Industry 5.0 provides a vision of industry that aims beyond efficiency and productivity as the sole goals, and reinforces the role and the contribution of industry to society. It places the wellbeing of the worker at the center of the production process and uses new technologies to provide prosperity beyond jobs and growth while respecting the production limits of the planet. It complements the Industry 4.0 approach by specifically putting research and innovation at the service of the transition to a sustainable, human-centric and resilient industry.
The idea of Industry 5.0 is not limited to “industry.” It applies to other sectors and organizations. Industry 5.0 has three key pillars: human-centric, resilient and sustainable. All three have significant implications for business strategy.
Human-Centric Strategy
A human-centric strategy is one that, “promotes talents, diversity and empowerment.” The most important shift this suggests is one from seeing people as means (e.g., as in human resources) to seeing people as ends. Or, in other words, a shift in perspective from people serving organizations, to organizations serving people.
Resilient Strategy
Business today is largely driven by efficiency and optimizing profits, not resilience. Strategy’s primary focus will no longer be on growth, profit, and efficiency, but on creating organizations that are “anti-fragile,” meaning that they are able to anticipate, react and learn timely and systematically from any crisis and thereby ensure stable and sustainable performance.
Sustainable Strategy
A sustainable strategy leads action on sustainability and respects planetary boundaries. So far, corporate sustainability efforts have largely focused on reducing or minimizing damage. Fully embracing sustainability in a company’s strategy, though, implies much more than what’s currently been done. Rather than merely reducing a company’s negative impact, truly sustainable companies focus on increasing their positive impact.