Deep technologies such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, nanotechnology and quantum computing are now creating a revolution which has implications for every aspect of an organisation, resulting in new opportunities to thrive in the most technologically important era since the industrial revolution.

In parallel, the structure of the internet is evolving through Web3 technologies which are based on decentralisation and self-organisation, meaning that traditional business models are facing a new form of economic disruption.

This is happening through ‘metaverse’ virtual reality marketplaces, with the most innovative brands creating new forms of value to customers in the form of hybrid offerings which are a mixture of digital content purchased with crypto currencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and real-world experiences.

And metaverse platforms are also now being embraced by organisations looking to use virtual reality as a way to enhance the effectiveness of remote working and online collaboration.

The impact of these technologies means that the dynamics of the digital economy have reduced the relevance of Porter’s traditional Five Forces model of competition, with platform-based business models now dominating the global economy. For this reason, Holonomics developed the New 4Ps framework of platforms, purpose, people and planet as a strategic framework to help HR teams drive organisation-wide cultural and digital transformation, facilitating the development of more innovative business models and elevated value propositions.

When the New 4Ps are integrated into the heart of an organisation, from the start of the strategic planning process through to execution and operations, HR teams are better able to develop future-fit organisations, improve both their employee and customer experience and avoid expensive mistakes due to leadership failures in digital transformation programs. This happens through understanding the New 4Ps systemically:

1.  Platforms
Platforms have now disrupted entire industries, changed consumer and business consumption behaviours and created innovative new ways for enterprises to create value. For this reason there is a strategic imperative for HR to ensure that their organisations are future-fit by ensuring that all leaders develop ‘platform vision’—a profound understanding of the logic and architectures of AI-driven digital platforms that are transforming the way in which businesses create experiences and deliver value to customers in the digital economy.

2. Purpose
The New 4Ps provide a new perspective on customer and employee experience design by helping leaders fully integrate their purpose with their strategies and their customer experience. This is done in an authentic manner by implementing human values across the whole organisation and developing long-term and more meaningful relationships with their customers, stakeholders and the human and environmental ecosystems in which they operate.

3. People
Our physical, digital and biological worlds are merging in a manner which represents both the possibility of reaching our human potential, and yet at the same time the risk of even greater division and inequality. HR now has a critical role to play in helping organisations to prepare for a new hybrid reality in which existence is divided between the real and the virtual.

4. Planet
Our current lifestyles and economic systems, which provide little resilience in the face of global pandemics and other systemic shocks, no longer serve humanity or our planet. HR can contribute to meeting organisations’ ecological, social and governance (ESG) obligations by using their skills and knowledge to help shift people’s collective mindsets and corporate cultures to one of ‘active stewardship’ of our planet’s ecosystems.

The New 4Ps are helping to expand the role of HR to encompass strategic, technological and innovation initiatives. Central to the process of working with the New 4Ps is our concept of ‘value proposition elevation’. This is a transdisciplinary process which starts by analysing and then elevating an existing value proposition through the lenses of i) planetary challenges, ii) universal human values, iii) the organisation’s values, and iv) its future-fit vision.

The ‘people’ dimension of the New 4Ps refers not only to customers, but also to all those stakeholders and wider communities who will be impacted by an organisation’s operations. For this reason, it is important not only to include the voice of the customer in any design process, but the voice of all stakeholders, a responsibility which can be championed and managed by HR.

One of the most difficult obstacles in implementing organisational transformation initiatives is that these are often not integrated into digital transformation programs. To help overcome this barrier, the focus of the New 4Ps on platform vision helps HR teams to develop their conceptual understanding of the underlying logic, architecture and business models of digital platforms. This ensures that HR can then take a leading role in the expansion and scaling of the company by ensuring that people across their whole organisation are engaged with the purpose and have a strategic understanding of platforms and the elevated value proposition.

HR therefore has a key role to play in organisational strategy by ensuring that employees from all departments are able to work more closely with IT departments to ensure better alignment in digital and cultural transformation programs. The role of HR professionals expands to playing a pro-active role in key IT programs, contributing, along with the leadership, to the alignment and communication of strategic goals and initiatives.

For this reason, HR fundamentally transforms from being primarily an operational department to one of central strategic importance, helping people to flourish and contribute to the development of their organisations’ capacity for reinvention and adaptation, and enhancing competency in deep technologies, systemic thinking, collaboration and communication.

The most successful HR departments of the future will be the ones who understand the need to match their competence and knowledge of people management with platform vision, embracing the New 4Ps as a strategic framework in their businesses to facilitate an organisation-wide understanding of the mindsets, platform architectures and conceptual definitions of deep technologies and Web3. In doing so, they will empower people to amplify their impact by creating more agile, competitive and future-fit organisations.