Trend Macrotrend 6: efficiency gives way to sufficiency as the organizing goal

Summary

NTT DATA's sixth macrotrend argues that organisations are moving from pursuing efficiency to pursuing sufficiency. After decades of optimising for speed, scale and cost, companies are running into the limits of growth driven by efficiency. Climate instability, scarce energy, regulatory pressure and social expectations call for a different model that puts resilience, long-term adequacy and ecological fit first. The report warns that efficiency on its own no longer guarantees stability or credibility and can even heighten systemic risk by chasing short-term gains beyond planetary boundaries. In the sufficiency model, AI, digital twins and integrated resource systems help identify optimal thresholds instead of endless expansion. Progress, in this view, is measured by purposeful and sustainable growth rather than by more output.