As we welcome in 2020, it’s a perfect time to consider the trends that will impact us and our businesses. Here is a list of upcoming trends to reflect upon:
Trend #1: Sustainability
The way businesses are run can have a huge impact on the environment. While we hear a lot of stories about large companies impacting sustainability, we can also do our part as small businesses. Professional organizations have noticed how going paperless has greatly reduced their carbon footprint. Concern for the environment has made the list of many companies’ core values.
Trend #2: The Gig Economy
Instead of having one 9 to 5 job, many millennials have multiple jobs. There is now more flexibility when it comes to hiring and retaining young workers. They can be employees, contractors, outsourced solutions, remote, local, part-time, full time, temporary, or permanent. Sub-trends in this area include more virtual workers and many more opportunities for veterans.
Trend #3: AI – Automated Intelligence
This trend has impacted the accounting profession in a big way, and continues to do so. Marketing technologies have also been evolving more every day to adapt to peoples behavior patterns and changing attention spans. Efficient communication is reigning; Gmail is finishing our sentences for us, and chat and other technologies are having conversations through bots.
Trend #4: Storytelling
People want to know:
The story behind your business; why do you do what you do?
The stories about your customers and the experience they have with you and your services
The stories from your employees and how it is to work at your organization
Digital communication has moved from text to graphics to video as bandwidth improves. Video makes stories even easier to share. Businesses will use both stories and video to get their message out.
Trend #5: Diversity Expanded
The conversation is no longer about race, gender, or sexual preference. It’s about authenticity and being the same person at work and at home, but it takes courage to reveal our differences, especially if they are outside the norm.
Trend #6: Incredible Customer Experience
As businesses, the challenge is how we can deliver an entertaining, positive, and memorable experience while producing the outcomes the customer wants.
Trends #7: Drones
So far, drones have made appearances in photography, special effects at conferences, as toys, in movies, and of course, in war. We see them in use for safety reasons, going where people shouldn’t or can’t. They will become more pervasive in 2020 and there will be more rules, protocols, and court cases on their use.
Trend #8: User Interface
The move from desktop to mobile is nearly complete, with only the laggard portion of the population remaining. The move to voice is still a work in progress, and it will steadily continue to gain traction in 2020.
Trend #9: Actionable Analytics
Capturing information digitally gives businesses a huge amount of data to utilize but small businesses have barely scratched the surface of this profitable information. This is something our firm can help you with.
Trend #10: Pace of Transformation
New business models in companies like Tesla, Uber, Google, and Facebook will continue to show up at a rapid rate. The business that’s most nimble will be the one that changes the game or at least stays in it without folding.
Which trends impact your business the most? Which ones speak to you? Feel free to reach out to discuss any of these ideas with us.