Don Tapscott[1] is one of the world's leading authorities on the impact of technology on business and society having authored 16 widely read books. He has coined many concepts that are part of the business lexicon today and is sought by corporate and government leaders globally. Tapscott is currently co-founder and executive chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute, an adjunct professor at INSEAD, recently a two-term chancellor of Trent University in Ontario, and a Member of The Order of Canada. Tapscott is ranked the second-most influential Management Thinker and the top Digital Thinker in the world by Thinkers50.
Tapscott recently wrote an article[2] about a new social contract in 2030, a decade after a post-COVID-19 world. The opening paragraphs said:
"January 2030. Looking back a decade, the COVID-19 pandemic[3] of 2020 to 2022 did more than take five million lives and devastate the global economy. It revealed with searing clarity, weakness not just in our political leaders, governments, and society, but in our systems for everything from supply chains to data and public health. The second era of the digital revolution had started to come of age with powerful new technologies like blockchain, AI, machine learning, robots, and the internet of things showing how the traditional systems and their institutions were outmoded. These technologies also created transparency that further revealed deep problems in society. It was one of those dramatic turning points in global history."
Tapscott noted that the crisis revealed all the weaknesses of our underlying social contract as we transition fully to the digital age and unleash a new set of forces for profound change. He identified five weaknesses that were the most damaging from 2020 to 2030:
- Systemic