Future business trends

The article was originally co-authored by Elsa Klarin. 

The future is already emerging, we just have to look for it. From a multitude of tendencies, a few turn into trends that will form the future and influence the business models and environments of tomorrow.

How trends influence your strategy and business model

Trends catalyse different strategic issues and opportunities that can be advantageous to address when making decisions about where we want to take our organisations in the future as well as when we make everyday business choices.

When we talk about trends, we talk about them on different levels:

• Fundamental mega trends set the stage for the general development of the world and provide the foundation for the trends shaping society and business.
• Society and business trends are the forces that shape how people live and work. They are closer to our daily lives but are still quite broad and general.
• Industry-specific business model trends. The industry-specific business model impact that makes the trends tangible and highlights necessary/possible actions that a company can take.

Keeping an eye on all three levels is crucial for investigating how these developments could be turned into opportunities for specific businesses.

Six global trends shaping tomorrow’s business strategies

We have identified six future trends. Each trend includes three sub-trends, which are exemplified with real-life cases from cutting-edge businesses. With the examples, we try to provide glimpses into a potential future new normality. Download the full report below.

The six trends are: