For years, we have talked about transformation as something businesses undertake: a digital transformation, an organizational transformation, a change in strategy or operating model. Today, transformation increasingly looks less like a project with a beginning and an end, and more like the environment in which business simply operates.
Artificial intelligence is perhaps the most visible example. Its rapid development creates remarkable opportunities, but it also exposes something more fundamental: technology can only amplify what is already there. Strong data, clear processes and sound decision-making become more valuable. Weaknesses in the same areas become more visible.
The same principle extends far beyond AI.
Growth itself is no longer a sufficient measure of economic strength if companies cannot remain resilient when trade slows, costs rise or geopolitical conditions change. An acquisition creates value only if two organizations can successfully integrate not just systems and balance sheets, but people and cultures. Employers competing for scarce talent are discovering that compensation alone cannot secure engagement and loyalty. Meanwhile, payments are becoming almost invisible within the retail experience, insurance is moving closer to the moment when a customer actually needs it, and even long-established industries are being reshaped by new technologies, products and regulatory approaches.
What connects these developments is not technology alone. It is adaptation.
Competitive advantage increasingly belongs to organizations capable of connecting innovation with execution: turning data into better decisions, technology into simpler customer experiences, partnerships into new business ecosystems, and change into an opportunity rather than a disruption.
For Croatia, this question is particularly relevant. Recent economic performance gives us good reason for confidence, but convergence with more developed economies will ultimately depend on our ability to translate growth into productivity, innovation and higher-value activity. That requires investment in technology, but equally in people, skills, leadership and institutions capable of keeping pace with change.
The articles in this issue of News & Views approach this challenge from very different industries and perspectives. Together, however, they point to a common conclusion: the next phase of competitiveness will not be defined simply by who adopts the newest technology or reacts fastest to the latest trend. It will be defined by who builds organizations capable of changing continuously - without losing sight of the people, customers and purpose at the centre of that change.