Trends Identified

The increasing role of governments
Executives in Europe and North America are haunted by the perception of crippling public-debt levels: 54 and 61 percent, respectively, think that public-debt levels will have a "significant" or "severely negative" impact on GDP growth in their home markets. In contrast, 45 percent of respondents in China and 24 percent in India expect that the level of public debt will have a "positive" impact or "no impact" in their home markets.
2010
Five forces reshaping the global economy: McKinsey Global Survey results
McKinsey
... and companies will prepare with pre-emptive layoffs.
Executives know the good times won’t last and many will reduce their workforce pre-emptively to preserve profits through a coming recession, warns Danielle DiMartino Booth, author of “Fed Up.” General Motors announced 14,000 strategic layoffs in November, after 2,250 had already taken buyouts. Meanwhile, Verizon will let go of 10,400 employees via voluntary severance, the company announced Monday. These won’t be the last. “I guarantee you right now, consultants across the country are convening and discussing with executive teams at many companies what they also can do to get in front of the next recession,” Booth says. “Companies are taking unusual steps because they know how very long in the tooth this expansion is and they know what's to come.”
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Natural-resource management
Executives' concerns about the impact that increasing constraints on the supply or usage of natural resources will have on their companies' profits appear to be subsiding despite the prominence of these issues in the public debate today. Twenty-five percent of respondents now expect this trend to have a negative effect on their company's profits, down from 28 percent in last year's survey and 33 percent two years ago.
2010
Five forces reshaping the global economy: McKinsey Global Survey results
McKinsey
The tech backlash builds
Expect to see this on multiple fronts in 2018, as retailers worry about Amazon’s growing dominance, media companies struggle in the Facebook-Google-Netflix vice grip, Congress continues its quest for information on how Russia, ISIS and other bad actors benefit from social networks, and concerns about cyber security and data privacy grow.
2018
Five Big Business Trends to Watch in 2018
Fortune
Focus on Transparency
Expectations of government transparency are growing while personal data is becoming more ubiquitous, creating new implications for privacy, cybersecurity, and accountability.
2017
Beyond the Noise- The Megatrends of Tomorrow’s World
Deloitte
Asteroid mining
Exploatation of non-terrestrial resources has been predicated for quite some time. However tools and hardware have been developed notably in the USA (both by NASA and private companies) to characterise and identify appropriate Near Earth Objects (NEOs) to eventually dock with them and exploit their resources. Asteroid mining is also linked to the protection of Earth from geocruisers and thus to the detection and tracking of such dangerous space objects.
2015
Preparing the Commission for future opportunities - Foresight network fiches 2030
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Advanced oil and gas exploration and recovery
Exploration and recovery techniques that make extraction of unconventional oil and gas economical
2013
Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy
McKinsey
Increasing occurrence of severe weather events
Extreme weather events are a major consequence of climate change,
and are becoming more frequent, powerful and erratic. What is needed is not just relief when disaster strikes, but adaptation to the massive effects these phenomena produce, including disease, political unrest and economic stress – issues explored elsewhere in this report. It’s obvious that adapting to – or ideally, preventing severe weather events –results in a better outcome for everyone.
2014
Outlook on the global agenda 2015
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Social-driven IT
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other forms of social media are not just new communication channels to customers. They are powerful catalysts that are changing the ways your customers, employees, and partners use technology to interact with the world around them. Most organizations have yet to catch up to that reality, and almost none take full advantage of it. They must.
2012
Accenture Technology Vision 2012
Accenture
Facial Recognition Applications Surge
Facial Recognition solutions can be utilised across a host of arenas, from security to personalised marketing. Technology has the potential to deliver benefits ranging from frictionless authentication and payment to improved brand interaction.
2018
Top Tech trends 2018
Juniper Research