The 2020 COVID-19 health crisis established a standard for the kind of response needed by the government, corporations, and society at large to adjust to production and cohabitation plans, possibly a few decades ago, this would have only been seen in cartoons. This accelerated the implementation of digital tools that would emergently aid in keeping the global production and communication systems operating, from virtually total lockdowns imposed by governments to productive reorganization of certain economic sectors to remote work. This setting set the stage for the rise of the digital economy, also referred to as Economy 4.0 since 2011, and the new digital era of artificial intelligence.
However, because of the lack of skills necessary for such a digital transformation, not every sector of society has been able to adjust to this relatively new production and social system. On the one hand, the what, the how, and the for whom must be addressed to comprehend digital transformation. For instance, we need to take into account the shift from conventional, analogous communication structures to digital ones, which require a social and technical process for their users. However, to fully address this transition need, education, and health care must be provided alongside technical skill development, as these are vital aspects of human capital and culture.
Therefore, education and health are not less significant than the prioritized labor skills listed in the World Economic Forum report. These skills include analytical and creative thinking, big data and artificial intelligence, resilience, flexibility, and agility—qualities that are largely associated with the demands of digital transformation. Rather, they become part of the Human Capital framework and strike a balance between the bare minimum needed to achieve sustainable development goals and more.
One way to think of human capital is as how an economy undergoing digital transformation can be guided toward sustainable growth. But to prevent the channel from collapsing, we require proactive measures from businesses inside their spheres of influence that recognize how important it is to foster personal well-being—that is, ethical businesses that view human capital as a necessary component of their survival.
As a result, it is thought that an economy recovering from crises like COVID-19 may do so more quickly and with fewer negative effects than a productive and social system that does not view human capital as a crucial component, in the same way, that an individual possessing a strong skill set is better able to adjust to shifting times, like the current digital revolution.
Mariana Alejandra Córdova Contreras. Professor of Management and Leadership..
Jesús Cuauhtémoc Téllez Gaytán. Professor of Finance.