Ready for anything:what it means to bea modern business
Cognizant commissioned Economist Impact to define what
it takes to be future-ready—and how close businesses
are to getting there. Our analysis reveals the foundational
elements of a modern business that’s prepared for whatever
happens next.

Table of contents
Executive overview: Ready for anything

3

Insight 1: Strategic clarity is muddled as priorities proliferate

5

Insight 2: Technology foundations are rising to a new level

8

Insight 3: Businesses need to persevere to fully realize tech value

11

Insight 4: Workforce strategies need a major overhaul

13

Insight 5: Resilience demands putting ESG strategy into action

17

Recommendations: Five ways to engineer a modern business that’s ready for anything

20

Methodology

22

Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business

2

Executive overview

Executive overview
Ready for anything
How future-ready is your business? After 10 years ofrelentless digital transformation, wrenching industry
change and, more recently, an onslaught of external
shocks, it’s difficult to envision what “future-ready”
even means. How can one be ready for a future that’s
increasingly difficult to perceive, not to mention apt tochange without notice?
But the very existence of unpredictable and even
unfathomable change makes it all the more importantfor senior executives in any business or industry todefine—and become—future-ready. Here’s the catch:
It’s no longer just about structured planning. To prepare
for what could happen next, businesses need a way tooperate as if everything is (and will continue to be) in an
infinite state of flux.
In other words, the call-to-action isn’t to prepare for a
specific scenario with a Plan A, B or Z but to be ready

Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern businessfor any shift, change or shock, at any time. That means
being able to read the early warning signs, predict
what’s ahead and act in time to emerge with relevancy.
So how to do that? In our work to define what it
takes to be future-ready—and how close businesses
are to reaching a future-ready state—Cognizant
commissioned Economist Impact to conduct a surveyof 2,000 senior executives from across industries
and geographies, as well as create a future-readybenchmarking tool (see methodology, page 22).
Our own analysis of this data underscores what
executives need to do now to prepare.
To reiterate, the views and opinions expressed in thisreport are those of Cognizant and do not necessarilyreflect the view and policies of Economist Impact. Data
presented is from an Economist Impact executive survey,
commissioned by Cognizant, conducted in early 2022.

From the research, we’ve identified three critical andinterrelated areas that are essential for any businessto feel confident about being prepared for the future:

the full value from rapid technology
1 Get
acceleration and data-intensive ways
of working

the workforce for the new types
2 Prepareof work brought on by a digital mindset
real, sustained action to become
3 Takeresilient in the face of the urgent
environmental, social and governance(ESG) challenges ahead

But our analysis also reveals that few
businesses have put all these pieces in place.

Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business

3

Executive overview

The following key insights from Cognizant’s analysis of the
Economist Impact research will support businesses on theirjourney to being ready for whatever the future may bring:

Strategic clarity is muddled aspriorities proliferate.

Technology foundations arerising to a new level.

Businesses need to persevere
to fully realize tech value.

Workforce strategies needa major overhaul.

Resilience demands putting
ESG strategy into action

Over 90% of business leaders
say it’s a strategic priority toadopt a data-driven approachand create a digital-firstbusiness model. For over onethird of that group, both ofthese imperatives are businesscritical. The trouble is, thesepriorities are accompanied
by a host of other strategic
objectives that encompass
the entirety of the businesstrinity: process, people andtechnology. The risk, of course,is that competing priorities willparalyze any of these initiatives
from moving forward.

The move to digital isaccelerating beyond the now
standard shopping list of
cloud, Internet of Things (IoT)
and advanced analytics. In
addition to these foundationalbuilding blocks, respondents
reveal a growing appetite foradvanced capabilities, such as
artificial intelligence/machinelearning (AI/ML) and 5G, andeven emerging technologies,
with over 50% of respondents
planning or already adopting
blockchain, virtual/augmented
reality and others.

