How Disruptive Ideas are Shaping the Future

The Economist’s award-winning World Ahead Gala Dinner series was held at the Grand Hyatt Athens on February 15th 2022 and Alba Dean Kostas Axarlogou was once again one of the invited luminaries who shared their inspiring and thought-provoking predictions for the year ahead. Dean Axarloglou and Theodosis Michalopoulos, CEO of Microsoft Greece, Cyprus & Malta and Alba Graduate Business School alumnus, participated in a panel discussion, moderated by Andrew Palmer, Executive Editor of the Economist, entitled “The Digital Transformation in 2022: How Disruptive Ideas are Shaping the Future.”

Dean Axarloglou discussed how new technologies, such as IoT, AI and Metaverse, open up opportunities for the transformation of companies and the development of new services for the consumer. Enabled by 5G technology, these new technologies depend on managing vast data to support value creation. In fact, AI is expected to create 5 trillion to 12 trillion dollars of new value by 2030 and 65% of it through B2B services.

Yet, how can an employer attract and keep talented employees in this kind of environment? Dean Axarloglou pointed out that from April 2021 to September 2021, 19 million employees quit their jobs without having another job to fall back on. Globally, we went from the “talent gap,” which was pre-COVID-19, to the current “Great Attrition,” where employees are leaving their jobs in droves. Yet why did employees take such drastic action? Dean Axarloglou commented that they are looking for a sense of a shared identity, purpose, and belonging in their company and a social and interpersonal connection with their colleagues and managers.

The “Great Attrition” is a global phenomenon resulting in moving to a hybrid working environment and is both a challenge and an opportunity. As Dean Axarloglou observed, employees are switching jobs but not locations. They essentially become “digital nomads.” We are living in a world where jobs are “location-agnostic.” This model creates opportunities for Greece since employees can work from here and provide their services abroad.

How can companies attract and retain employees with relevant competencies and mindsets? According to Dean Axarloglou, companies and leaders need to be flexible, have deeper empathy for employees and create a culture of lifelong learning.

Alba was the Academic Partner of this year’s event touched on topics such as priorities for Greek-American relations, Europe’s landscape post-COVID-19 and Greece’s economic forecast in 202