Managing tomorrow’s human is a 2007 research report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). It anticipated that the growing talent crisis, demographic changes, technological developments and sustainability problems will lead to a change in the organizational structures of companies. Three different scenarios that could be observed in 2020 were examined in this report.

Green World: Sustainable business is good business
In the Green World, social consciousness and responsibility to the environment have embedded into the mentality of firms. Sustainable and ethical business practices are the focus and there is an urge to reduce risk factors.

Blue World: Companies are still the kings
In 2020, the companies of the Blue World have adopted large firm capitalism and personal beliefs have outweighed collective social responsibility beliefs. The Blue World companies have invested in size, technology, building talent, strong leadership and detailed measurements.

Orange World: Success of the teams
In the Orange World, businesses have divided into parts; companies are usually small and quick. A wide range of supplier networks are available.

Green World

Human Management in the Green World
In the Green World, companies attach a lot of importance to the environmentalism and social responsibility. Efforts made by the companies in this regard with the government, improve their corporate image.

Firms are aware of the importance of risk and reward management and focus on informing the customers and ethical practices. During the recruitment process, contributions of the candidates to the society are also considered alongside their talent and ability.      

Blue World

Human Management in the Blue World
Companies in the Blue World are dynamic and have adopted innovative capitalism. Companies with reward structure, innovativeness and entrepreneurial support are encouraged to take risks when good results are achieved. Models that companies employ are based on high profitability and benefits for investors.     

By supporting entrepreneurship, small business perspective has been created within global giant companies. The soundness of this perspective is maintained by close management and measurement and is supported by creative freedom and competitive innovation. Human resources units are closely related to the employees.

Orange World

Human Management in the Orange World
In the Orange World, companies are specialized in segmenting the workload and distributing it to international networks. Joint venture projects and utilization of technology has increased.
While emphasizing the importance of team work, these companies benefit from regular and seasonal workers. All employees are encouraged to participate in global guilds and develop themselves. In the highly mobile Orange World, people don’t get stuck and hold their positions for long time.

In Orange World, where technology and digital gadgets are used extensively, competent people work with more than one company and offer particular micro solutions to the companies.

What should you do now?

What can you do now, to determine how ready your company is for the future and how could you take precautions?
•    Prepare scenarios that are compatible with your company, your industry and your geography.
•    You must research to determine the position of your company in the current scenario and how it is placed to face the challenges of future.
•    Details for human resources management must be determined. For example, will your reward strategy, retirement plans and recruitment processes still work in the future?
•    In order to keep yourself in a competitive position in the future, you must identify the measures and options to that end. What could be done to assess and evaluate future risks and opportunities must be the focal point of research.
•    The public relations unit must focus on external stakeholders, customers, markets and trends.  

Korn Ferry Institute conducted a survey on leaders of investor relations at Financial Times Stock Exchange. The study, which took place between October and November 2015, was published on the Korn Ferry Institute website on February 16, 2016. Access Link  https://www.kornferry.com/institute/the-future-of-leadership-in-investor-relations

One of your target groups for the future is investors. What does the Investor Relations Specialist (IRO) want in accordance with the data obtained from this survey?

•    Direct contact with the board: Investor relations specialists must be in direct contact with the CEO and CFO. Communication to determine the strategy can only be effective in this way.
•    Freedom: Investor relations specialists must be authorized to design and implement financial communications and stakeholder management within the group strategy.
•    Progress: Challenges such as group diversity, international focus, stakeholder-based changes, and growth strategies appeal to investor relations specialists. Corporate communication and corporate relations are also very important.
•    Investment in Investor Relations: Investor relations specialists have stated that getting support from top management, such as the CEO or CFO, will help to add value to the firm.
•    Good relations with communication teams: In order to avoid message confusion between communication teams and investor relations specialists, well defined roles and good relations are important as that would prevent tension and damage.
•    Easy communication with business owners: Investor relations specialists want to have good communication relations with business leaders. So they can have more information about the group and they can present their views on the market to the top leaders.

At this point, we can draw the following conclusions:

•    The need for experienced investor relations leaders is increasing day by day.
•    Demand for talented investor relations leaders is widespread.
•    Post of the head of investor relations may be seen as a development area for CFOs of the future.
•    Whether the budget and the rewards needed to support the necessary investor relations are sufficient or not must be assessed.

One of the most important factors influencing the future of investor relations are the Annual Interactive Reports. In the context of a guidebook designed for the development of annual reports prepared by a design and marketing firm named SUKA, this document was published in August 2011 stating that the annual reports contain information that investors consider the most important tool for their decisions. When they are done as required, the annual reports gather and narrate different business initiatives of a firm under a single roof in an understandable way.

What should be done for the investors?

Attract new investors to yourself: According to a recent study of the Rivel Research Group, 70 percent of analysts surveyed consult annual reports when choosing which shares to buy.

Do not miss your hand - Avoid the volatility of stock prices: In the same survey, on average the same number of analysts stated that they consulted annual reports when following a stock.

Even better news: The findings of the same survey also indicate that as the horizon of shareholders' investment grows, the importance of annual reports also increases.

Another way to personalize your annual report experience

Thanks to the user-friendly interface of the interactive annual reports, readers are able to quickly access the required information. This creates a personalized, user-friendly experience. Moreover, with the option to add media content and files, an interview with the senior management or a facility tour can be included in the report. Thus, the company becomes more wealthy and credible. Not using this feature is like a missed shareholder, analyst, or a partner.

Suggestions/Recommendations from the Specialists

• Start early
• Create a strong story / theme
• Create a simple, clear, and intuitive navigation
• Make financial information easily accessible
• Use strong, well-placed visuals
• Provide printing, searching and downloading functions


LEADERS OF THE FUTURE

Future leaders must have a strong understanding of the operating structure of public and private sectors and aim for a human-citizen centric future. A strong understanding will enable the future leader to make more accurate observations about public sector organizations, employees, citizens and stakeholders. Future leaders must also recognize that different sectors of the community work together and should be able to use multi-stakeholder partnerships to create public value.

One of the main expectations about future leaders is strong personal commitment and new conceptual thinking skills. Leaders must embrace the new model of capitalism and act with a holistic perspective about sustainable society. New partnerships and dialogue will enable them to benefit from all the strategic resources and capital of a community.

As Favaro and Neilson indicated, what should be our expectations from a CEO of 2040? When we look 25 years in the future, it is observeable that future CEO’s have to be more innovative, more entrepreneurial, more insightful and much less afraid of taking risks than their predecessors as managers.

In the future, it will be possible for companies to gather under two banners, as Collectors and Specialists. Where specialists are the companies that specialize in a subject or product, the collectors are the companies that sell the products that they buy from more than one specialized company under one roof. Although the number of specialist firms will always be higher than the collector firms, their life span has to be shorter at the same time. In order for a specialist company to extend its life, it must be able to react very quickly to the needs and orientation of the market. In the light of this information, it can be said that the future manager must be more entrepreneurial and focused as a CEO. The future CEO's career map will change depending on the type of company CEO has the inclination to join. If the future CEO is more inclined towards managing collector firms, then CEO is likely to spend years at the helm of a single firm but if a CEO is more interested in specialist firms then a CEO could manage several firms throughout his career.  

CEOs of collector firms must have the ability to manage the companies that offer the finished products and results to the end user. Reliable management, supply chain management, in-depth knowledge of customers and the ability to shape products according to the needs of the customers are key skills for the future.

Executives of the specialist firms must have the traits to change speed and shape as opposed to the collectors. The manager of such a firm may have to change strategy quickly or stop the business if he realizes that his company has been left behind by the competitors or there is not enough demand in the market. CEO’s of future specialist companies have to be prepared for their companies to be short-lived assests. They may get closed because of losing the competitive advantage or another company may buy and takeover that firm.

Future CEOs will have to make changes at the top management level too. A small but quick group will operate as consultants to the CEOs and they will be able to perform beyond their functions. A trend of CEOs and consultants changing companies together will also be observed. It is expected that the CRO (Chief Resource Officer) will work alongside CEO and CFO as a part of the management team in the future. Anticipation is that, CROs will not only have authority over human resources but they will have command over all the non-financial resources and they will be an indispensable part of the management team.

Until today, leadership has evolved incredibly and will continue to evolve in even more unpredictable ways. Future executives will need all the flexibility, emotional intelligence, and creative thinking that would be available to them.

CUSTOMERS OF THE FUTURE

And now lets have a look at one of the most important target groups of the future; Customer.

The buying/purchasing process of a customer used to be quite predictable in the past. The purchasing process, which consists of stages of awareness, thinking, evaluation, purchasing and utilization respectively, has now been transformed into a model driven by digital technologies.