A value challenge looms,
however, with almost half of
respondents still not achieving
significant value from theirtechnology investments.
Especially when it comes tocomplex initiatives involving
emerging technologies, more
understanding and practicewill be needed before fullvalue is attained.

The appetite for new technology
also belies a longstanding
issue that can no longer gounaddressed: the lack of focus
on talent management. Even
with respondents naming a lackof knowledgeable staff as a
top hurdle to meeting businessgoals, our analysis of the data
uncovers a chronic lack of focus
on preparing workers for the
new ways of work. For example,
just one-third of respondents
are using data to understandemployee satisfaction or
performance. Companies thatover-index on technology withlittle focus on people will notachieve the full value of theirtech investment.

Nine in 10 decision-makers
recognize that attending toenvironmental, social andgovernance (ESG) issues isa critical aspect of being amodern business. However,there’s a massive disconnect
between recognition andaction, as few organizations
report having dedicatedstaff and resources devoted
to environmental or social
sustainability. This gap needs
to close as customers,
employees, investors andregulators increasingly
scrutinize ESG credentials, andthe lack of action could thwart
future resiliency.

Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business

4Strategic clarity
is muddled aspriorities proliferate

5Strategic clarity

Strategic clarity is muddled
as priorities proliferate
When it comes to ascertaining businesses’ appetite for futurepreparedness, it’s revealing to look at their strategic priorities. But
when Economist Impact asked respondents about which activities
and goals were most critical to pursue, we were taken aback by the
results. Rather than one or two choices in the study rising to the top,
respondents’ priorities crossed every vector, with no fewer than 90%
of respondents naming each option as either business-critical or
medium/high-priority (see Figure 1A).
In truth, we anticipated the strong emphasis on data-driven ways ofworking and digital-first business models, as well as the attendantneed to align operations with these new modes of work. For eachof these imperatives, 37% of respondents named them as businesscritical, and an additional 57%, 56% and 58% of respondents,
respectively, named each as medium or high priority.
We didn’t, however, expect the lack of distinction among each ofthese strategic areas, not to mention the emphasis on a successionof additional goals. The long list of strategic priorities threatens
to compete for executive mindshare—and muddle the pressing
realities of building a foundation for the future.

FIGURE 1A: Tackling an array of strategic priorities
To what extent does your company’s corporate strategy prioritize the following?

Medium/high priority
Operational alignment between
business lines and functions

37%

Strategic alignment
across the organization

35%

Effective feedback
and improvement loops

Business-critical priority

58%
59%
61%

29%

Well-defined performance
and/or results metrics

61%

31%

Automated and effective
end-to-end business processes

33%

Digital-first business model

37%

Data-driven operations
and mindset

37%
0

20

40

57%
56%
57%

60

80

100

% of respondents

Response base: 2,000 senior executives
Source: Economist Impact Survey 2022

Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business

6Strategic clarity

FIGURE 1B: Taking the long viewTo what extent does your company’s corporate strategy prioritize the following?

One explanation is that as the old-guard ways of
doing business lose relevance in the face of emerging
and digital-first ways of working, a great reshuffling isoccurring across business functions and processes. As
a result, a raft of corporate issues has ensued—fromorganizational conflicts and generational divides,
to disagreements over which practices to retain andevolve. As a result, everything seems to be a priority
until the path forward becomes clear.

100

Business-critical priority

90

Medium/high priority

80% of respondents

70

50

59%

55%

60

41%

40

36%

30
20
10
0

Response base: 2,000 senior executives
Source: Economist Impact Survey 2022

Long-term future planning(10+ years) that incorporates
scenario planning, expected
impact, and likelihood

Short-to-medium-term futureplanning (2-5 years) thatemphasizes processes
for re-evaluation

