The Journey ahead – The lessons and the Opportunities.
The biggest lesson to take from 2020 is we have the ability of foresight, yet we ignore the signals. We allow our drive for instant gratification to blind our vision ahead. And we don’t adequately prepare because we believe our money protect us. Yet many are beginning to realise that money for retirement is not necessarily the thing that will feed us, shelter us and keep us safe.
Futurists like Amy Webb and Bernard Marr combine their understanding of history, science and trends, as well as risk management parameters to come up with reasonable scenarios that we can put in place to provide greater assurance of resilience.
In 2021, things will most certainly be tougher before they get better. The economic and social fabric repair still has a long journey ahead, with more viral strains of covid, and the slow pace to deploy vaccines, we know there’ll be more disruption, and someone will have to pay the cost of the stimulus packages that many well-off countries have been living on.
Katherine Ann Byam (MBA, FCCA) is a business resilience strategist, consultant and career coach. She’s the founder of Dieple, Digitally Enabling People, A digital transformation consultancy firm based in the UK helping start-ups to scale up. She supports leaders in tackling design challenges that create and sustain business an professional growth in an evolving global marketplace. She hosts Where Ideas Launch - the podcast for the sustainable innovator an a career show on Youtube called Harnessing the Courage to Lead.
Kate spends her time between the coasts of south England and west France, enjoying writing as a creative outlet.
The biggest lesson to take from 2020 is we have the ability of foresight, yet we ignore the signals. We allow our drive for instant gratification to blind our vision ahead. And we don’t adequately prepare because we believe our money protect us.
Yet many are beginning to realise that money for retirement is not necessarily the thing that will feed us, shelter us and keep us safe.
Futurists like Amy Webb and Bernard Marr combine their understanding of history, science and trends, as well as risk management parameters to come up with reasonable scenarios that we can put in place to provide greater assurance of resilience.
In 2021, things will most certainly be tougher before they get better. The economic and social fabric repair still has a long journey ahead, with more viral strains of covid, and the slow pace to deploy vaccines, we know there’ll be more disruption, and someone will have to pay the cost of the stimulus packages that many well-off countries have been living on.
Expect health and politics to continue centre stage. The big things to watch are:
The transition of power in the United States
The UK’s transition to a fully sovereign land with its own trade deals.
The growing humanitarian crisis in lesser developed countries all around the world, especially impacting the poor, women, and children.
Everyone will need to manage their resources in this lean period and we can hope for more home spun frugal and sustainable solutions to emerge.
Support local economies — the regions and districts where you live.
Seek out post pandemic strategic partnerships. Look forward to diversifying even further your business / employment portfolios.
Embed further redundancies in your supply chains.
Repositioning your brands, products, services across multiple social strata, as the middle class will take an initial beating. Make strategic decisions about how you compete — choosing your allies and foes in business wisely.
Everyone is waiting for that collective shift of mindset a new year brings. In theory we are already riding on the shirt tales of hope post-Christmas. January is a month of purpose and hope, so we should ready ourselves to ride that wave.
We’ve been dabbling in Virtual reality for years, but the age of the gamer is upon us. Improved digital user experience is really heating up as a trend.
I for one am really excited about haptic suits, even though I’m no gamer. I recently watched ready player one — a 2018 movie and got excited by this feedback loop, although the idea of haptic suits has existed in some form or other since 1994.
We’re likely to experience greater interest in Agroponics as sustainability claims its seat at all households and tables.
The battle for the truth and its conflict with knowledge will rage on without question.
Look forward to anti-trust action and fractionally fairer tax regimes to deal with digital juggernauts.
Health will continue to be centre stage, as covid has woken up the possibility for greater surveillance in this area.
Expect new economic fiscal measures to address growing global debt; we are not yet ready to change our systems of governing and assessing value. This will mean more corporate restructuring, higher taxes, and pressure on employment and naturally questions about the future of work and employment.
Protecting the rights of the individual employee will be more complicated in an age of increasing remote first work. For both employees and entrepreneurs, the competition in the marketplace will become even tougher, relationships even more important, and relevant skills the defining factor.
Travel will return with more invasive conditions and surveillance structures.
People will be craving better digital experiences, or off-grid alternatives.
Expect more cybercrime, and offline.
The Olympics. Will bring us some hope.
By the end of 2021, the new directions should be clear as we look to the horizon again. We will be in a constant state of learning, as the shelf life of “knowledge” as we know it becomes shorter and shorter.
Be ready.