Top chief executives say a flexible workplace system is needed to unlock the potential of the digital economy so they can offer services from healthcare to shopping 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Myer chief executive Richard Umbers and Medibank Private chief executive George Savvides will tell The Australian Financial Review's Workforce and Productivity Summit, which begins on Tuesday, that changes are urgently needed for business to compete with emerging digital technologies on the global stage.