Trends Identified
Brands won’t be able to stay neutral.
Consumers and employees increasingly expect companies to take a position on the day’s issues and live their values, says Blackbird CEO Ross Martin. “You’re forced, as a company, as a leader, to stand for something, otherwise everyone will know you stand for nothing,” he warns. “You won’t be hated, you’ll become completely irrelevant, and the people who worked for you, won’t work for you anymore because you didn’t stand up when it mattered.” These expectations will only intensify in 2019, agrees Marianne Cooper, senior research scholar at Stanford and the lead researcher on Lean In. “To prepare, leaders need to get clear on their own and their company’s values, decide which issues make the most sense to weigh in on, and pre-plan how they will respond — or at least establish a process for dealing with situations that need a rapid response.”
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Hotels will take away your alarm clock.
“It used to be a real treat to go to a hotel because they had things you didn’t have at home," says Marriott International’s global chief development officer, Anthony Capuano. "We have everything at home today!” And we expect those things to work at the hotel too, whether that’s connecting our own devices to the TV screen or continuing a Netflix show where we left it back home. Meanwhile, the technologies we no longer use that hotels have stubbornly held onto are finally disappearing. Bye bye alarm clocks and landline phones!
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Employers will make room for neurodiversity.
Neurodiversity refers to the inclusion of people with all sorts of cognitive abilities and patterns, from ADHD and dyslexia to people on the autism spectrum. It is coming to workplaces as the chronological consequence of a cultural and scientific shift in the 1990s; conditions once seen as pathologies to be medicalized became differences society should embrace. “You have a whole generation of people who were much more rigorously diagnosed entering the workforce now,” says Ed Thompson, founder of Uptimize, an organization that helps employers attract, hire and retain neurodivergent talent. Add to that a “chronic war for talent,” he says, which is prompting recruiters to look beyond their usual demographics, and neurodiversity is “becoming a category of workplace [diversity and inclusion] that a lot of people are talking about in a way that wasn’t true even a year ago.”
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Drugmakers will double down on China.
In 2018, that investment translated into pharmaceutical partnerships with leading Chinese companies like health insurer Ping An (Sanofi), e-commerce giant Alibaba (Merck Group) and tech conglomerate Tencent (Novartis). Not only is the country the second largest pharmaceuticals market for many companies now, China itself is rethinking its approach to medicines. It published its first list of rare diseases six months ago, and a new drug approval process may result in new therapies from Chinese drugmakers, too. “Our experiences there are going to drive how we reimagine health care,” predicts Novartis’ Vas Narasimhan, who took over as CEO in early 2018.
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Your next vacation may be to space or undersea.
Ok, maybe not “next” vacation unless you’re a very occasional traveler. But in 2019, NASA will start building its Lunar Space Station and we’ll see continued investment in private spaceflight, predicts Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings. His company compiled data-driven travel insights from its millions of reviews and bookings. Until space becomes an option, “travelers are seeking out uncharted territories in other forms, with 60% of travelers confirming they’d want to stay in an accommodation under the sea,” Fogel writes. Gen Z and Y travelers are also bringing their values with them and seeking environmentally-friendly and socially-conscious experiences, often opting for shorter, nearer trips. The hot new destinations? The Bahamas, Florence, Palm Springs and Cartagena.
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
We will stop living an Insta life.
The social media honeymoon is over. As people question their screen addiction, the impacts are felt in all walks of life, from dinners where guests demand the phones be put away to changing trends in the beauty industry. “In 2019, people are looking to scale back, simplify their routine and their look,” says Melissa Butler, founder and CEO of The Lip Bar, after years where trends were set by Instagram influencers and elaborate makeup tutorials on Youtube. “Social media has played such a big part in pressuring us to show up in a certain way. People are looking to reconnect with who they are, go back to the basics.”
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Shift in Global Economic Power
The falling prices of crude oil, depreciation of strong currencies and rise of emerging economies poised challenges to the dominant powerhouses are some of the signs of global economic shift occurring presently.
2017
Science & Technology Foresight Malaysia
Malaysia, Academy of Sciences Malaysia
Emergence of Disruptive Technology
Disruptive technologies will continue to evolve in the coming decades. Hence, it is in the hands of policy makers, entrepreneurs, business leaders and citizens to maximise application of these technologies while dealing with the challenges.
2017
Science & Technology Foresight Malaysia
Malaysia, Academy of Sciences Malaysia
Rapid Urbanisation
By 2050, 66% of the global population is expected to be living in urban areas with nearly 90% of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa. Increase of population density and activities in urban areas across the globe would significantly transform the structure of societies, distribution of resources and governance systems.
2017
Science & Technology Foresight Malaysia
Malaysia, Academy of Sciences Malaysia
Demographic change
The world population is expected to increase in the coming years with a demographic shift seen with number of seniors increasing as they have longer life expectancy and declining birth rates. The ageing population phenomenon is triggering one of the most significant social transformations
of the twenty- first century.
2017
Science & Technology Foresight Malaysia
Malaysia, Academy of Sciences Malaysia