2020 the best year ever - just ended.

This century is finally 21! This past year did us a huge favor by accelerating digital transformation and shaping the next decade for the better. So, what can we learn from it?

Let me start here: the majority will agree that 2020 hasn't felt like as the best year. More the opposite of it. COVID-19 disrupted our lives forever. One more time - forever. And that's great news actually.

With 21 years behind it, this century is becoming an adult – traditionally one of the most exciting times in any life.

As terrible and tragic 2020 was, as powerful was its force for infinite change. Call me a hopeless optimist, and everyone who knows me closer knows that I tend to romanticize situations for the sake of dealing with them. But, this isn’t about me sharing with you about my potential naivety, it’s the sheer power and clarity 2020 gave to this planet.

The Vision 2020 and its impact on humanity.

Many people realized that eating less meat, taking the bike, mindful shopping and less jet-setting can have a positive impact on our lives and planet. The good news for brands is, people realized that buying products with amazing quality, a long lifespan and a sustainable strategy of a circular lifecycle not just saves the planet, but is also sustainable for their finances.

Let us take a quick look where we might see significant change toward a better, more connected and sustainable future:

• Even before COVID-19, the Brookings institute reports as many as 1.5 billion student-aged children were not in school or receiving adequate education. And in 2020, lack of infrastructure, varied systemic fluency in technology products, and students’ lack of access to devices and networks brought into the spotlight the need for new ways of learning and connecting. Similar to many other sectors, the opportunity is not just to model status quo through technology, but to change the problems that existed before the pandemic and meet the huge opportunities the future holds. We don't need to live in a certain neighborhood or city or even country anymore to get the best education possible. The great news is how much impact new learning paradigms and scalable systems could improve not just your child’s learning, but close the education gap for students across the world.
• According to a Boston.com survey, the restaurant industry benefits with 20% of those surveyed stating they order multiple times per week and 37% at least once a week. Restaurants suddenly don't need extensive and expensive real estate to attract customers anymore. They even don't need to be in a certain location. By cooking the best food and making it available almost instantly, everywhere they create a new culture which will make dining an event never seen before. Restaurants are not places anymore, they are an experience.
• On that note, in the same survey, 61% people are cooking more than before COVID-19. Which ultimately leads to healthier eating habits and hopefully a healthier society. It also generates a whole new business structure, with meal kit services taking the lead. And content producers focusing on creating new cooking experiences for being at home. Ultimately it can create new ways of connecting at home and digitally with others while cooking or dining. 
• If healthy eating is an important topic, so will be a healthier lifestyle. 61% of people are more determined than ever to develop healthy eating habits (64%) and maintain healthy lifestyle habits (63%) according to Gelesis study in the US published on Forbes.com. With work from home becoming the norm, the work/life balance has moved. Commuting isn't eating significant lifetime, but opens the opportunity to use this time for mental health and physical wellness.
• The way we shop has changed. According to an IBM Study, nearly 40% of consumers are likely to use touch-free payments, avoiding cash and person-to-person exchanges and opting for more hygienic methods. The way people shop will in the next decade characterized by three main shopping habits: From "I need to buy something" to "I want go shopping" to "Did I just buy something?" Providing consumers with convenient home delivery, shopping experiences tailored to their needs and intelligent shopper solutions connected to smart devices allow everyone to shop the necessary, automatically, when it's really needed. That might even solve the next toilet paper shortage.

We have been speaking of digital transformation for years, but 2020 just did the whole job itself and accelerated this shift to be ready for the future. And the tech industry was actually ahead of the curve, ready for this moment.

They canceled events and sent workers home early 2020. They made work from home permanent and they are building new jobs while other industries decline. Amazon, for example, brought on 275,000 workers since March.

As Professor Leon C. Megginson in 1963 paraphrased in Charles P. Darwin's manner: "It's not the most intelligent or strongest that survives, but the most adaptable to change."

The first and most important step is to accept that there is a new reality. The tech world's quickness to react to the pandemic may not be surprising because the were best positioned to transform to a more digital world and to benefit from it.

A few years ago I worked with Nike to figure out how we can help people to be more active. I can reveal today, a pandemic and lockdowns were not amongst the ideas. However, exactly that helped Peloton to accelerate their growth exponentially. By end of 2019 people discussed the "Peloton Wife" ad and wondering wether a bike in your living room could become more than an high-end accessory. A year later, they are on track to secure 100 million paid subscribers.

So, realizing that your market just quadrupled, if not more, is important for businesses to embrace! Because, everyone suddenly has the same problem in a globalized world.

"And I believe that will ultimately change the way we use design to create experiences that have purpose, create value, are hyper-connected and sustainable for people, businesses and the planet."

Businesses who want to be part of the exciting journey of this century should ask themselves:

• Are we ready for "unprecedented" becoming the norm? Nothing we know isn't for certain anymore. Anything can happen. And it will. The thinking of organizations must allow the wildest imaginations to run free in order to plan the future. We move from predicting what probably will happen to what else could probably happen?
• Are we thinking out of the box or are we just existing in the next box? If we take the unprecedented for granted and make sure we are not stuck in old thought patterns then we need to make sure we are not just going through the motions. How can we imagine the world how it could be, factoring in all the new possibilities while leveraging our intellectual property to make them happen?
• But, are we still thinking or actually making things happen? Back to Darwin, it's about readiness for change and less about know what to do, based on experience. The questions is, do businesses have the right talent to figure things out at speed? 
• And, are we putting talent above everything? While according to a HBR study, the pandemic decoupling work from being a "place", it is more important than ever to build a culture outside the building. How can businesses harnessing talent from anywhere and build a culture that focuses on what each employee actually contributes to the organization by nurturing trust and fairness as well as celebrate accomplishments?
• Lastly, are we solving problems or creating opportunities? This brings us back to beginning of this article. Are the changes all negative or do they just feel like a problem, because we are not used to them. Are they actually an opportunity to change old methods and systems for the a better, more inclusive future?

Just take the past two decades as an acclimation of humans to a faster, more connected and more inclusive and diverse world. And consider 2020 what it has been; a constant push of our boundaries to open up entirely new opportunities that we took on and survived.

Change is good. Curiosity is important. And Design will make it successful.

Hopefully we will look back on 2021 as the year everything started to make sense.

Hope New Year.