Firms Weigh in on 2020's Biggest Lessons and Takeaways

The past year was a difficult one by any measure, and most of us are welcoming 2021 with open arms as a chance to start fresh and move forward after a 2020 that challenged us in just about every way imaginable.

The global business world saw operations up-ended like never before as the pandemic turned offices into ghost towns and entire workforces became fully remote. For consulting firms, air travel and client face time dropped significantly in 2020, if not entirely, and consultancies in many cases had to scramble to invent new methods of ensuring service continuity on the fly.

2020 tested firms' ability to rapidly innovate and pivot unexpectedly, accelerating to light speed the timelines that would reasonably be expected to undertake such dramatic shifts under normal circumstances. Last year also saw companies make good on their frequent refrains that they put their people first, as many of these rapid-fire changes were driven by a desire to keep employees and their families safe.