For business leaders in Europe’s bellwether economy, tech, talent and sustainability have emerged as the cornerstones of resilience.

Every kilowatt matters. That’s the message to German citizens and businesses as the country prepares for a tough winter. After two years of pandemic-induced disruptions, Europe's largest economy finds itself tackling multiple critical challenges all at once. A historically high trade deficit, prolonged order delivery times and, perhaps most tellingly, an energy crisis induced by the geopolitical upheaval in eastern Europe all highlight the urgency to move on from fossil fuel.

For one of the world’s most innovative economies, the mandate is clear: prioritize environment, social and governance concerns (ESG) in the modernization of operations and business models as big change unfolds. Closing the digital skills gap will be a key step in that direction. Digital technologies hold the promise of both reducing environmental impacts and increasing employee engagement.

In our work to define what it takes to be future-ready—and how close businesses are to reaching a future-ready state—Cognizant commissioned Economist Impact to conduct a survey of 2,000 senior executives from across industries and geographies — including 135 from Germany — as well as create a future-ready benchmarking tool (see our full report, “Ready for anything: what it means to be a modern business”).

Our own analysis of this data underscores what executives in Germany and globally need to do now to prepare.

For more, visit the Modern Business section of our website, or contact us.