While many of the strategic objectives noted byrespondents are, indeed, interrelated, it’s incumbent
on leaders to disentangle which initiatives (or pieces
of initiatives) will be most successful in gaining groundtoward their goals. These gains could, then, smooth
the way forward for further wins. By starting withthe operational alignment of business functions, forinstance, they could ensure that cross-company datadriven approaches are embedded into every decision,interaction and process, elevating the performance ofthe company in multiple ways.
The fact that a higher percentage of respondents findit more business-critical to plan for the long term vs. theshort to medium term (41% vs. 37%) deepens the context(see Figure 1B). The preference for longer term planning
could reflect the uncertainties of the next business cycle
bearing down, with recessionary pressure, inflation,
regulation and energy shocks all part of the mix. Now, it
seems, is not the time to overly focus on quick wins but onbuilding the foundation that can help them anticipate andmake the necessary shifts to be ready for what’s to come.
Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business7

Technology
foundations are rising
to a new level

8Technology foundations

Technology foundations
are rising to a new level
Leaders are enthusiastically embracing
technology adoption, and the processof technology enablement continues
to accelerate. Every single technology
system or tool listed in our study has
been adopted—or is in the planningstages—by more than 50% of
respondents (see Figure 2). And it’s not
slowing down, looking at the emerging
technologies now clearly in sight.
The truth is, digital technologies andplatforms, which in their infancy wereseen as supporting existing businessnorms, have supplanted legacy ways of
doing things and are de facto ways ofbuilding and running a modern business.
Consider car dealerships that went
virtual during the pandemic, completely
reimagining and reengineering thebuyer/driver experience. Consumers
could also take advantage of the newsites and apps that helped them explore
and arrange related services, such as

financing and insurance, remotelyand virtually, as part of the car-buying
process. Now, both online and offline
experiences co-exist, complementing(and even competing with) one another.
At the other end of the automotive
value chain, manufacturingcomponents such as semiconductor
chips are now routinely tracked acrossa global supply chain, accelerating
trends in transparency and material
provenance, with the potential
to identify shortages before they
become an existential problem. Suchtransparency will increasingly beneeded, given the many supply chain
disruptions continuing post-pandemic.
These changes at the customer
interface and throughout the value
chain are happening in every single
industry included in our commissioned
study (and will be explored in our followup industry studies).

FIGURE 2: Tech adoption shows no sign of slowing down
Which of the following technologies has your business adopted,
or is planning to adopt?

89%

Cloud computing

83%

Internet of things (IoT)

80%

Big data analytics
Robotic process automation(software robotics)
Advanced cloud computing(e.g. hybrid, containers, serverless)69%

Crowdsourcing

68%

AI/Machine learning

68%

5G

68%

Integrated workspace technologies(e.g. to enable hybrid or remote working)66%

Robotics

64%

Low-code/No-code applications
or development platforms

62%

74%

58%

Quantum computing
Blockchain

53%

Virtual/Augmented reality

53%0

Response base: 2,000 senior executives

20

40

53%

60

80

100

% of respondents

Source: Economist Impact Survey 2022

Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business9Technology foundations

Going beyond the building blocks
of cloud, AI and IoT
Our analysis of the data shows that technology
investment is accelerating beyond what has become
the standard shopping list of cloud, advanced analytics
and IoT, all of which the vast majority (80% or more) said
they’ve adopted or planned to adopt. Over 60% named
advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), robotics, 5G and others, as
technologies they’d adopted or planned to adopt. In
addition, we also found an appetite for an emerging setof technologies, with over half of respondents naming
blockchain (a current or planned adoption rate of 53%)
and quantum computing (surprisingly high at 58%,
but perhaps a reflection of a broader willingness toinvestigate and experiment).
Alone and in combination, innovations in AI/ML,
blockchain, quantum computing, natural language
processing and 5G are set to usher in decades of change.
5G and IoT will trigger more data-oriented technology
investments as intelligent sensors generate growing
amounts of data and are used to reconfigure, control andde-risk a variety of physical systems and products.
For example, Cognizant is working with Aston
Martin’s F1 team to evolve its production facilities
into smart factories that leverage 5G and IoT to drive
critical decision-making. Planned projects include

Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern businessbuilding a digital twin of the F1 car, leveraging AI andmachine learning to run simulations against future F1
requirements, and using real-time analysis of data fromon-track and off-track sources so the team can intuit inrace predictions and fine-tune adjustments instantly. 1
Moreover, IoT-driven initiatives will increasingly
safeguard against future risks as the cloud service
providers (AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, etc.)
get even better at connecting disparate hardware
and software solutions, with better interoperability,
forecasting capabilities and operational resilience. For
some industries, the combination of these technologies
will fuel significant disruption; for instance, telecom
companies are now leveraging connectivity, speed,
data-gathering, edge processing and advanced
analytics capabilities to deliver healthcare to theircustomers: Australia’s largest e-health company is now
Telstra Health, with a common platform, ecosystemframework and, through a string of acquisitions,specialized healthcare capabilities. The company’s
digital health initiatives power capacity on its networks
and are shaping the future of connected healthcare
services to a broad range of private and publichealthcare providers in the country. 2

1 Webpage on Cognizant and Aston Martin partnership:https://www.cognizant.com/us/en/aston-martin-cognizant-formula-one.
2 “How Telecoms Can Stay Relevant with 5G Innovation,” Digitally Cognizant,Nov. 8, 2020, https://digitally.cognizant.com/how-telecoms-can-stay-relevantbeyond-5g-codex6264.

10

Businesses need topersevere to fully
realize tech value

11Technology value

Businesses will need to persevere
to fully realize tech value
Despite the fervor in technology adoption, ouranalysis on respondents’ reported return on valueof these initiatives reveals there is still work to
do. Of those respondents that had implemented
each of the technologies in the study, almost
half say they are not achieving significant value
from their technology investments (see Figure 3).
Moving from mediocre value attainment toward
game-changing impact is still a work in progressfor many companies.
In the study, advanced and emerging
technologies such as blockchain, AI/ML andvirtual reality were less apt to be perceived asdelivering significant value than more maturetechnology categories such as analytics
and cloud. As respondents move further into
their implementations of new and emerging
technologies, they appear to be signaling thatnone are “silver bullets” that can be easily
deployed and produce magical results. Rather,
they are sophisticated, complex tools thatneed detailed understanding, practice andperfecting—just as sophisticated, complex tools
always have.

Developing this more mature appreciation forwhat technology can do is an important stepof the journey from inflated expectations toreal productivity.
This value gap could also be manifesting
through what looks like an emerging
disconnect between executives and the
managers who report to them when it comesto tech adoption priorities. Take low-/no-code
technologies, which enable business users
with little to no coding experience to create
their own apps using a visual development
environment. While one third (33%) of C-suite
executives plan to invest in this type of tool,a higher percent of respondents at the
management level (40%) have it on theiragenda—a 7-point gap. This disconnect
could threaten full value attainment ifleft unchecked, as it could lead to rogue
procurement and haphazard governance.
As we will establish in the next section of thisreport, workforce talent could be the missing
puzzle piece when it comes to realizing the full
return on value from technology. And with mostenterprises acknowledging that they lack thetalent to get the most value from new technology
investments, the pain is starting to show.

FIGURE 3: Businesses struggle to unlock the full potential of their tech
To what extent are the technologies/methodologies already adopted byyour business department delivering strategic value to your operations?
Tech is perceived to add significant value
Tech is not perceived to add significant value
Blockchain

38%

62%

AI/Machine learning

39%

61%

Robotic process automation(software robotics)

42%

58%

Virtual/Augmented reality

43%

57%

Quantum computing

44%

56%

44%

56%

45%

55%

Crowdsourcing

46%

54%

5G

47%

53%

Advanced cloud computing(e.g. hybrid, containers, serverless)

49%

51%

Internet of things (IoT)

