I have spoken to many clients, industry leaders and dentsu colleagues to understand how they are preparing for the road ahead. From advertising to supply chain to employee engagement, the consistent narrative is that all are reimagining aspects of their personal and professional lives to defy traditional expectations and unleash new potentials and possibilities. As we close out 2021, I want to share my thoughts on three areas I get asked about the most: the future of client-agency relations, business, and work.

The Fifth Industrial Revolution is fundamentally changing the way we live and the global economic landscape. While technology at the heart of this revolution is disrupting the traditional agency model and the way we service our clients, it is also presenting us with unparalleled opportunities to harness the power of storytelling, the scale of technology and digital innovation to create long-lasting benefits to the organisations we work with, the communities we serve and the lives of people our work impacts.

With disruption comes opportunity. The traditional agency operation is no longer fit for purpose based on what our clients want: growth, agility, and efficiency. Clients are demanding holistic end-to-end services across the entire customer journey that address their short-term needs while contributing to long-term growth.

As a result of this shift, at dentsu international we have streamlined our capabilities into three service lines Media, Creative and CXM and consolidated our 160 brands to six leadership brands to give our clients multi-disciplined account teams delivering data-driven, integrated solutions in nimble ways. We are continuing to invest in our consumer insights capabilities and to bring creativity, data and technology together to power brand differentiation and personalisation at scale.

Another evolution of the client-agency relationship is the concept of growth and good now running in parallel. We are continuously demonstrating to clients and the world that you can achieve growth from good. We see one ecosystem of our business, our clients and the larger society coexisting and growing together. As a global leader in data, technology and creativity, we use our capabilities as a force for good to create solutions that integrate the growth of our clients with that of society. We strive to be champions for meaningful progress for our people, our clients and society and embed environmental and social purpose into the brands, products and experiences consumers love.

I believe companies that position themselves in an ecosystem, rather than operating in silo, will have significantly more competitive advantage in the upcoming years. Business ecosystem is not a buzz word nor a new concept. Some large global brands have already established themselves in a collaborative and interoperable ecosystem that is constantly driving innovations and offerings to broaden value creation for their customers.

Think about companies like UberEats, Nespresso, Apple – they are working with different partners and suppliers to bundle products and services in one ecosystem that services their customers in a seamless and integrated way. For example, I am a Nespresso drinker – I didn’t just purchase the machine but rather bought into the entire experience. From monthly coffee subscription delivery to capsule recycling bag pickups, Nespresso has automated the entire experience.

For small to medium size companies, it is important to recognize that global brands embracing the business ecosystem model are creating an impenetrable and irreplicable environment for competition. Technology is here to support all businesses, regardless of their size, to create an omnichannel connected experience to drive growth. By interconnecting different customer touchpoints provided by multiple suppliers in one ecosystem, technology can connect different platforms each supplier uses and automate information sharing to serve customers collaboratively.

A business ecosystem benefits everyone involved. Participants work together to strengthen customer loyalty and prevent churn, inspire new innovations and offerings and address social and environmental challenges collectively.

No doubt you have heard that the future of work is ‘hybrid’. The boundaries of work and home have become blurred, and people increasingly expect to work in a fluid and flexible way. My take on this is the future of work is ‘human’.

At dentsu, we have an insatiable need to understand humans better than anyone. One thing we have discovered through our research of people around the world is what innately motivates people is the same, regardless of their ethnicity, age group or country of residence. And with the changing workplace, we need to understand, show empathy, and adapt to peoples’ needs more.

As the CEO responsible for 14,000 dentsu people’s career and wellbeing, I believe the future of work is all about creating a culture with humans at the centre with flexibility and autonomy, purpose and belonging. We are moving towards a more inclusive and adaptive workforce model where we help employees be their best both professionally and personally. Now more than ever, employee voice can unlock our new possibilities, because true innovation and creativity come from bottom up not top down.

When asked what I’m most excited about for 2022, through adversity comes opportunity and I have real optimism in the changes we are making to positively shape our future. The next year will look and feel fundamentally different to the last. I’m excited to take the learnings and insights gathered to reimagine our future.