What are the top business priorities of 2022?
If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s anything can change, and businesses need to be reactive and proactive in preparing for any eventuality. We have had to ensure that our teams could work remotely, collaborate and be as productive as possible – and whilst this was challenging, businesses realised that it could work. After a turbulent 2021, what are the risks and challenges that businesses face in 2022? We took a look to see what we should be preparing for. Prepare for invasion, ensure your Cyber Security is robust The pandemic has created an incredible opportunity for cybercriminals. It allowed them to infiltrate businesses weaknesses as many were completely unprepared for the events that were thrust upon them when the pandemic escalated. Business leaders will need to work closer with their IT teams, as they need to be aware and prepare for attacks. Rather than reacting to attacks, they should prepare for all eventualities, but also prepare their teams for the signs of attacks from outside. The data that a company holds also needs to be considered in this process and how this is protected. Therefore, business leaders need to support their IT teams in their objectives and then support communication to their wider teams as to these objectives and policies to prevent cyber-attacks. Ensure you a digitally transforming Pre-2020, companies were beginning the transition to the cloud, but as remote and hybrid working dramatically increased during the year of the pandemic, the lack of cloud-based products within organisations was exacerbated as remote working, and consequently hybrid working, became the norm. When the economy reopened in 2021, some businesses paused their digital transformation which was a colossal mistake. “Returning to normal” really will not be normal again, as one thing is certain, a considerable amount of activity will occur online. Therefore, businesses need to transition to the cloud to be ready for organisational operational success and the next stage of e-commerce. If your business is still at the behest of hardware solutions, you need to adapt quickly to react to changing consumer demands. As a result, any transitions begun in 2020, need to be accelerated not halted in 2022. Consideration of our environment becomes imperative There has been considerable increase in news stories regarding climate change and global warming. It is now impossible for businesses to ignore warnings from experts and with visible real-world impacts occurring, people are demanding action. If your business is to continue into the future then there will need to be recognition that sustainability is no longer a buzz word, it needs to be embraced and brought into your future strategies which will need to be communicated to customers and shareholders. So, consider courses that will help develop your teams skills and help shape your sustainability plans for the future. Emergence of AI Tech It’s incredible to see how AI tech has not only been integrated into the largest and most elite of businesses, but that the effect of this technology is now seen in smaller businesses. Now we see Chatbots that support customers and keep them on your homepages longer to support marketers in identifying trends in consumer behaviour. However, in 2022 are we reaching a point where some questions need to be answered on AI? Are more and more workers going to be replaced by this tech, or are businesses going to train their teams to understand and use AI to keep them ahead of their competitors? Answers are unclear, but one thing Is for sure it will be interesting, and businesses will need to understand quite rapidly what the implications are of this evolving technology in order to prepare for this and the coming years.
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