50%

50%

Robotics

52%

48%

Low-code/No-code applications
or development platforms
Integrated workspace technologies(e.g. to enable hybrid or remote working)

Cloud computing

56%

44%

Big data analytics

56%

44%

0
Response base: 2,000 senior executives
Source: Economist Impact Survey 2022

20

40

60

80

100

% of respondents

Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business

12

Workforce
strategies needa major overhaul

13

Talent

Workforce strategies
need a major overhaul
It seems a foregone conclusion that workforce talent
will play a critical role in constructing a future-readyenterprise. But these skills aren’t easy to acquire.
Businesses are either left to pay exorbitant amounts tohire highly skilled candidates from a scarce talent pool,or invest in developing the required skills in-house.
However, our analysis of the data underlines a huge
gap between technology and the people who use it.
Nearly half of respondents (46%) recognize they lackthe talent necessary to implement and utilize advanced
technologies. Moreover, when asked about the biggest
hurdles to implementing new processes, products,
services and technologies over the last 12 months,
the two most significant challenges that respondents
named were workforce-related: a lack of humanresources and knowledgeable staff.
Unfortunately, boosting talent retention and upskilling
existing staff do not seem high on the agenda,
according to our analysis of the data. Only half of the
respondents polled in the survey rank skills readiness(51%) and employee engagement (50%) as very
important to their success.

These findings demonstrate a significant gap in
understanding the value of employees when it comesto building a modern business—particularly whencompared with respondents’ bullish investment
practices tied to technology. One way businesses canclose this gap would be to anticipate and act throughstronger data insights into their current workforce needs,
including measuring employee satisfaction and aligningskill development and training with corporate needs—
something that, currently, just one-third of respondents do.
Microsoft, for example, has used human resources
analytics to build statistical profiles of people most
likely to quit. The company uses different interventions
for retention, including assigning mentors and opening
conversations about opportunities for professional
growth and earning potential. The result: almost ahalving of the attrition rate.3
Businesses have a wide array of workforce bestpractices to choose from; however, the average firm
is implementing between three and four out of the
10 talent management best practices identified in the
study (see Figure 4). These findings reflect a chroniclack of focus—but also a vast opportunity—
for preparing workers for the new ways of work thatbusinesses, themselves, know they need to put in place.

3 How Five Successful Companies Are Using HR Analytics,” ICS Learn, June 17, 2020,
Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business

https://www.icslearn.co.uk/blog/posts/2020/june/how-5-successful-companies-are-using-hr-analytics/.

14

Talent

FIGURE 4: Ten best practices for talent management
Which of the following has your company implemented to support talent cultivation?

Economist Impact
identified 10 bestpractices for cultivating
talent, and only about
two-fifths of companies
report using any of them.

1 Actively tracking employee skills/gaps
ntegrating training into employee
2 Ischedules/workflow

incorporation of company core values
6 Explicit
into goal-setting and performance evaluation

7 Using acquisitions to obtain hard-to-find talentnclusion of training/learning requirements
3 Iinto
employee evaluations

data to align skill development/
8 Leveraging
training with organisational needs

4 Shifting top talent to high-value roles or initiatives

9 Coaching, mentorship or shadowing programs

assessment of collaborative ability
5 Explicit
in performance evaluation

pathways based on
1 0 Advancement
measurable key performance indicators

Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business

15

Talent

It will take the right interplay of technology-enabledcapabilities and people-driven skills to enable businesses
to build the intuitive business model needed to respond to
a newly volatile world. And while technology continues toenjoy significant focus, the fundamental transformation
will begin when the more challenging but rewarding realmof bringing people into the equation is addressed, as wellas preparing them for the modern business era.
To get there requires a clear vision of what themodern business should be—one that everyone in theorganization can recognize from executive leadership
through the management layer and all the way out
to the talented graduate weighing their options andthinking, “Yes, that’s the company I want to work for.”

