THE ENTERPRISE ENVIRONMENT

WHILE SYSTEMS BECOME MORE COMPLEX, SO WILL ENTERPRISES, AS A RESULT OF CHANGING BUSINESS MODELS, EVOLVING ECOSYSTEMS AND PARTNERSHIPS, AND CHALLENGES TO MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN CAPITAL.

The Enterprise Environment 

  • GLOBALIZATION AND DIVERSITY

    Enterprises will continue to move toward greater globalization, embracing diversity, innovation, and new collaboration methods in search of competitive efficiencies.

  • SUSTAINABILITY

    Ethics Sustainability will become a key attribute of the enterprise culture and products. Enterprises will need to develop a positive ethical identity to attract and retain customers as well as employees.

  • SYSTEMS THINKING

    Demand for an enterprise culture of systems thinking will grow to address issues of product, production, and organizational complexity. Dispersed, multi-disciplinary teams will generate collective systems views supported by digital tools.

  • ANTICIPATION OF TECHNOLOGY

    Successful enterprises of the future will anticipate and rapidly embrace new technologies. It will not simply be sufficient to wait for a technology to prove itself in the market. A systems perspective will be critical to understand the technologies that will be most significant to the enterprise.

  • SUPPLY CHAIN INTEGRATION

    Modern supply chains will depend upon layers of systems-cognizant subcontractors who can deal astutely with functionality trade offs and risk decisions. Coherence of software among all project partners will be critical for seamless and trusted exchange of digital products and intellectual property.

  • ENTERPRISE INTELLIGENCE, DECISION MAKING, AND LEARNING

    Enterprises will need to protect product and process know-how, while at the same time creating an internal learning environment in which the workforce can easily access and take advantage of the enterprise intellectual assets. Enterprises will need to be flexible and sufficiently adaptable to react quickly.

  • AUTOMATION AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

    Digital transformation of the enterprise will increase reliance on quantitative decision making, streamlined development processes, and automation. Software robots will complement physical robots in the quest for ever greater product and service quality as well as reductions in the cost of production.

EDUCATION SYSTEMS OF THE FUTURE

…will recognize that information will be readily available to the workforce via digital search, and much routine work will be accomplished by robots and AI. Training must concentrate on human skills, creativity, leadership, reading and comprehension, and analytical skills. Education systems must support this workforce transition by breaking down the traditional barriers between STEM and social science/humanities curricula.

Workforce of the Future

Influencing Factors for Systems Solutions

Systems provide solutions, products, and services which change according to the capabilities of technology. But systems are driven by the needs and expectations of global stakeholders and by the trends in the enterprises which develop and operate these systems – within societal, regulatory and political constraints.

 

The breadth and diversity of systems is enormous, encompassing engineered as well non-engineered social and environmental systems.