South Africa, March 31 -- In 2020, a crisis that would change many things forever hit the world. Offices stood empty. Cars, previously stuck in motorway jams on the daily commute, idled on driveways. Trains and buses ran empty, if at all. Planes were grounded. As smog cleared from cities like Los Angeles and Mumbai, people started to see views lost for decades. The airwaves chattered with billions of meetings as technologies like Zoom and Teams went through baptisms of fire to keep businesses running. For many people across the globe, work would never be the same again.

Even before Covid, the rapid rate of change transforming the workplace over the past 50 years was extraordinary. In the 1970s - when I started my working life there were ...