Perhaps the most talked-about strategic challenge for C-suite executives prior to the pandemic was Digital Transformation (DT). Senior leaders in a variety of sectors and roles consistently spoke about the need to take advantage of the latest wave of new technologies such as cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and e-Commerce to update products, services, and business models. Of course, with the pandemic came new priorities that pushed digital transformation out of the headlines. Yet the forces that put the issue on executives' agendas in 2019 not only remain, but may actually have increased.

As companies start to transition to a post-pandemic world, now is an excellent time to ask how the pandemic has affected DT during the last year and a half. Fortunately, the International Institute for Management Development (better known as “IMD”) has recently published the results of its bi-annual survey on this topic (launched in 2015), and its findings are worth noting.