Industries

Experimenting operational and labor challenges in the pandemic and now ongoing turbulence in global economies as well as a big push due to current geopolitical issues, this market is expecting annual growth of above a 10% over the next 5 years. Main challenges in this market are how to rapidly adopt Industry 4.0 (smart products manufactured by digital factories, enabled by digital thread, digital workforce, big data and artificial intelligence), innovation in military capabilities, emerging democratization of the space market and the more and more demanding decarbonization.

Transitioning from Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) to Battery Electric Vechicles (BEV), the new perspective on Mobility and Car Sharing, the massive Connectivity and additionally the Chip shortage are introducing great challenges and new opportunities. Examples of these are emerging new Business Models (e.g. separating ICE and BEV operations), dealing with operational inefficiencies and distress in the supply chain created by the lately supply constraints and demand pressures, OEMs and suppliers managing unexpected extra-costs due to the transition to BEV, and also incumbent suppliers battling new entrants as well as the OEMs themselves.

The beginning of the 5G era presents different challenges and opportunities, such as Competitive broadband markets, new business models for service providers offering bundled services, flexibility of consumers in purchasing and consuming services (high-quality communication and internet services from telecom, cable, wireless, and satellite internet providers), a more demanding cybersecurity and risk management around 5G, Blockchain as potential solution for trust, transparency and data synchronization across the supply chain, and Edge-computing that brings data collection, processing, storage, and analytics capabilities closer to the network equipment.

The construction industry plays a key roIe in the current economy in both emerging and mature markets. It generate jobs, accounts for over 5% of gIobaI GDP, and provides industriaI and civiI infrastructures that enable other businesses to thrive. In the years to come, this industry will become even more important because of various global megatrends, such as migration into urban areas, climate change, and a new push for smart infrastructures and digital processes worldwide. Technologies like BIM, IoT, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence Virtual Reality challenge a deep transformation in a traditional brick and mortar field.

Mega-trends as the appearance of billions of new consumers in emerging markets, the impact of demographic shifts on consumption patterns (e.g. traditional consumers going green), the rising trade protectionism and the rise of the digital consumers (enabling direct interaction through social media, data and personalized contact) are expected to redefine the industry in the coming years. At the same time, the main industry players will keep facing an increasing supply chain, labor and costs (of all kinds) volatility, as well as keep developing digital platforms as key enablers to offer personalized service and share data on sourcing, labor, decarbonization, safety and more consumer and regulation requirements.

The energy triIemma is an old discussion in the energy sector. Since the first oil crisis, companies, academia and politicians have assumed that there is always some trade off when baIancing the three goaIs of ensuring a secure and reliable energy supply, at an affordable cost, with minimal environmental impact. But the redoubling of global ambition on climate change at COP26, followed by macroeconomic developments, makes the challenge even greater, as the prices of energy and other commodities surge across the globe. In short, we are at an energy inflection point. Business and government must develop new strategies to ensure that the pursuit of critical energy goals remains on track

The media and entertainment industry is facing a dramatic shift in media platforms from traditional channels to online mediums. This, together with the changes in behavior from new generations is posing great difficulties for content generators to keep attention from espectators. Social media adds further complexity to the equation and the apparition of the metaverse will only fuel further the changes that the industry will experiment.

For significant time, Sustainability was part of the debate, but little was actually done. Things have changed recently, and now Companies need to reduce their emissions and improve sustainabiIity across their vaIue chains, moving from ambition to execution and results. There are three main challenges that hold companies back in this transformation: determining where to focus for greatest impact, how to put the right transformation engine in place, and how to fund the journey. Understanding these challenges and applying time-tested principles to address them in a structured, systematic way can help senior leaders start achieving their goals instead of just setting them.

Banking, insurance companies and other incumbents have been many years transforming their customer experience and backoffices through digital technologies, with great success in operational efficiency as well as protecting the existing customer base. But capturing new sources of value is yet a challenge. While rising interest rates in the coming years might provide extra earnings and new fundings to invest in new value growth, it is expected a big competition (and also M&A activity) between incumbents and Tech players including Payment firms. Technology will be at the core of this competition giving differential ability to generate new value to existing and new customers.

Traditionally behind other sectors in innovation, now some progress is happening motivated in part to the issues discovered during the pandemic, as well as the emerging demand of healthcare services and the shortage of healthcare labor. Contactless, virtual services, telehealth and electronic forms and payments can minimize the number of back-office and front-office staff needed for office appointments. Additionally, the lately cybercrime impacting on critical functions and patients’ care is forcing new investments in technology and transforming the industry.

Today’s manufacturing corporations are finding a large gamechanging opportunity: the chance to use sophisticated data gathering and anaIytics to increase productivity, generate environmentaI benefits and eventually improve customer experience. Those that embrace the opportunity will be able to turn their suppIy chains into highly connected vaIue networks for sharing data across the company ecosystem and coIIaboratively improving the fIow of goods around the worId.

In the past, the industry has not been intensive in digital innovation and transformation beyond manufacturing processes, but the pandemic, the growing demand for vaccines, new complexity, inflation, geopolitics, and new ways of working is making Pharma companies reconsider their strategy and operations. Full-scale digital solutions will require heavy investments but are expected to generate significant operational efficiencies in both operations and backoffices, improved quality and company resilience.

Market forces do not apply the same pressure to automate and transform the public sector as they do for the private sector. But the pandemic has placed the public service at the challenge to ensure the resilient delivery of social services, speeding up relevant changes such as flexible working or collaboration and co-ordination across government bodies, making the future of the public service arrives faster than expected. Digital transformation will enable people to work in highest value activities (impacting different groups in many ways), providing more quality services and more social value.

After the pandemic, the companies are restructuring supply chains (demand planning, inventory management, fulfillment forecasting…), reviewing pricing and continue reinventing the physical store and client experience for the digital age. And beyond that, the digital revolution continues reinventing e-commerce, digital marketing, voice commerce, staff-free cashier-less stores, and the selling of digital goods. Retail sector will keep on reinventing the economy, introducing new digital innovations and showing the path for other industries to become faster and generate new experiences to their customers.

As the traveI sector gradually recovers from the COVID crisis, cruise Iines, hoteI chains and airIines face unprecedented uncertainty and volatility for the coming years, aware that the past is a good indication of what could happen again. These companies can improve their abiIity to sense subtIe changes in demand and position themselves accordingly. WiII business traveI, for example, ever fuIly return? AdditionaIly, Ieaders in the industry, especialIy airIine and cruise Iine executives, are facing significant demands to forcefully address climate change.