Continuing to Rethink Business in 2021

Published On February 16, 2021

The global pandemic forced virtually every organization, public or private, to rethink how they accomplish their goals. Clinical trials, court cases and new product development are just a few examples of well-established business functions that were compelled to “go virtual.” How many of these new ways of working will prevail once it is safe to spend time together again? What can we do to prevent slipping back into less flexible and inefficient ways of working?

I invited Iron Mountain’s Chief Technology Officer, Kim Anstett, to join the first of our 2021 webinar series to discuss the concept of continual “rethinking” how we work. Many thanks to the over 800 people who registered for the event! We’ll be issuing an IGP CEU credit for those who attended live.

During the pandemic business continuity plans were stretched and gaps in them became evident very quickly. Our reliance on paper was challenged at the same time organizations had to rethink technology to support the largely remote workforce. With so many accelerated investments in technology to meet the urgent challenges, I asked Kim what she’s learned from the experience. Her number one observation is that most enterprises, large or small, found Cloud-based infrastructure offers tremendous flexibility and scale. Cloud-based platforms such as Workday, Salesforce and Google Workspace are key enablers for teams working from home full-time or part-time.

Digital delivery and digital resilience will be the focus of organizations now more than ever before. Customers, employees and shareholders demand a new, heightened and more powerful digital experience sparked by a new way of living in the past year. Therefore, we have to continue to dare to think differently; to challenge our brains to come off “automatic” mode and explore all possibilities.

I look forward to spending time with you in April as we continue to “rethink how we work”.

P.S. When you need a reminder of how easy it is for our brains to default to “business as usual,” here’s a teaser: count the number of times the letter “f” appears in this sentence - “Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of years.” There may be more than you see!