and in growth markets, expected growth in our revenue lines, total growth from acquisitions,innovation and organic initiatives, improving operational efficiency, its financial condition, scaling OpenText to new levels, and othermatters, may contain words such as “anticipates”, “expects”, “intends”, “plans”, “believes”, “seeks”, “estimates”, “may”, “could”, “would”,“might”, “will” and variations of these words or similar expressions are considered forward-looking statements or information underapplicable securities laws. In addition, any information or statements that refer to expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives,
performance or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking,and based on our current expectations, forecasts and projections about the operating environment, economies and markets in which
we operate. Forward-looking statements reflect our current estimates, beliefs and assumptions, which are based on management’s
perception of historic trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors it believes are appropriate
in the circumstances, such as certain assumptions about the economy, as well as market, financial and operational assumptions.
Management’s estimates, beliefs and assumptions are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and otheruncertainties and contingencies regarding future events and, as such, are subject to change. We can give no assurance that such
estimates, beliefs and assumptions will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors and assumptions that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially.
For additional information with respect to risks and other factors which could occur, see the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K,
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other securities filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other securities
regulators. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of thedate made. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update orrevise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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About OpenText
OpenText, The Information Company, enables organizations to gain insight through market leading information management
solutions, on-premises or in the cloud. For more information about OpenText (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTEX) visit www.opentext.com.

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Email: sales@opentext.com
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