current global business environment
Cassandra is obviously not the only forecaster, and sadly on occasion this particular modern-day soothsayer fails to match the infallibility of his classical forebear. I say this because the England cricket team, despite my dire predictions of disappointment, has today handsomely defeated India in Mumbai. So, it is in a spirit of humility that I offer these predictions for 2013 from alternative (I am loth to say rival) forecasters, Professor Thomas Malnight of the IMD business school in Lausanne and his colleague Tracey Keys of Strategy Dynamics Global.
Looking down their ten trends, I find myself general in agreement (though I'm not as pessimistic as they are in number 7, and we have to bear in mind that a lot of what they say is more relevant to the years well beyond 2013). And quite what they mean by the "ownerless economy" in number 2 is a bit of a mystery…Still, well worth pondering, and well worth looking at the Globaltrends website. Meanwhile, here is their potted version:
The great power shift
10 trends business leaders need to watch in 2013
Thomas W. Malnight and Tracey S. Keys
The great global redistribution of economic and social power will continue over the next 12 months. Power will flow away from traditional institutions that have failed to deliver progress – especially governments and banks. It will flow towards communities and individuals, and also to businesses whose leaders understand and act on the big trends shaping our future.
This future looks uncertain and unstable. Hurricane Sandy was a deadly reminder of shifting climate patterns, emphasizing the need for new ways to manage the world’s resources and environment. There are growing levels of social unrest over rising inequality, austerity, unemployment, political ineptitude, institutional failure and more. And companies will continue to fail because they misread the future - like Kodak, which invented the digital camera but filed for bankruptcy after focusing on its
Looking down their ten trends, I find myself general in agreement (though I'm not as pessimistic as they are in number 7, and we have to bear in mind that a lot of what they say is more relevant to the years well beyond 2013). And quite what they mean by the "ownerless economy" in number 2 is a bit of a mystery…Still, well worth pondering, and well worth looking at the Globaltrends website. Meanwhile, here is their potted version:
The great power shift
10 trends business leaders need to watch in 2013
Thomas W. Malnight and Tracey S. Keys
The great global redistribution of economic and social power will continue over the next 12 months. Power will flow away from traditional institutions that have failed to deliver progress – especially governments and banks. It will flow towards communities and individuals, and also to businesses whose leaders understand and act on the big trends shaping our future.
This future looks uncertain and unstable. Hurricane Sandy was a deadly reminder of shifting climate patterns, emphasizing the need for new ways to manage the world’s resources and environment. There are growing levels of social unrest over rising inequality, austerity, unemployment, political ineptitude, institutional failure and more. And companies will continue to fail because they misread the future - like Kodak, which invented the digital camera but filed for bankruptcy after focusing on its