Brazil’s Agenda 2021

The survey “Brazil’s Agenda 2021: Recover, thrive and prepare the legacy for the business“ – conducted by Deloitte between November 10^th and 24^th – addresses the impact of Covid-19 on business, while it analyzes market expectations regarding the recovery of the economy and organizations. The survey polled a sample of 663 companies in 36 economic sectors, whose sum of revenues amounted to 1.2 trillion last year. Of the total respondents, 65% are CXOs.

In the context of business recovery, throughout the crisis most companies outlined priorities, promoted adjustments or made investments to respond to different demands the moment required, in addition to seeking efficiency in their operations. Despite the optimism, as almost all respondents think that 2021 will be a year of growth, most respondents (4 out of 5) do not believe that Brazil will achieve a higher level of economic activity in 2021 compared to the previous period of the crisis.

Regarding the reestablishment of somewhat normality, companies point out that they should increase the number of employees (44%), restoring jobs lost during the worst phase of the crisis. Among executives who want to reduce or promote replacements in their staff (32%), most will do so in order to attract more qualified professionals or prioritize the automation of processes and functions.

Social isolation required companies to adopt virtualization for business continuity – as was the case with sales channels and the workforce. This reality has led to the need to expand and invest in technology and, consequently, to enhance attention on issues related to cybersecurity and data management compliance.

Forty percent of respondents practiced online sales during the pandemic, while 85% adopted remote work in the period. More than half (51%) increased investments in technological infrastructure during the crisis. In 2021, 56% expect to broaden contributions to digital security and 84% will create or increase training for their professionals.

The survey points out that companies have been structuring environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) plans, but that the theme is a challenge for most organizations. The adequacy to the GDPR is another priority: only 38% of the companies said they were fully prepared to comply with the regulation, at the time of its entry into force.

Other priority actions next year to foster entrepreneurship are incentives to expand the supply of credit for companies (69%), improve support for small and medium-sized enterprises (68%), encourage the adaptation of digital transformation (58%) and enhancement of processes of opening and closing companies (45%).