10 ‘Now or Never Moments’ for 2022
As we roll into a new year, it seems like a good time to think about a new series of ‘Now or Never moments’. We consider these windows in time where changing culture, technology, regulation, competition, customers or climate provides organizations with courage and guts a chance to build a better long term future.
Here are a few that we’re excited about heading into 2022
- A Now or Never Moment for Offices - it’s time to reinvent the office from purely a place of ‘work’ to one for ‘life’
LinkedIn is awash right now with a pretty vociferous debate on the future of the workplace, from dinosaurs eager to bring their teams back to the cubicle farm full time to those tech sorts advocating a world where we never set foot in one again. As always, the answers probably sit in the middle of what often seems like a battle, where vested interests and massive empathy gaps cloud the ability for decent conversations.
This will take a change of perspective from landlords, progressive thinking from municipalities and much greater empathy from those who really don’t miss the office but know they lost something when the spare bedroom became the most used room in the house.
2. A Now or Never Moment for Urban Mobility — the missing link for vibrant cities and neighbourhoods
Used car values remain staggeringly high as the semiconductor shortage continues to impact the supply of new vehicles, and at a time where many are still a little wary of getting back on the subway or bus. Increased congestion, higher gas prices, environmental implications and the removal of VC ride sharing subsidies all expose just how unsustainable car dominant mobility really is.
North America has been late to the party here, but if developers and politicians want to see vibrant mixed use downtowns and neighborhoods then they’re waking up to buses, bicycles and light rail systems being critical. It’s only natural younger generations opposed to vehicle ownership give them more confidence in making that change.
3. A Now or Never Moment for credit unions and community banks — a genuine customer led alternative to heritage banks and out of touch fintechs
Credit unions are the genuinely customer driven alternative to big heritage banks and VC backed fintech that is all too often more interested in the tech than the customer it should be for.
Credit unions and community banks now are different, for they exist not to make money for shareholders but for the benefit of their members. For a long time the cost and complexity of technology prevented them from being able to truly challenge, but now it’s possible to white label digital solutions and rapidly deploy them in a way that responds to what people really need.
4. A Now or Never Moment for Utilities — time to lead and show customers the way on climate and sustainability
Climate change is a thing. Floods, fires and freezing temperatures are on the news daily. Electric vehicles are the latest mass market status symbol. It’s no longer left to Greta and various hippie greenpeace eco sorts to care about the planet’s future … it’s now a major consideration in most purchasing decisions.
While most people are highly attuned to the usual corporate greenwashing, most households are looking for guidance from the institutions they trust and respect. It’s time for public utilities to step out of the shadows and make it easy for their customers to play their part in cleaning things up … even if that means paying more for new energy products and services.
5. A Now or Never Moment for Sport — time to refocus on the fans of the game, not obsess over tech
The last decade has been lucrative for most sports leagues and their teams thanks to gigantic domestic and global television deals. While much of the focus for what comes next is currently on how to bring more technology, we believe a far more critical consideration is the fan experience.
The gap between the haves and have nots has grown. A pandemic has kept fans away from stadia and arenas. More camera angles and at home viewing may have actually created a disconnect. Fewer kids are choosing to play the game at a grassroots level. The long term future of hockey, football, soccerball, tennis and more is at stake.
6. A Now or Never Moment for Real Estate — what happens now housing is so unaffordable for so many
Canadians love investing in real estate and house prices continue to rise. But for how long? What happens in communities where the average house price has become wildly disconnected from realistic available incomes?
What happens when continued immigration and demand for housing just isn’t being met on the supply side in cities like Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax … even Kelowna? Are we really in a bubble when the demand continues to outstrip what’s available.
While many Canadians see a strong housing market as a good thing, inevitably without some form of intervention that encourages a new generation of house building we’ll start to see many younger Canadians look to build a life somewhere more affordable.
7. A Now or Never Moment for Education — is the university education still a good use of time and money
Is a university degree still worth the investment and are schools creating the future ready workforce employers need? We live in an age where we have resources at our fingertips and this generation of covid educated kids are learning in new ways while many of today’s institutions struggle to evolve at their pace.
Employers are already beginning to bypass the university recruiting process, skipping directly to high school graduates or later in life experienced hires. If universities and colleges wish to remain relevant and keep the coffers full, then it’s time for a rethink.
8. A Now or Never Moment for Talent — what to do when you just can’t find the staff
The current wave of Omicron might be blamed on a shortage of staff for many essential services, but it’s something we’re all going to have to get used to. The great resignation is a thing, with many positions going unfilled. It’s time to ask if many of these jobs need to exist, how we might finally use technology to become more productive and redefine what we need people power for.
Many roles today really don’t need to be full time positions, nor necessarily do the people in them want to do them. Instead, it’s time to find talent models that give people work they love, provide sufficient levels of income security and create a workforce that delivers on the needs of people and business.
9. A Now or Never Moment for Procurement — an underappreciated group might be the ones that unlock enterprise level innovation
Ask any independent agency or startup founder what it’s like trying to work with or sell into big companies and usually they’ll be cursing procurement pretty quickly. It’s understandable, if not an entirely fair position.
For a while procurement has favoured the lowest cost, or lowest risk, bidder but now decision making and sourcing is becoming much more sophisticated. The easy route may have been to go with who you know, or a big brand technology / professional services firm that won’t get you fired … but now there are other considerations. Buying local, buying diverse, buying first and fresh is more important than ever to remain competitive.
10. A Now or Never Moment for Web3 — time to show this isn’t a buzzword, but an opportunity to solve problems people actually understand
The back end of last year saw the expected pushback on Web3 hype and we can’t say it wasn’t overdue. Please spare us another celebrity backed NFT drop.
Now comes the moment for Web3 to demonstrate its potential or we’ll be filing it away with various other tech driven false dawns. It’s borderline impossible to have a rational and open minded conversation about Web3 but if it’s going to win the average person over (like the internet struggled with originally) then this is the year we hear the stories of real uses.