Profile of a modern business
It might seem improbable—in an $85 trillion global economy encompassing thousands of markets and millions of
niches—to come up with a single universal definition of “a modern business.”
But it’s worth doing so, even to just pinpoint the capabilities needed to thrive in a tumultuous future. By stating
what a modern business is, in simple and immediately recognizable terms, companies can spur everyone within
the organization to play a part in building one.
At Cognizant, we consider a modern business to be a place where processes and decisions flex at a moment’s
notice to accommodate and take advantage of subtle signals of change in the market or operating environment.

Imagine, for instance, a business that:• Offers a service or product experience that analyzes data streams to fulfill and exceed shifting
customer expectations• Runs processes that intelligently unite resources—data, technologies and talent—across a value chain• Channels awareness and intelligence into every stakeholder experience with precisely the rightdecision across millions and millions of interactions.
And we’re beginning to see this happen. Witness the smart factory, where intelligent workflows synchronize tasks
and activities between people and machines, arming businesses with the ability to combine data, analytics or
machine learning software with human insight, dexterity and flair.
Building a modern business is the work you should be focused on today and tomorrow—anything else is a wasteof time. Don’t call it digital transformation if that term rubs you the wrong way: Call it being modern. Call it
being relevant. But recognize that most businesses are not modern enough even after a decade of accelerated
technological transformation, and soon, there will be no choice but to be one.
Start the journey to being a modern business by using our benchmark tool, designed to help business leaders
understand how their enterprise compares to peers across industries, countries, company sizes and at a global
level, allowing them to identify and prioritize their investments, backed by data.
F. Michael Valocchi, SVP Americas Consulting, Strategy and Client Centricity
Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business16

Resilience demands
putting ESG strategy
into action

17

ESG

Resilience demands putting
ESG strategy into action

FIGURE 5: Measuring up on ESG
What measures has your company taken to promote
environmental sustainability and social impact?

Measures taken to promote environmental sustainability
No discussion about being a fully
modern business can ignore the clarion
call for sustainability. The last few years
saw an inflection point in the adoption of
ESG.4 Customers, employees, regulatorsand investors now scrutinize the ESG
credentials of businesses, piling pressure
on executives to make decisions that
positively impact all stakeholders—not
just shareholders. Not to mention, it’sincreasingly clear that environmentallyand socially responsible business is“good” business, in the form of resilience
to any shift or shock that comes along.
The good news is, business leaders
have more tools, technologies andapproaches than ever before to make adifference. But, according to our analysisof the data there is much progress to bemade in putting those tools to use.
Encouragingly, most respondents inthe survey agree that each constituent
part of ESG is vitally important. Ninein 10 decision-makers recognize
environmental sustainability anddiversity and inclusion as important
aspects of being a modern business
today. However, what respondents
also have in common is a lack ofconsiderable or measurable progresson all fronts. When it comes toimplementing an array of specificenvironmental targets, no more than
54% report doing so, and the percent
drops to 44% when it comes tomeasuring social impact (see Figure 5).
Those that have implemented specificenvironmental targets are doing so
because the risk of doing nothingcannot be ignored, especially when
you factor in increased taxation,
resource costs, business risk, regulatorycompliance mandates and fines. Not tomention, today’s employees no longer
approach work as only a means ofearning a steady paycheck. They now

4 UN website on “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” https://sdgs.un.org/goals.
Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern businessMeasures taken to promote social impact
54%

Specific, measurable internal targets atleast as ambitious as our external targets

