Following the curveball of 2020, utilities are more than ever in pursuit of reinventing their business. The most adaptable and resilient will shape the future of the industry with solutions to problems that are already shaking their core, such as greater grid instability, increasing market volatility and risk, regulatory drag and slow pick-up of new revenue streams.

If 2030 is the industry’s next big milestone, companies need to contemplate the people they need to get there, starting by training and educating the next workforce, and harmonizing it with the digital workforce from the very beginning. Companies must also take greater care in addressing customer sentiment, which has improved but continues to negatively impact the industry. Today's younger customers, who will be a critical part of the customer base by 2030, will be the yardstick to measure success against the moving target of digital experience. Finally, sector coupling, and the blurring of industry boundaries will continue, with an increasing number of partnerships emerging from industries that utilities have never partnered with before.

Digital is now ubiquitous. No initiatives or projects should be planned without the business vision in mind, or without fitting into the company's technological roadmap, including the digital strategy. Unfortunately, companies will have to do more with less, calling on creativity to differentiate.

Delivering value to customers, employees, the ecosystem, and investors today will forge tomorrow’s winners, and weed out the rest.