Trends Identified
Shifts in global economic power
The rapidly developing nations, particularly those with a large working‐age population, that embrace a business ethos, attract investment and improve their education system will gain the most. Emerging nations face the biggest challenge as technology increases the gulf with the developed world; unemployment and migration will continue to
be rampant without significant, sustained investment. The erosion of the middle class, wealth disparity and job losses due to large‐scale automation will increase the risk of social unrest in developed countries.
2017
Workforce of the future The competing forces shaping 2030
PWC
Significant variations in employment outcomes continue to exist between regions and countries
The world continues to experience diverse trends in employment outcomes. Developed countries are expected to enter their sixth consecutive year of decreasing unemployment rates, falling to 5.5 per cent in 2018, the lowest rate since 2007. Yet many countries continue to report high rates of labour underutilization, with large shares of discouraged workers and growing incidence of involuntary part- time employment.
2018
World Employment and Social Outlook
International Labour Organization (ILO)
Silence is gold
"We’re seeing a dramatic escalation in the rate at which people disconnect, unsubscribe and opt out to stem the barrage of content and messages that clutter daily life. As consumers, we’ve come to realize that it’s no longer simply a lifestyle choice, but a serious mental health issue. As we put up more barriers between ourselves and digital technologies, organizations must learn how to offer value to users who crave quiet in a noisy world."
2019
Fjord trends 2019
Fjord
Silencing is golden - A new era of medicine will come into view
Medical historians of the future will describe 2018 as the year that “advanced” medicines started to become a reality. It is hard, without the benefit of hindsight, to appreciate fully the long-term significance of any individual development. Nevertheless, it is clear from a pattern of expected events during 2018 that the world is on the threshold of an exciting medical future.
2018
The world in 2018
The Economist
Simplicity in complexity
Organizations tend to respond to new challenges by adding teams, functions, and departments. As organizations grow, their structure becomes increasingly complicated. New silos develop, the number of stakeholders involved in decision making increases, and interdependencies between functions multiply. The plethora of stakeholders, decision rights, processes, and policies slows down every decision and hinders collaboration across departments, reinforcing the silo effect. 74% of managers say that company complexity is hurting business performance
2017
Twelve Forces That Will Radically Change How Organizations Work
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Simulation
Simulations will be used more extensively in plant operations to leverage real-time data and mirror the physical world in a virtual model, which can include machines, products, and humans. This will allow operators to test and optimize the machine settings for the next product in line in the virtual world before the physical changeover, thereby driving down machine setup times and increasing quality.
2015
Nine Technologies Transforming Industrial Production
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Single-Cell DNA Sequencing
“In our body we have millions of normal cells and then we have the ones that aren’t normal,” Kocher says. “And if you don’t sequence the abnormal ones, you don’t know about the problems. So this notion of being able to do single cells versus just the average of when they break up all the cells in the blood, is an important nuance. That’s going to become an important clinical tool in the future. Today we’re just testing average DNA sequences, so you miss stuff.”
2018
The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs
Fast Company
Skill imbalances
The skills and capabilities businesses require are rapidly evolving. Even as automation may yield a surplus of unskilled and semiskilled labor, the digitalization of products and services is creating an enormous demand for skilled digital talent. By 2020, 30% of tech jobs will go unfilled because of talent shortages.
2017
Twelve Forces That Will Radically Change How Organizations Work
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Slaves to the algorithm
How do you design a marketing strategy to win over the algorithms — immune to all conventional branding efforts — that sit between brands and their customers?
2018
Fjord trends 2018
Fjord