The year of divergence

IF AT THE start of 2020 you asked chief executives what kept them up at night, they would trot out the usual list: how to adapt their business models to a changing world, reconfigure supply chains amid geopolitical squabbles, , attract the brightest employees and not alienate consumers and investors increasingly concerned about things like or climate change. How, in other words, to ensure their company joins—or remains among—the ranks of superstar firms that increasingly dominate the corporate landscape, rather than the long tail of also-rans.Pose the same question now, as the most turbulent year in living memory draws to a close, and bosses’ answers will be pretty much the same—only more so. The pandemic did change some things. Companies embarked on a in whether they could switch to mass remote working (, or ) and whether global supply chains could withstand widespread disruption (). Bosses had to learn to and their were tested. Human-resources chiefs .