44%
48%

Transparent reporting on performance

37%
48%

Periodic external auditing

36%
47%

Incorporation into company strategy

36%
47%

Specific, measurable external commitments

36%
46%

A plan to address existing gaps

35%
45%

Professional development activities

35%
36%

Dedicated staff and resources

Response base: 2,000 senior executives
Source: Economist Impact Survey 2022

32%
0

20

% of respondents

40

60

80

100

18

ESG

also want to feel a sense of purpose and that their work
is positively impacting the world around them. (For moreon this topic, see our report “The Purpose Gap.”)
This means top talent will increasingly look forcompanies that take ESG seriously, and that havegovernance structures in place for an array of social
issues, including diversity and inclusion. In short, theylook for companies they’re proud to work for. Whiletalent is a greenfield opportunity today, ESG is the next
great business opportunity closely tied to the fates ofcompanies across all industries.
Yet our read of the survey data indicates many
companies are still in the early stages of forming ESG
strategies, despite growing focus from governments,
regulators and consumers. Take measuring social
impact targets: only 44% of respondents have set
internal social targets that are specific, measurable
and at least as ambitious as their external targets—

Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business

just 37% plan to address existing gaps. Similarly,
54% of companies set internal targets to promote
environmental sustainability—which continues to draw
considerable focus from a wide range of stakeholders.
Just 46% plan to address gaps.”

How does your firm compare on
the sustainability frontier?
We can see evidence of these lackluster efforts
elsewhere—for example, few organizations havededicated ESG staff and resources. For an area that is
swiftly becoming a critical battleground, in which leaders
are expected to drive tangible impact, more investment isneeded into meaningful ESG action to realize results.

Sweeping business-wide activities like improving
sustainability or becoming a more diverse organization
are not easy tasks. Digital technologies can enable
sustainability initiatives at the more granular level—
for example, collecting, measuring and analyzing data
unique to sustainability and biting off small sections
with specific initiatives.
But there is a real need for more holistic change,
especially as businesses focus on becoming more
resilient, using technology to anticipate and act on
systemic signals of change in a volatile and uncertain
world. Leaders can then make informed decisions
on how to embed sustainability into strategy andoperations and build resilience beyond risk mitigation.

19

Recommendations:Five ways to engineer amodern business that’s
ready for anything20Modern business

Recommendations: Five ways
to engineer a modern businessthat’s ready for anything
The simple truth is, there is no end-state to being
future-ready; it will always be a work in progress.
But it’s also the most important work businesses
face today. While digital transformation is clearly
embraced by nearly all business leaders today,
it’s essential now to close the gaps between
the technology foundations being built, theworkforce talent needed to optimize the value ofthese digital-first endeavors, and the ESG efforts
necessary for resilience.

strategy. (Contact us for the benchmark tool, which
reveals how ready-for-anything your business is).
••

Persevere to fully realize the value from tech.
Investing in new technology is the easy part, but
success requires avoiding the pitfalls of assuming
technology alone is a silver bullet. Full return on value
will only be achieved when you enable your people touse these sophisticated tools to reach new levels of
productivity, creativity and resilience.

•

Close talent gaps with a skills renaissance.
New levels of employee engagement and a raft of
new skills need building out urgently to prepare forthe profound changes in how your people will work.
Get crystal clear on how your business will operate
as intelligent workflows and data-led intelligenceincreasingly embed themselves into every decision,interaction and process touchpoint. Take stock now
and then look ahead to what skills you are going toneed, not just next year, but in three to five years’
time, as well.

The following guidelines can offer
businesses an on-ramp to solving thechallenges ahead.
•

Figure out what matters most.
When everything is a priority, nothing is apriority. Identify the strategic and operational
gaps in your journey to becoming a businessthat can adapt on the fly to disruptivechange, reading the signals ahead of time.
Consider running a future-ready benchmark
to reveal where your resources should beapplied, from being a data-driven enterprise
to closing the growing gaps in workforce

Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business

Recognize that the frontier of modern technology
is moving forward.
Future value lies in the combination of new andadvanced technologies which are rapidly evolving. If
you have indigestion from the last 10 years of endlessdigital change then steel yourself for the next waveof technologies (5G, AI/ML, blockchain, quantum
computing) that will radically reshape how yourbusiness works.

