Perspectives on the new culture of work

We’re living through a period of extraordinary cultural and technological change.

As new generations enter the job market, the culture of work is shifting to accommodate new ideas and new ways of working. Meanwhile, technology is redefining the very notion of a workplace – the 9-5 feels increasingly outdated, as collaboration technologies free us to work from anywhere, and communicate at any time, in incredible new ways.

For leaders, it’s a time of unparalleled challenge; how businesses meet the demands of this new culture of work could be the difference between success and failure. That’s why Microsoft has brought together three business leaders operating at the intersection of work, culture and technology for a video discussion on the shifting landscape, examine how technology is transforming work and ask what great leadership looks like today.

• Frances Illingworth, global recruitment director for the world’s biggest marketing and communications company WPP, is the organisation’s global talent expert, advising the C-Suite on talent strategy and championing diversity and female leadership across the organisation.
• Dr Cara Antoine, Microsoft Netherlands’ chief marketing and operations manager, works to digitally transform businesses through innovation with the cloud, empowering people and organisations to achieve more.
• Remco de Kramer, product manager at VodafoneZiggo, who runs a virtual team and whose recent experience of a merger gave him first-hand experience of what happens when two work cultures come together – and where technology can play a role in instilling a new culture that brings a team together.

As Frances says, what is happening in the workplace right now is a “perfect storm” of new technologies and new expectations:

“A generation of people who want to work differently, who have watched their parents work extremely rigidly and want something from the workplace that isn’t as prescribed. They are asking us in a sense to respond to that by enabling them to work differently. I think the new generations want a bigger life.”