Trends Identified

Corporate generosity will grow — and help the bottom line.
Annual corporate giving has reached nearly $21 billion, and companies are investing that money to boost corporate culture as well as charitable causes. “We’re seeing companies being more generous than ever, and I think we’ll see even more of that in 2019,” says Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “A staff that sees leadership live up to the values of that company is much more likely to be engaged and drive a positive business outcome.” Read more about what Desmond-Hellmann is watching in the year ahead.
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
Corporate social responsibility
2010
Megatrends
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Costs of fundamental digital capabilities are dropping at an exponential rate
As our core computation, digital storage and network technologies become increasingly affordable relative to performance, they support an increasingly innovative and diverse system which has richer digital information and services.
2017
Surfing the digital tsunami
Australia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
Cracking the commerce code
In Asia, social commerce adoption has been swift,41 with 70 percent of China’s Gen Zers now opting to buy direct from social.42 In North America, however, social commerce hasn’t kept pace. Despite the longhyped promise of buy buttons, people aren’t yet buying on social in huge numbers.4
2019
Social media trends 2019
Hootsuit
Crash course - Scientists will learn whether an asteroid is likely to collide with earth
The asteroid Bennu first made headlines back in 1999. That was when scientists discovered this halfkilometre- wide ball of ice and rock and realised that its changing orbit, which brings it close to Earth every six years, could send it crashing into our planet in a century or so. The impact would be catastrophic, releasing 10,000 times more energy than from the asteroid which exploded so spectacularly over Chelyabinsk, in Russia, in 2013. Scientists made ambitious plans to learn more.
2018
The world in 2018
The Economist
Creating new value in new ways through digital transformation
CEOs no longer question the need to embrace technology at the core of their business in order to create value for customers. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, digital technologies have revolutionised how customers perceive value. Creating the personalised and ongoing experiences that are increasingly in demand requires a full view of the customer and all their relationships with the company. It requires an unprecedented level of customisation, responsiveness and innovation. Doing all this effectively just isn’t possible by tinkering at the edges. Companies increasingly recognise that they need to reconfigure their operating models – and perhaps their business models. And in order to do so they need to ensure that they’re not only investing in the right digital technologies, but can deploy them in a smart and effective way.
2015
18th Annual global CEO survey
PWC
Creating value in totally new ways
The world has benefited from the development of more general-purpose technologies in the past century than in the previous four combined. Consumers are embracing these advances ever more rapidly. The telephone took 76 years to reach half of all US households. The smartphone reached the same level of penetration in less than a decade.
2014
17th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Creative Cities with Connected Communities
City building has become the ultimate expression of mankind’s ingenuity. The 21st century, moreover, is set to be the century of cities, for cities are moving centrestage, with both the commercial and cultural world increasingly being characterised by cities rather than by countries. Though the world’s cities differ significantly, they should all espouse one particular key ambition – to pursue a path of sustainable urban development – enhancing their quality of life and economic competitiveness while reducing both social exclusion and environmental degradation.
2011
Just imagine - RICS strategic foresight 2030
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
Crispr
CRISPR is a new tool for genetic research that allows scientists to locate specific segments of DNA and then easily replace or delete them. “This could cause huge disruption to the way healthcare can be delivered today,” says DeLaney. “It offers the ability to cure a disease at the genetic level. For investors, it has the potential to create new industries and disrupt existing medical treatments.”
2017
5 big disruptive trends investors should watch
Morgan Stanley
Crowdsourcing
As consumers are increasingly interconnected through social media platforms and with the rise of digitalization, collective intelligence gathering is being leveraged to elicit perspectives and insights from a wide variety of individuals.
2017
Beyond the Noise- The Megatrends of Tomorrow’s World
Deloitte