Rethinking productivity
Materially more with materially less, at maximum pace
Is business productivity broken? The efficiency measures that worked yesterday no longer deliver on their own. It’s time to rethink productivity for a world driven by technology innovation and facing new risks. Explore bold strategies, real-world frameworks, and the metrics that matter now.
Key takeaways:
- Business productivity must evolve. Today’s top-performing enterprises rethink productivity as a connected system, linking efficiency, flexibility, and speed with stronger leadership and clearer metrics.
- Standardization is a strategic imperative. To move at pace, organizations must shift from customization to end-to-end standardized workflows, reducing complexity and boosting accountability.
- Global Business Services (GBS) can be a transformation agent. By simplifying operations, GBS can accelerate digital transformation, enable automation, and free teams to focus on higher-value activities.
- Technology development must be rethought. Rather than reinventing in silos, enterprises can drive productivity by extending tech development to external partners and aligning to core business needs.
- Released capacity must be repurposed. Simply gaining efficiency isn’t enough. Organizations must redirect capacity toward high-value, responsive activity with clarity across operations.
- Productivity trends demand better metrics. Traditional metrics fall short in today’s environment. New performance measures must reflect resilience, speed, and adaptability.
- Cost discipline is about discernment, not just cuts. Smart cost management balances operational leanness with flexibility, aligning resources to shifting market conditions without over-correction.
- The workforce must be reimagined. Hybrid and AI-enabled models require both standardization and empowered human judgement, supporting agility, innovation, and long-term growth.
Why business productivity demands reimagining
The productivity playbook is changing. Fast. Efficiency alone won’t win in a world defined by geopolitical uncertainty, a higher cost of capital, AI disruption, and tougher investor expectations. The old moves—scale in stable conditions, then cut costs when needed—break down when complexity rises and bureaucracy spreads.
Now the goal is simple. Do more with less. Do it faster. Stay flexible. That means treating productivity as a system, not a project. Redesign workflows and standards. Modernize technology, data, and automation. Upgrade talent, decision rights, and leadership cadence. Sharpen metrics, incentives, and risk controls. Because high performance today is the ability to rebalance growth, efficiency, and risk—again and again—without losing speed.
The definition of productivity has fundamentally shifted. What drove success yesterday—achieving efficiency at scale in a stable world—is insufficient in today's volatile environment.
Not your old playbook
Get the full story on how today’s top enterprises are doing materially more with materially less—at speed. From standardization to smarter leadership, this paper unpacks the eight elements driving sustainable performance in a volatile world.
Tom Schoenwaelder
