Reinventing the Future of Work and Business in the COVID-19 ERA: Challenges, Opportunities and the Path Ahead

ABSTRACT

The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence—it is to act with yesterday’s logic.—Peter Drucker. The future has arrived faster than anticipated as most companies have shifted to remote working style and most activities are being carried out on digital platforms. For the majority of business leaders and managers, COVID-19 emerged as the most disruptive world-changing event in recent history. Managers are coerced to make decisions amidst tremendous uncertainty. To cope with these unforeseen challenges, organizations move in with efforts to integrate information technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to better understand the data and make more compatible decisions in a digital economy. Taking cues from the new normal, organizations recognize that agility is the key to deal with massive disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This introductory chapter, which precedes the next 29 theme-based chapter articles by scholars and subject experts, presents an overview and a curtain-raiser, for this burning issue. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.