The economy will continue to struggle. Unemployment and underemployment will remain at historically high levels. Politics will be dominated by gridlock.
More and more books will appear declaring the end of traditional management (aka hierarchical bureaucracy) and calling for the reinvention of management, while the companies that actually begin reinventing their management will still be a small proportion of the total.
The Shift Index 2011 will show overall continuing declines in rate of return on assets, life expectancy of firms in the Fortune 500, and employee engagement.
The health sector will continue its calamitously escalating costs and poor performance in terms of accidental deaths; recognition that hierarchical bureaucracy is a major factor will be scattered. The call for “patients first” health care will begin.
The number of voices calling for “students first” reform of education will grow substantially, but the system overall will also remain crippled by hierarchical bureaucracy.
Businesses will continue to be skittish. As a result of the recession and the lack of confidence in both the economy and U.S. dollar, many organizations will continue to sit on assets and cash reserves. Instead of emphasizing growth in 2011, many businesses will focus on recovery and stability.
— Ron Wince, guidonps.com
Mergers and acquisitions will be hot. The economy is improving more than we see in the press. Companies will try to acquire what they can while acquisition costs are relatively lower (coming off the recession). — Elliott Baretz, swc.com
The demand for hybrid events – a physical event with a virtual extension before, during or after the physical event takes place--will continue to grow. – Sharat Sharan, the President and CEO of ON24
Sharing of goods and services. We will continue moving away from a world where we aspired (in our personal lives and businesses) to own everything. Now, we can have access to goods and services with the same utility, convenience and enjoyment as owning them.– Lisa Gansky, author of The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing
Virtual offices and co-working will thrive in 2011 as savvy small-business owners and entrepreneurs figure out they can have access to enterprise level amenities at a fraction of the cost. — Bobby Freeman, dominionbusinesscenter.com
The current privacy backlash will accelerate against social networks and the companies that combine and aggregate information scraped off the Web. Sophisticated tools are now available that scan everything that is recorded on the Web, from blog posts to Facebook “likes” and with increasing efficiency can combine and analyze that information into an intellectual, social, cultural and economic profile of the individual. — Tony Shaw, wilshireconferences.com
Corporate social responsibility will be increasingly recognized as one of the top business risks. No company can afford the public scorn, government scrutiny, consumer backlash and employee contempt that is associated with being a bad corporate citizen. — Ashok Kamal, bennuworld.com
Thinking green will continue moving beyond the ‘fringey-few’ and be part of the mainstream. The more attention it gets, the more new products and services will be created to support it. Every time something is reused, it cuts down on the energy needed to create, package and ship it. – Matt Knox, co-founder of DiggersList
Cause-based businesses will continue to resonate with people in 2011. People pay attention to and spread the word about products that help others. It’s good for your conscience and your bottom line. — Mason Gentry, FaucetFace.com
Groupon-type services for the business industry to market content and services will flourish. This is like putting social networking on steroids for people selling information and knowledge. — Susan Harrow prsecrets.com
More and more companies will be "gamifying" their products and services. They will be studying human behaviors, and then employing game-like reward structures. Competition, camaraderie and immersion, all of these will increasingly be applied to a business setting. — Erica Orange, weineredrichbrown.com
Got a different take on 2011? Love to hear about it.
Sources: my own hunches and selections from
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2011-big-ideas-for-small-businesses-0835/
Thanks for sharing Mr Denning. It's a grim outlook for the most part - maybe it's my perception. Perhaps it's time for a springboard story to propel many of us into acting around these global trends.
Happy Holidays !
Jorge
Posted by: Jorge | December 23, 2010 at 01:17 PM
Jorge
It doesn't *have* to be grim. I am certainly trying my hardest with springboard stories to make things go the other way: http://bit.ly/hdWwIy If more people will join with me, then things could be very different. :-}
Steve
Posted by: Steve Denning | December 23, 2010 at 01:30 PM
Grim for the caterpillar-economy, but very hopeful for the butterfly-economy ... we're still goopeying the two together, so mixed feelings common.
Look out for butterfly jobs, just created an employment agency for connecting up the hopeful trends, please consider it YOURS if you're creating or searching for future jobs:
http://butterflyjobs.info
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