2020 Tokyo Olympics: United by Humanity in the Age of Digital Transformation

The worldwide coronavirus-enforced shutdown has brought much anticipation and uncertainty to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games – now taking place in 2021. However, after much anticipation and despite historic challenges, the Olympic Games have finally begun! And the stage is now set for an epic journey for these world-class athletes and an ode to what technology and innovation can achieve in the age of digital transformation.

When world events cause disruption, the Olympics have always stood as an example of how to turn adversity into success and bring people, industries, processes, and technology together to challenge and change the course of human endeavors. In an extra effort to adjust to the current zeitgeist, the International Olympic Committee has even approved a change in the 1896 Olympic motto to recognize the unifying power of sport: Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together. 

These are the values and abilities Teleperformance looks up to when it comes to providing clients and customers with the best experience there can be: to become faster in digital transformation, to achieve higher customer satisfaction, and to attain stronger business results, all this without losing the emotional connection that brings people together, so pivotal amidst social distancing. 

At Teleperformance, we strive for nothing less than to stay at the top of our game, and we know success takes decades of passion, innovation, and persistence, very much like the case of Aaron Fotheringham, the extreme wheelchair motocross inventor and four-time winner of the WCMX World Championships. He accomplished seven world records and has become a great inspiration to a global audience. 

Being the very best goes way beyond medals and world records. The most inspirational aspect of the Olympics and sports is the cultural diversity, gender equality, social inclusion, global solidarity, and fair play. We know these are the values that connect and motivate Teleperformance's workforce of 380,000 people around the globe. 

Our people undoubtedly understand Olympic-sized challenges. After the outbreak of the pandemic, Teleperformance rapidly moved  more than 250,000 employees to work from the safety of their homes in 2020 – the majority of which were transitioned in just the first eight weeks of the crisis. This Olympic-level accomplishment illustrated that companies, too, can demonstrate the critical values of perseverance to overcome our challenges, to persist when we encounter obstacles, to innovate when something seems impossible, and to maintain that deeply-held passion we have for helping people – employees, clients, customers, and communities alike. 

As in the case of Adolfo Cambiaso, the best polo player the world has ever seen, we have spent decades perfecting our skills, refining our processes, assembling winning teams, and finding new ways to achieve more than we had before. We deliver the best experiences for our clients and their customers, always moving forward and adapting to their changing needs and the world's new order.

Therefore, we are also eager to witness the transformative power of the Olympic Games in action in today's age of transformation. Like many other organizations globally, Teleperformance had to work at the very edge of a technological revolution to keep up with the unprecedented digital transformation across various industries. Live sports viewership, for example, is changing to suit on-demand consumption driven by digital media platforms winning broadcast rights. In fact, the 'digital' here stands for the sum of all on-demand ways spectators can interact with their favorite team, athlete, or event. 

Athletes themselves are disrupting traditional team and media outlets by sharing their stories directly to fans on their own digital platforms or partnering with organizations that can take their messages and passion even further. And, likewise, companies like Teleperformance can partner with those who we feel exemplify the values and core principles that define our culture today, and our vision for tomorrow.

That’s why we have partnered with amazing world-class athletes like Vasco Vilaça, whose journey to become one of the best triathletes in the world has been paved with hard work, discipline, and an unwavering desire to be the very best at what he loves and what he does.

This journey of hard work and fundamental human dedication is also illustrated by Aries Susanti Rahayu, an accomplished speed climbing champion from Indonesia who has spent most of her life reaching for the top and has now become one of the world's highest-ranked speed climbers.

Amid the stark backdrop of a global crisis that has served to isolate us, the world has never before needed to be united by emotion as much as we are today. The world is watching the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with renewed optimism. Despite the one-year delay due to the pandemic, the timing of the Games transpiring now is what we have all needed and anxiously anticipated – a means for bringing together people, cultures, communities, and achievers that can help us all regain a sense of optimism and inspiration.

There is no truer example than the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that we are all capable of accomplishing remarkable things in the age of digital transformation, regardless of the setback we face along the way. There is untapped potential within each of us, driving us to do more, to be more, to become the very best we can be.

#InspiredtobetheBest #EachPersonMatters #2020TokyoOlympics


Photo by Erik Zünder on Unsplash