In the Blue World, there is an increased focus on hard people metrics to measure performance and productivity, as companies look at the long-term reality of having to do more with less. In a sea of new economic superpowers, Blue World companies must foster elite performance cultures.

A fictitious global leader in branded pharmaceuticals, Yao was formed by the agreed takeover of Como by China’s state-owned Yao Generics in 2012. Patent expiries, an insufficiently developed drug pipeline and increasing competition from generic producers left Como vulnerable after the global recession of 2008-10.

In the Green World, demands for greater transparency and social responsibility in business have been magnified by the crisis and are resonating with the green agenda’s call for environmental responsibility. This will impact many areas of people management, particularly in relation to how people are recognised.

G-Bank is a fictitious US-based investment and commercial bank, in business since 1922. Its strategic direction has always been geared toward the long term, to ensure both economic and environmental sustainability.

 

The opportunity for radical new ways of working will emerge through innovation in the Orange World. The practice of outsourcing and globalisation of the workforce is taken to an extreme portfolio working model, where people organise their working lives like individual businesses in a highly networked world.

Data Honey is a fictitious highly successful market research and consumer communications agency based in the outskirts of Oslo, Norway. Fragmenting global structures and the growth of new, dynamic local markets have helped Data Honey thrive.