•

Lean-in with powerful ESG tactics.
Technology enables ESG goal attainment at
a granular level, so use it to build a picture ofwhat needs doing now as you begin embedding
sustainability into the business’s core strategy andoperations. Doing so builds resilience beyond risk
mitigation and prepares the organization for theopportunities and uncertainties ahead.

Bottom line
To build a business that is ready for anything,leaders need to unify people and technology
with a fully resourced approach to meeting
ESG needs. These are the foundational
elements of a modern businessthat’s ready for any change.
Becoming future-ready is aconstantly evolving effort torespond to customers, markets,
societies, global events and theplanet’s needs. Businesses that
continually assess and fortify
their future preparedness will reap
the rewards by becoming perpetually
relevant, no matter what eventuality
or externality comes along.
21

Methodology

Methodology
To better understand the state of the modern enterprise and how leaders are preparing for long-term
success, we commissioned Economist Impact to conduct a survey of 2,000 senior business leadersacross North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The study assesses and compares businesses acrossten countries [Australia, Canada, France, Germany,The Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, UK,
US], in eight critical industries [Banking and Capital Markets, Healthcare, Insurance, Manufacturing
and Industrials, Retail & Consumer Goods, Life Sciences, Entertainment & Media, Utilities] using a
range of metrics that characterize what it means to be a “modern business,” including vision, talentstrategy, technological readiness, environmental sustainability and social responsibility.
This survey formed the core data set for a future-ready business index, based on multiple data feeds,
that helps leaders understand what they need to do now. There are lots of data sets out there, but nota single engine (an index) that allows business leaders to utilize all the information to evaluate theirenterprise and make decisions.

Contact Cognizant for more details. For a more detailed methodology from Economist Impact, visit the program
site at Modern Business. The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of Cognizant and do notnecessarily reflect the view and policies of Economist Impact. Data presented is from an Economist Impact
executive survey, commissioned by Cognizant, conducted in early 2022.

Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business22

Research teamCognizant Research team
Euan Davis

Catrinel Bartolomeu

Eduardo Plastino

Associate Vice President

Director
Catrinel.Bartolomeu@cognizant.com

Director
Eduardo.Plastino@cognizant.com

Rajeshwer Chigullapalli

Duncan Roberts

Associate Director
Rajeshwer.Chigullapalli@cognizant.com

Manager
Duncan.Roberts@cognizant.com

Keahn Gary

Akhil Tandulwadikar

Senior Manager
Keahn.Gary@cognizant.com

Senior Executive
Akhil.Tandulwadikar@cognizant.com

Euan Davis leads thought leadership worldwide at
Cognizant. He determines the strategic thought
leadership themes for the company, from shifting
customer dynamics and accelerated digitization tosustainability and corporate resilience. He leads a teamof thinkers and writers. Euan is a sought-after advisor
and keynote presenter on issues, trends and emerging
opportunities.
Euan joined Cognizant in 2013 to set up a think-tankcalled the Center for the Future of Work (Europe). He now
assumes leadership of Cognizant Research globally.
Before joining Cognizant, Euan served as a Principal
Analyst for Forrester Research based in London. He holds
a BA degree from Portsmouth University and resides in
Cambridge, UK.

Ollie O’Donoghue

Sarah Thackray

Senior Director
OliverRory.O’Donoghue@cognizant.com

Director
Sarah.Thackray@cognizant.com

Euan can be reached at Euan.Davis@cognizant.com
Connect on LinkedIn

Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business

23

Cognizant Research
At Cognizant Research, we help leaders make sense of today’s volatile socio-economic climate. We bring quality research and insights
rooted in Cognizant’s deep industry and technology expertise, helping leaders make the decisions that fuel their companies’ success.
Visit us at cognizant.com/latest-thinking.

About Cognizant
Cognizant (Nasdaq-100: CTSH) engineers modern businesses. We help our clients modernize technology, reimagine processes andtransform experiences so they can stay ahead in our fast-changing world. Together, we’re improving everyday life. See how atwww.cognizant.com or @Cognizant.
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