Facing the Future
Towards the end of every year, experts try to prepare the planet for what lies ahead by spotting trends that are likely to affect us. Limping out of a crushing recession and generally feeling globally out of sorts, what can we expect in 2011?
Finance
The financial sector will have to work very hard to get cash-strapped consumers to part with their money.
America’s top trend expert, Faith Popcorn, predicts that establishing trust and offering high margin products are crucial factors in the economic playing field. Right now, we are anxious to preserve our capital at virtually any cost.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predicts 2.5% growth among its 30 member nations this year, with world growth weighing in at 4.3%, according to reports by the International Monetary Fund. South Africa, Africa’s largest economy, will probably expand 5% overall in 2011, with an inflation rate of 5.2% predicted.
Cape Town social media expert and lecturer Karen Jeynes says that there is “definitely an increase in remote workers” (employees from countries outside of a company’s headquarters). This will have a negative impact on traditional employment patterns among, for example, American workers, who might be ousted by either computers or cheaper contractors in India and elsewhere.
Technology
Buzz words such as “cloud computing”, “virtualisation” and “open revolution” which were hot in 2010 continue to drive technological innovation now – and hugely affect how we live both our real and virtual lives.
Trend experts cite cost saving technology as all the rage. Consumers will be able to do pretty much everything from their smart phones or “mobile computers”, while workers will no longer be chained to their desks and the company’s monolithic computer network.
And with more people over the age of 60 using social networks such as Facebook and mobile device technology, marketers had better take heed. Says Jeynes: “From a ‘techie’ perspective, traditional assumptions about (online) usage are now out the window. From the ordinary companies’ perspective, it means the best place to find **all** of your market is, increasingly, online.”
Politics
What governments will get up to next is anybody’s guess, but the intriguing trend of “icon toppling” will make life difficult for those in power. The term, coined by Faith Popcorn, refers to the idea of toppling anything that is considered to be “big and established”. The trend now is towards alternatives, in anything from medicine to business.
According to African Economic Outlook, public service delivery continues to be a pressing and influential political issue in South Africa. The “delicate balancing act” faced by President Jacob Zuma involves upholding reassuring market friendly policies, while delivering on promises to alleviate poverty against a “backdrop of sharply increased unemployment.”
Society
Restraint and epidemic mistrust are trends to watch in 2011, says Popcorn. Against a backdrop of economic hardship and general uncertainty, people are trying hard to control what they **can** control. (Spot the obsessive compulsive parent, the perfectionist with an up-to-date Blackberry address book and the busy executive de-cluttering her already tidy work space.)
People are also “cashing out” – questioning their personal and professional goals – and opting for a simpler way of living, says Popcorn. “Anchoring” is also on the up, with people going back to their spiritual roots and what was secure in the past, in order to face up to the future. The great thing about these social trends, she says, is that we are spending more time at home, cooking our own meals and bonding with our families.
And, although we are staying at home more, social networking is on the up. This has interesting global social implications, says Jeynes. “Although we are more easily able to connect to the world from the safety of our own little nests, there is also a sense of urgency connected to being in the world; that communicating and collaborating across the globe increases our sense of our humanity and our human liability for the suffering of others,” she explains.
Environment
Going green is becoming more the norm than the exception. According to the World Resources Institute, companies in particular will make an effort to reduce the impact of agriculture and industry on the environment in 2011.
New and re-designed products, better technology and processes aimed at efficiently using resources are all on the cards.
The reality is that retailers and manufacturers are leaning towards products that create a smaller environmental footprint, and in the home consumers are becoming savvier about wastefulness and consumerism.
Story by Beth Cooper Howell
