Business trends for the future

There’s been a lot of searching on my site for the list of the “10 big business trends for the future,” so I thought I’d replay it here in a blog post.

• Low-cost domination:  Every industry is now involved in a “race to the bottom”, as low cost producers come to dominate markets
• Commoditization:  Every product and service is being commoditized as empowered consumers become increasingly driven by the “Wal-Mart effect,” expecting consistently lower prices
• Value-enhancement as a strategy: Margins suffer as a result, and going “premium” might be the only means to survival
• Hyperinnovation:  At the same time, hyper-innovation will come to challenge your ability to keep up with changing expectations
• The end of product lifecycles:  Expect nano-lifecycles to become the norm for most products and services — and that you will be measuring product lifecycles in months rather than years
• Specialization:  Increasing specialization will come to challenge your ability to compete – which might mean that you’ll increasingly have to “go narrow”
• Skills shortage:  Expect that a skills shortage might make this an even bigger challenge — how will you source the talent in a world in which specialized talent is becoming ever more scarce?
• Hollow companies: Organizations are hollowing out — and you might not be ready for the impact that comes from these smaller, faster, more nimble competitors
• Forward oriented innovation:  Short term decisiveness has become critical — yet you are likely still suffering from aggressive indecision. At the same time, long term insight is one of the most important corporate cultures to re-establish